FAMOUS 

AND 

DECISIVE   BATTLES 


OF    THE 


WORLD. 

OR, 

torn  the  Battle-Field, 

BY  CAPTAIN  CHARLES  KING,  U.S.A., 

it 

LATB   PROFESSOR    OF  MILITARY  SCIENCE  AND    TACTICS,   UNIVERSITY    OF  WISCONSIN  ;    AUTHOR 
OF   "THE   COLONEL'S  DAUGHTER;    OR,   WINNING   HIS   SPURS,"    ETC. 


].   C.    McCURDY   &   CO.,   LIMITED, 

PHILADELPHIA,  PA.,  AND  ST.  LOUIS,  MO. 


15 

<-*    • 1 


*i^#^^ 


Copyrighted  by 
J.     C.     McCURDY. 

1884. 


554.  ; . 

^vwv^v^wwig 


Philip  §. 


Generat-in-Shief  of  the  ^firmy  of  the  United  jitates 
in  deep  If e  sped  for  him  cs  a  ffflxrt 

and 
d  Admiration  for  him  as  a  ftoldier, 

'his  Tolume 


M6082S 


PUBLISHER'S  PREFACE. 


THE  object  aimed  at  in  this  book  is  to  bring  within  the  limits  of  a 
single  volume  fresh,  spirited,  and  authentic  descriptions  of  such  bat- 
tles as,  because  of  their  influence  in  shaping  the  world's  history,  or 
of  their  exemplifying  the  heroic  virtues,  or  of  their  brilliantly  illus- 
trating some  important  tactical  principle,  are  the  most  notable  of 
recorded  conflicts. 

In  keeping  with  this  design,  we  begin  with  Marathon,  B.  c.  490. 

The  great  battles  mentioned  in  the  Sacred  Scriptures  are  mainly 
sieges  of  walled  cities,  precisely  similar  in  most  of  their  incidents, 
and  very  largely  devoid  of  tactical  movements  and  shifting  scenes. 

Those  fought  on  the  open  plain  are  few  in  number,  and  the  Bibli- 
cal Record  supplies  but  little  of  detail  beyond  the  final  results. 

Of  the  other  great  wars  and  sieges  of  high  antiquity,  the  accounts 
are  so  meagre  and  so  thoroughly  interwoven  with  fabulous  tales,  that 
it  is  impossible  to  present  a  truthful  account  of  them.  Take,-  as  an 
illustration,  the  "  History  of  Cyrus  the  Great  and  his  Campaigns." 
Herodotus  tells  us  there  were  at  least  three  different  versions  of  it 
in  his  day.  Our  author  has  gone  back  to  the  dawn  of  authentic 
history,  and  has  selected  forty-five  characteristic  battles,  covering 
a  period  of  twenty-five  hundred  years. 

These  have  been  carefully  studied  and  faithfully  described,  and, 
though  in  many  instances  widely  separated  in  point  of  time,  the 
course  of  history  linking  them  together  has  been  traced  with  what 
distinctness  was  practicable  consistently  with  the  necessity  of  keeping 
the  book  within  reasonable  limits. 

Among  the  great  historical  events  with  which  the  battles  herein 
described  are  associated  may  be  cited  : 

Persia's  westward  sweep  through  Asia  Minor  for  the  avowed  pur- 
pose of  conquering  all  of  known  Europe,  with  Greece's  heroic  and 
triumphant  resistance  ;  the  rise  of  Macedon  and  her  counter-stroke 
in  Asia,  which  left  Alexander  the  Great  in  tears  because  he  had  no 
other  worlds  to  conquer ;  the  rise  of  Rome,  her  contests  with  the 
Gauls,  and  her  bitter  struggle  with  her  rival,  Carthage ;  the  swarming 
of  the  Saracens  from  Asia  to  Gibraltar  and  Biscay,  with  the  revenge 
of  the  Crusaders;  the  Norman  conquest  of  England  ;  Sweden's  leap 
to  martial  fame,  and  her  struggle  with  Russia;  the  desperate  and 

(5) 


Q  PUBLISHER'S   PREFACE. 

bloody  religious  war  of  the  Thirty  Years;  Prussia's  seven  years' 
grapple  with  encircling  Europe  ;  France,  headed  by  Napoleon,  against 
the  world  in  arms ;  America's  fight  for  liberty ;  the  war  of  the  Allies 
against  Russia ;  the  rising  of  the  South  against  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment; the  war  between  Germany  and  France,  and  the  still  more 
recent  struggle  between  the  Russians  and  Turks. 

The  truthful  and  graphic  delineation  of  the  battles  that  typify  and 
illustrate  these  epochal  collisions  'brings  before  the  mind's  eye  the 
grandest  scenes  in  the  annals  of  the  human  race,  and  furnishes  the 
reader  with  key-points  to  nearly  the  whole  range  of  authentic  history. 
We  love  to  read  of  battles,  not  alone  because  they  are  among  the 
chief  factors  of  the  vast  mass  of  history,  which  as  "the  heirs  of  all 
the  ages"  we  inherit,  but  more  especially  because  they  are  the  most 
energetic  expressions  of  our  common  humanity  wherein  whatever  of 
valor  and  of  vigor  individuals  or  nations  have  possessed,  finds  its 
most  forcible  illustration. 

Both  instruction  and  entertainment,  therefore,  may  be  derived  from 
the  perusal  of  this  book  of  battles,  and  in  following  its  pages  the 
reader  will  march  with  the  Great  Captains  of  all  time.  What  a  cat- 
alogue they  make  !  Darius,  the  Great  King ;  Datis,  the  Mede ; 
Miltiades,  and  Themistocles,  and  Aristides ;  Xerxes,  son  of  the  great 
King ;  Leonidas  the  Spartan ;  Pausanias  ;  ill-fated  Mardonius ;  Epam- 
inondas  of  Thebes,  Father  of  Tactics  ;  Philip  of  Macedon,  sire  of 
Alexander  the  Great;  Hannibal,  "the  dire  African;  "  Fabius,  Father 
of  the  Waiting  Policy;  Scipio,  who  "  carried  the  war  into  Africa;  " 
Julius  Caesar,  soldier,  scholar  and  hero ;  Pompey  and  Mark  Antony ; 
Brutus  and  Cassius ;  Theodoric  and  Attila  ;  Charles  Martel ;  William 
the  Conqueror;  Richard  Cceur  de  Lion  ;  Saladin  ;  Edward  the  Black 
Prince  ;  Joan  of  Arc ;  the  Sultan  Mohammed  ;  Gustavus  Adolphus ; 
Charles  XII.  of  Sweden  ;  Marlborough  and  Prince  Eugene ;  Frederick 
the  Great ;  George  Washington  ;  Napoleon  Buonaparte  and  Ney ; 
Wellington  and  Blucher ;  Grant  and  Lee ;  Sherman  and  the  John- 
stons ;  Sheridan  and  Stuart ;  Sedgwick  and  Jackson ;  Thomas  and 
Hood ;  Von  Moltke  and  Skobeleff — all  these  and  more  are  of  the  com- 
pany with  which  this  book  brings  the  reader  in  contact. 

The  author,  a  graduate  of  West  Point,  and  experienced  both  as  a 
fighter  and  instructor,  has  aimed  to  make  his  treatment  of  the  battles 
in  this  book  popular  and  yet  professional ;  it  is  a  book  for  the  parlor 
and  the  fireside,  as  well  as  for  the  use  of  the  student  in  war,  and 
neither  the  general  reader  nor  the  professed  soldier  will  fail  to  find  in 
its  pages  pleasure  and  profit. 

March  15,  1884. 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


1.  PEACE  AND  WAR FRONTISPIECE. 

PAGE. 

2.  PLATE"  I. — ANCIENT  ARMS  AND  ACCOUTREMENTS 38 

3.  "       II. — ARMS  AND  ACCOUTREMENTS  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 209 

4.  "       III. — ARMS  AND  ACCOUTREMENTS,  15™  TO  i8TH  CENTURIES..  251 

5.  "       IV. — ARMS  AND  ACCOUTREMENTS  OF  THE  IQTH  CENTURY 682 

6.'  PORTRAITS,  I. — GREAT  WARRIORS  OF  ANCIENT  HISTORY 94 

7.  "           II. — NOTABLE  LEADERS  OF  TWELVE  CENTURIES 178 

8.  "           III. — GREAT  GENERALS  OF  MODERN  EUROPE 353 

9.  "           IV. — RENOWNED  AMERICAN  GENERALS. 646 

10.  THERMOPYLAE,  BATTLE  OF .* 44 

11.  ROMAN  LEGION  DESTROYED  AT  CANNAE 115 

12.  ELEPHANT  CHARGE  AT  ZAMA 124 

13.  MAGNESIA,  BATTLE  OF • 136 

14.  GRECIAN  PHALANX  DESTROYED  AT  PYDNA 152 

15.  PHARSALIA,  BATTLE  OF 153 

16.  DEATH  OF  HAROLD  AT  HASTINGS 196 

17.  CRUSADERS  APPROACHING  JERUSALEM 201 

18.  ATTACK  ON  THE  WALLS  OF  ACRE 217 

19.  CONGRATULATING  THE  BLACK  PRINCE 227 

20.  JOAN  OF  ARC  WOUNDED 239 

21.  MONUMENT  TO  JOAN  OF  ARC  AT  ROUEN 242 

22.  SIEGE  OF  CONSTANTINOPLE 250 

23.  RELIEF  OF  VIENNA  BY  SOBIESKI 287 

24.  RELIEF  OF  NARVA  BY  CHARLES  XII 297 

25.  PORTRAIT  OF  Louis  XIV 338 

26.  BURGOYNE'S  ARMY  MARCHING  TO  SARATOGA 400 

27.  MEDAL  AWARDED  TO  GENERAL  GATES  BY  CONGRESS 414 

28.  DEATH  OF  MARSHAL  DESAIX  AT  MARENGO 436 

29.  LAST  DAYS  OF  NAPOLEON  I 528 

30.  BALACLAVA,  BATTLE-FIELD  OF 550 

31.  GETTYSBURG,  BATTLE  OF .* 616 

32.  PORTRAIT  OF  LINCOLN 681 

(7) 


MAPS. 


PAGE. 

1.  GREECE. — Giving  location  of  eleven  Battle-fields:  viz.,  Marathon,  Ther- 

mopylae,  Platsea,  Leuctra,  Mantinea,  Cynoscephalse,  Pydna,  Pharsalia, 
Philippi,  Constantinople,  Magnesia 25 

2.  MEDITERRANEAN     AND     BLACK    SEAS,    AND     ADJACENT 

COUNTRY.— Giving  location  of  five  Battle-fields  in  addition  to   the 
foregoing :  viz.,  Arbela,  Cannse,  Zama,  Jerusalem,  and  Acre 71 

3.  EUROPE. — Showing  location  of » twenty-four  Battle-fields  not  given  on 

other  Maps 2l8 


4.  MARATHON,  BATTLE-FIELD  OF 37 

5.  THERMOPYLAE,            " 46 

6.  PLAT^EA,                     "              46 

7.  LEUCTRA,                    "              63 

8.  MANTINEA,                "             70 

9.  ARBELA,                     "             93 

10.  LEIPSIC,                     "             264 

ir.  BLENHEIM,                 "  •          329 

12.  RAMILIES,                   "              329 

13.  LEUTHEN,                   "              369 

14.  KUNERSDORF,            "             369 

15.  TORGAU,                     "              399 

1 6.  JENA  AND  AUERSTADT  AND  ADJACENT  COUNTRY 493 

17.  WATERLOO,  BATTLE-FIELD  OF 505 

18.  MANASSAS,                 «             586 

19.  GETTYSBURG  AND  ADJACENT  COUNTRY 596 

20.  NASHVILLE,  BATTLE- FIELD  OF 645 

21.  FIVE  FORKS  AND  VICINITY 657 

(8) 


CONTENTS. 


MARATHON,  490  B.  C. 

Darius,  King  of  Persia,  500  B.  c. — Vastness  of  his  empire — Grecian  and  Per- 
sian interests  clash  in  Asia  Minor — Darius'  bitter  resentment  against 
Miltiades — Persia  makes  war  on  the  Greek  colonies — Mardonius  de- 
spatched with  a  powerful  fleet  to  sack  Athens — His  dire  misfortune — 
Darius  rallies  for  a  final  effort — Assembles  a  great  army  on  the  plains  of 
Cilicia — Datis  the  Mede,  and  Artaphernes  in  command — They  cross  the 
^Egean  and  land  at  Marathon — Confidence  of  the  Persians — Simultaneous 
rising  of  Attica — Spartan  aid  invoked — Plataea  to  the  rescue — Disposition 
of  the  Asiatics — Their  surprise — Impetuosity  of  the  Greeks  finally  checked 
by  the  Persian  centre — They  fall  back  and  entice  the  Persians  in  undisciplined 
pursuit,  on  to  the  open  plain — Greek  successes  on  the  right  and  left — The 
Persians  hemmed  in  on  three  sides— Fearful  carnage — The  army  of  Datis 
in  mad  retreat — They  fly  to  their  ships — Their  camp  in  possession  of  the 
Greeks — The  Persians  sail  for  Athens — Miltiades  marches  overland  to  its 
support — Datis,  again  baffled,  withdraws — Athens  to  the  forefront  in  Grecian 
affairs — Pitiful  end  of  Miltiades — Darius  returns  to  Asia — Greece  sees  no 
more  of  the  Persians  for  ten  years 25~37 

THERMOPYLAE,  480  B.  C. 

A  combat  renowned  in  history — Darius  resolves  to  lead  a  new  expedition  against 
Greece — Great  preparations — Baffled  and  annoyed,  he  is  seized  with  a  fetal 
illness  and  dies  in  the  midst  of  his  preparations — Xerxes  his  son  succeeds 
him — Persia's  last  and  greatest  effort — The  Hellespont  bridged — An  over- 
whelming Persian  force  in  Europe — Triumphant  march  through  Thrace, 
Thessaly  and  Macedon — The  Spartans  under  Leonidas  seize  the  pass  of 
Thermopylae — An  army  of  nearly  2,000,000  confronted  by  less  than  5,000 
— Xerxes  vainly  attempts  to  force  the  pass — Leonidas'  position  invincible 
from  the  front — The  second  day  a  repetition  of  the  first — Treachery  at  work 
— A  forgotten  path  utilized  by  the  Persians — Bitter  tidings  reach  Leonidas  on 
the  third  day — A  strong  detachment  of  Persians  in  his  rear — He  scorns  to 
flee — Xerxes  amazed  at  seeing  the  Spartans  charge  his  centre — Leonidas 
mortally  wounded  at  last — His  little  command  utterly  destroyed — The  con- 
queror thunders  through  the  streets  of  Athens 38-45 

(9) 


<Q  CONTENTS. 

PLAT/EA,  479  B.  C. 

Disastrous  defeat  of  the  Persian  fleet  at  Salamis  —  Leaving  Mardonius  in  com- 
mand Xerxes  makes  his  way  back  to  his  capital  —  Mardonius'  attempt  on  At- 
tica _  His  insidious  offer  —  Lofty  reply  of  Athens  —  Sparta  withholds  her 
assistance  —  The  Athenians  again  forced  to  take  refuge  in  their  ships  —  Realiz- 
ing her  own  peril  Sparta  finally  comes  to  the  rescue  —  Mardonius  takes  a 
position  in  Boeotia  —  The  hostile  armies  meet  near  Platsea  —  Influence  of  the 
"  Oracles  "  —  Timely  warning  of  Alexander  of  Macedon  —  The  Spartans  sur- 
prised —  Midnight  manoeuvres  —  Amompharetus  the  Spartan  —  Mob-like  pur- 
suit of  the  Persians  —  Artabazus  holds  aloof  —  Pausanias  pauses  to  offer  up 
battle  sacrifices  —  "  Now,  Sparta,  advance  "  —  The  heavy  infantry  of  Sparta 
literally  tears  through  the  Persian  army  —  The  hosts  of  Mardonius  a  fleeing 
mob  —  Treacherous  conduct  of  Artabazus  —  Greek  meeting  Greek  on  the 
left  _  The  Persians  make  for  a  fortified  enclosure  —  The  men  of  Attica  carry 
it  by  storm,  and  an  unparalleled  massacre  takes  place  —  Persian  conquest  of 
Greece  abandoned  after  Platoea  .......................................  46-55 


LEUCTRA,  371  B.  C. 

Incessant  warring  among  the  Greek  States  for  the  supremacy  —  Athens  sur- 
renders to  Sparta  —  The  latter  revengeful  and  despotic  —  Her  former  allies 
desert  her  —  Spartan  supremacy  destroyed  —  Persia  solicits  aid  to  quell  a  revolt 
in  Egypt  —  Fresh  troubles  among  the  Greek  States  —  Epaminondas  defiant  in 
the  council  —  Character  of  this  extraordinary  man  —  Thebes  and  Sparta  at 
war  —  They  meet  at  Leuctra  —  Superstition  aids  the  former  —  Superiority  of  the 
Theban  cavalry  —  The  "  Sacred  Band  "  —  The  strength  of  Sparta  wasted 
against  the  science  of  Thebes  —  Death  of  Cleombrotus  and  retreat  of  the  Spar- 
tans —  Epaminondas  the  conqueror  of  the  time-honored  leaders  and  heroes  of 
Greece  ...........................................................  56-63 

MANTINEA,  362  B.  C. 

Thebes  and  Sparta  again  meet  in  battle—  No  peace  between  the  rival  States 
since  Leuctra  —  Description  of  the  field  —  Composition  and  strength  of  the  op- 
posing forces  —  Epaminondas  marches  to  the  attack  —  His  strange  movements 
puzzle  the  Spartans  —  Concluding  that  he  does  not  mean  to  attack  that  day, 
they  throw  down  shield  and  spear  in  easy  confidence  —  Screened  by  his 
cavalry  Epaminondas  arranges  the  grand  phalanx  of  Thebes  in  order  of 
battle  —  Ready  and  awaiting  the  signal  to  advance  —  Confusion  in  the  ranks  of 
allies  of  the  Peloponnesus  —  Instant  overthrow  of  their  cavalry  —  Epaminondas 
fights  in  the  front  rank  of  the  phalanx  —  Greek  meets  Greek  in  deadly  grap- 
ple —  Unable  to  resist  the  Theban  onset  the  Spartans  fall  back  in  utter  rout 
and  consternation  —  Epaminondas  receives  a  mortal  spear-thrust  while  pur- 
suing the  fleeing  Spartans  —  The  pursuit  abandoned  —  His  death  paralyzes  the 
Thebans  —  They  sign  a  treaty  of  peace  —  Epaminondas  the  greatest  soldier 
Greece  had  yet  knowp  .............................................  64-70 


CONTENTS.  11 

ARBELA,  331  B.  C. 

Rugged  Macedon  becomes  mistress  of  the  Greek  confederacy — Its  king,  Philip, 
trained  in  the  school  of  Epaminondas — His  perfect  military  system — Philip's 
murder  puts  his  son,  the  future  Alexander  the  Great,  on  the  throne — He  pre- 
pares for  an  invasion  of  Asia — His  small  army  the  perfected  machine  of  a 
century  of  experiment — Synopsis  of  his  methods  and  description  of  his  ar- 
rangements— Alexander  a  man  of  superb  physique,  iron  constitution  and 
dauntless  courage — A  new  Darius  opposes  him  in  Asia — Napoleon's  critique 
— Character  of  Darius — Repeatedly  defeated  he  makes  a  final  stand  at  Ar- 
bela — The  empire  of  the  world  at  stake — First  appearance  of  caparisoned 
elephants  in  battle — Darius'  order  of  battle — Cautious  movements  of  the 
Macedonian  king — He  calls  a  council  and  explains  his  plans — Disposition  of 
his  forces — Persia's  opportunity — Failure  of  the  chariot  charge — The  great 
line  of  Darius  surges  forward — Alexander  leads  an  impetuous  attack 
on  the  Persian  centre — He  makes  for  Darius — Flight  of  the  latter  to  the 
mountains — The  desertion  of  the  king  produces  a  panic  in  the  Persian  centre 
—The  Macedonian  -left  utterly  surrounded  and  cut  off — Simmais  and  Cra- 
terus  to  the  rescue  of  Parmenio — Final  and  decisive  triumph  of  Alexander  on 
the  left — The  glorious  battle  of  Arbela  the  most  decisive  of  his  career — 
Moral  effects  of  the  battle — Dying  at  Babylon  in  the  midst  of  his  triumphs 
Alexander's  great  empire  is  divided  among  his  generals — End  of  Macedo- 
nian sway  in  Asia 71  -93 

CANNAE,  216  B.  C. 

Greece's  internal  dissensions — The  rise  of  two  new  powers — Rome  and  Car- 
thage clash  in  a  "battle  of  the  giants" — The  former  claims  Sicily — The  first 
Punic  war — Carthage  resolves  to  conquer  Spain — Second  Punic  war — Hanni- 
bal appears  on  the  scene — Fabius  the  Roman  envoy  in  Carthage — War  de- 
clared— Hannibal's  eternal  vengeance — Subjugates  Gaul — Crosses  the  Alps 
and  enters  Italy — Scipio  overthrown  at  Ticino — Battle  at  the  Trebia  and 
another  Carthaginian  triumph — The  Romans  fall  back  to  the  Adriatic — Rome 
chooses  new  Consuls — Another  terrible  disaster  befalls  them  at  Thrasymene — 
Hannibal's  new  move — Policy  of  Fabius — Hannibal  hemmed  in — He  again 
outwits  the  Romans  and  escapes — Fabius  supplanted  by  Varro  and  Paullus — 
They  establish  a  magazine  of  supplies  at  Cannas — Hannibal  dashes  in  and 
seizes  it — A  powerful  army  sent  against  him — His  preparations — The  Ro- 
man commanders  violently  antagonistic  in  character,  plans  and  methods — 
The  far-famed  battle-field — Hannibal's  matchless  cavalry — Final  disposition 
of  the  opposing  forces — The  battle  begins — ^Emilius  Paullus  severely  wounded 
— Varro  left  to  his  own  devices — Valor  of  the  Roman  knights — The  Roman 
right  swept  away — Hard  fighting  of  the  left — Varro's  cavalry  all  vanquished 
— The  infantry  stands  firm — A  general  advance  of  the  Carthaginian  line — 
Rome  winning  in  the  centre,  Hannibal  falls  on  both  their  flanks  and  hems 
them  in  on  three  sides — He  finally  grinds  the  Roman  legions  to  powder- 
All  is  lost  but  honor — Death  of  Paullus  and  flight  of  Varro — Hannibal's 
greatest  triumph — Rome  still  unconquered 94-1 r$ 


12  CONTENTS. 

ZAMA,  202  B.  C. 

Apathy  of  the  Carthaginians  after  Cannae — Hannibal's  call  for  support  un- 
heeded— Scipio  eventually  "carries  the  war  into  Africa" — A  brief  glance 
at  intervening  events — The  success  of  the  Romans  in  two  engagements 
revives  hope  and  confidence — Hannibal  wins  two  more  bloody  battles — 
— Capua  taken  by  the  Romans — The  two  Scipios  killed  in  Spain — A  young 
Scipio  at  the  head  of  the  reorganized  Roman  army — Fortune  favors  Rome — 
Success  of  Scipio  Africanus  in  Spain — He  invades  Africa — Hannibal  called 
home — Carthage  sues  for  peace — A  fresh  war  breaks  out — Scipio  collects  his 
forces  at  Zama — Hannibal's  elephants  a  source  of  perplexity  to  the  Romans 
— Their  tremendous  charge  in  battle — Tricked  into  failure  by  Scipio's  well- 
laid  plans — Terrific  hand-to-hand  fighting  between  Scipio's  legions  and  Han- 
nibal's veterans — Final  defeat  of  the  latter — Hannibal's  flight — His  death  by 
suicide — Carthage  finally  razed  to  the  ground 1 16-124 

CYNOSCEPHAL^,  197  B.  C. 

I )  jcay  of  Macedon  under  another  King  Philip — Rome  declares  war  against  her 
after  conquering  Carthage — Rome's  military  system — Description  of  the 
legion — Attention  paid  to  physical  training — Unpopularity  of  Philip — Rome's 
pretence  for  war — Her  invasion  of  Greece  200  B.  C. — Achaia  joins  Rome — 
Strength  of  the  opposing  armies — Composition  of  Philip's  army — Encounter- 
ing the  Romans  at  Cynoscephaloe — Confusion  on  both  sides — The  phalanx 
breaks  the  Roman  left— Macedonia's  left  in  loose  array— Scattered  by  the 
Avar  elephants — The  Roman  right  wing  falls  upon  them  and  completes  their 
destruction  —  Consternation  everywhere — Macedon's  political  importance 
gone  for  ever — Rome  undisputed  ruler  of  Southern  Europe  and  Northern 
Africa 125-135 

MAGNESIA,  190  B.  C. 

Division  of  the  empire  of  Alexander  the  Great — The  portion  of  Seleucus — His 
great-grandson  Antiochus  the  Great  on  the  throne — His  designs  on  Egypt 
clash  with  Rome — He  invades  Thrace — Rome's  demand  declined  by  Antio- 
chus— A  declaration  of  war — Total  defeat  by  the  Romans  near  Thermopylae — 
Destruction  of  the  Asiatic  fleet  at  Myonesus — Scipio  Africanus  carries  the 
war  into  Asia — Alarm  of  Antiochus — Scipio  declines  his  offer — The  oppos- 
ing forces  meet  at  Magnesia — Composition  and  strength  of  the  two  armies — 
The  Romans  under  Eumenes  begin  the  battle — His  tactics  discomfit  the 
Asiatics — Retreat  of  the  phalanx — Helplessness  and  irresolution  of  Antio- 
chus' army — The  Roman  horsemen  complete  its  destruction — Rome  "  Arbi- 
tress  of  the  world  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Euphrates  " 136-143 

PYDNA,  168  B.  C. 

A.  new  ruler  in  Macedon — His  character — Growth  of  the  country  since  the  last 
war— Provisions  of  the  treaty  of  peace  with  Rome  ignored — The  Romans  de- 
clare war  against  Macedon  for  the  third  time — They  land  an  army  and  send 
a  fleet  into  the  ^Egean — Defeat  of  their  army  under  Crassus — Inactivity  of 


CONTENTS.  13 

the  fleet — A  son  of  Emilius  Paullus  finally  in  command  of  the  army — The 
Macedonians  brought  to  bay  at  Pydna — Its  location — An  insignificant  skir- 
mish brings  on  a  great  battle — Superiority  of  the  Macedonian  cavalry — Tac- 
tics of  the  Roman  consul — The  Phalangites  decoyed  into  a  disorderly  pursuit, 
and  then  turned  upon  and  annihilated  by  the  legion — The  last  appearance 
of  the  world-renowned  phalanx  on  any  battle-field  of  fame — The  death-blow 
of  Macedon — Perseus  dies  a  prisoner . 144-152 

PHARSALIA,  49  B.  C. 

Rome's  hundred  years  of  ceaseless  warfare — Extent  of  her  Asiatic  conquests — 
Julius  Caesar  rising  into  great  prominence — His  quarrel  with  Pompey — The 
senate  decides  against  the  absent  Caesar — He  crosses  the  Rubicon  and  quickly 
becomes  master  of  Italy — Pompey  flees  to  Greece  and  rallies  a  new  army 
around  him — Discipline  in  the  opposing  armies  contrasted —Strength  of 
Pompey's  army  and  navy — Preparations  for  Caesar's  coming — The  latter's 
lack  of  vessels — He  evades  Pompey's  fleet  and  lands  an  army  in  Greece — 
Reinforced  by  Marcus  Antonius — Caesar  dashes  into  Thessaly  and  seizes  sup- 
plies— Pompey  follows  and  overtakes  him  at  Pharsalia — A  battle  for  the  mas- 
tership of  the  empire — Heavy  fighting — Caesar's  veterans  discomfit  Pompey's 
cavalry — Utter  rout  of  his  army — His  flight  into  Egypt  and  assassination — 
"  Csesar  Imperator,"  the  greatest  soldier  of  Rome,  the  victim  of  high-born 
assassins 1 53-164 

PHILIPPI,  42  B.  C. 

Effect  of  Caesar's  assassination — Cicero's  influence — Antony  assumes  to  act  as 
Qesar's  representative — Trouble  among  the  conspirators — A  new  hero  appears 
— Caesar's  adopted  son  hurries  back  from  Greece  and  assumes  the  name  of 
Caius  Julius  Caesar  Octavianus — Antony's  amazement — Cicero  and  five  legions 
hasten  to  the  former's  support — Sharp  fighting — The  "  Second  Triumvirate," 
42  B.  C. — Unpopularity  of  Brutus  and  Cassius  in  the  Eastern  provinces 
— The  Triumvirate  declares  war  against  them — Black  record  of  the  former 
— Brutus  and  Cassius  await  their  coming  at  Philippi — The  vision  of  Brutus — 
He  precipitates  the  battle — Defeat  of  the  Republicans — Suicide  of  Cassius — 
End  of  the  first  day's  fight — Second  day  of  Philippi — Brutus  defenceless — 
Commits  suicide — End  of  the  Roman  republic — Antony  ensnared  by  Cleo- 
patra— Rupture  between  Antony  and  Octavius — The  battle  of  Actium — 
Suicide  of  Antony  and  Cleopatra — Octavius  becomes  Augustus  Caesar.. .  165-171 

CHALONS,  451  A.  D. 

The  beginning  of  the  Christian  era  witnesses  Rome's  humiliation — Her  inva- 
sion of  Britain — She  destroys  Jerusalem,  and  a  century  later  subdues  the 
Germans — The  capital  removed  by  Constantine  to  Constantinople — Rome's 
decline — Her  colonies  all  Christianized — Attacked  by  the  Huns  under  At- 
tila — Sketch  of  him — He  invades  France — Abandons  the  siege  of  Orleans 
and  concentrates  at  Chalon-sur-Marne — Tactics  of  the  allies — A  bloody  bat- 

.  tie  begins — Defeat  of  Attila — His  retreat — Resolves  not  to  be  taken  alive — 
Reasons  why  the  allies  failed  to  pursue — The  power  of  the  Huns  effectually 
broken fc 172-177 


14  CONTENTS. 

TOURS,  732  A.  D. 

Great  changes  in  Christendom — End  of  the  Roman  Empire — Saxon  conquest 
of  Britain — The  era  of  Mohammed — Saracenic  conquests — Abderrahman 
crosses  the  Pyrenees  and  swoops  down  upon  France — Charles  Martel  to  the 
rescue — "  The  deadly  battle  "  of  Tours,  the  most  important  and  decisive  of 
the  middle  ages — The  Saracens'  desolating  course — They  lose  all  military 
discipline — Charles  Martel  takes  advantage  of  this,  and  assembles  an  army — 
Abderrahman  meets  him  at  Tours — The  advantage  with  the  Franks  the  first 
day — The  second  day's  fierce  fighting,  and  death  of  Abderrahman — Merci- 
less slaughter  of  the  Moslems — Their  power  completely  broken — Charles 
Martel  founds  a  great  empire 178—182 

HASTINGS,  1066  A.  D. 

Disruption  of  Charlemagne's  empire  with  his  death — France  suffers  from  the 
Northmen — They  settle  in  the  north — Renown  of  the  Norman  knights — 
Rival  claimants  for  the  English  throne — William  of  Normandy's  sharp 
strategy — Harold  named  Edward  the  Confessor's  successor — His  troubles  at 
home — William  lays  claim  to  his  throne — He  secures  the  Pope's  blessing 
and  prepares  to  invade  England — He  assembles  a  powerful  army  and 
lands  at  Hastings,  England — Harold  prepares  to  meet  him — His  position 
and  equipments — A  great  battle  impending — Composition  of  the  Normans — 
They  begin  the  attack — Stubborn  fighting — King  Harold  badly  wounded — 
A  pretended  Norman  retreat  towards  evening  lures  his  men  out  of  their 
fortifications — They  break  ranks  to  pursue  the  fleeing  enemy — The  Normans 
turn  fiercely  on  their  pursuers,  and  rout  them  with  terrible  slaughter — Lead- 
ing Saxon  nobles  killed — William  of  Normandy,  now  William  the  Conqueror, 
King  of  England — Elevation  of  the  Normans  and  depression  of  the  Saxons — 
England  a  gainer  by  the  conquest 183-196 

JERUSALEM,  1099  A.  D. 

The-  Saracens  still  dominant  in  Asia  and  Africa — Europe  under  the  sway  of 
Rome — Pilgrimages  to  the  Holy  Sepulchre — Short-sighted  conduct  of  the 
Turcomans — Indignities  to  the  Pilgrims — Peter  the  Hermit  and  Walter  the 
Penniless — The  Crusades — Their  object  and  character — The  march  to  Pales- 
tine— Terrible  reverses  to  the  advance-guard — Great  military  leaders  to  the 
front,  under  Godfrey  de  Bouillon — Jerusalem  besieged — Activity  of  the  Infi- 
dels— Furious  and  long-continued  assaults  of  the  allied  Christians — God- 
frey's vision— Renewed  vigor  of  the  attack — Jerusalem  falls — Indiscrimin- 
ate massacre — Nearly  a  century  of  Christian  rule — Rise  of  a  new  Infidel 
champion — His  successes 197-208 

ACRE,  1191  A.  D. 

Richard  I.  on  England's  throne — Rome  preaches  a  new  crusade,  which  he 
undertakes — Emperor  Frederick  of  Germany  and  King  Philip  of  France 
join  him — Family  quarrels — Acre  besieged — Knightly  conduct  of  Saladin — 
Incessant  and  terrific  fighting — Surrender  of  Acre — Richard  marches  on  to 


CONTENTS.  15 

Ascalon — He  wins  the  immortal  name  of  Caeur  de  Lion — Concludes  a  truce 
with  Saladin — Richard's  domestic  troubles — His  untimely  death — End  of 
the  Crusades  a  century  later 209-217 

CRESSY,  1346  A.  D. 

The  age  of  gunpowder — Hereditary  trouble  between  England  and  France — 
The  latter  country  invaded  and  many  peaceful  villages  sacked — Philip  of 
France  raises  an  army  and  encounters  the  English  at  Cressy — King  Edward 
gives  his  son  a  prominent  command — Fearful  odds  against  him — Tumultuous 
approach  of  the  French — The  struggle  begins — Moral  effect  of  the  English 
artillery — Heavy  and  determined  fighting — Edward's  message  to  his  son — 
Utter  defeat  of  the  French — Mortality  among  their  distinguished  leaders — 
The  "  Order  of  the  Garter  "—Other  English  successes.  .• 218-227 

ORLEANS,  1429  A.  D. 

Continued  troubles  between  England  and  France  concerning  the  crown  of  the 
latter — France  again  invaded — Defeated  and  disheartened  the  French  retire 
to  Orleans — The  English  lay  siege  to  it— Artillery  used  on  both  sides — 
Heroic  defence  of  the  city — Imbecility  of  the  king — Three  women  to  the 
rescue — Joan  of  Arc — Her  history — In  command  of  the  French,  and  leading 
the  assault,  banner  in  hand — A  terrible  battle  ensues — Complete  overthrow  of 
the  English — Charles  VII.  crowned — Joan  defeated  in  a  subsequent  battle  and 
taken  prisoner — Barbarously  treated,  and  finally  burnt  by  the  English — The 
latter  lose  their  hold  on  France 228-242 

CONSTANTINOPLE,  1453  A.  D. 

Foundations  of  the  city — "  The  Empire  of  the  World  " — Its  numerous  sieges — 
Its  decline  in  the  fifteenth  century — Differences  between  the  Greek  and 
Roman  Catholic  Churches — The  latter  fail  to  assist  in  repelling  the  Infidel — 
Sultan  Mohammed  II.  lays  siege  to  it — His  great  army  and  ponderous  artillery 
— His  fleet— Brave  defence  of  the  garrison  under  Constantine — The  offer  of 
Mohammed  declined — The  final  grand  assault — The  Janizaries — Death  of 
Constantine — Surrender  and  pillage  of  the  city — End  of  the  empire  of  the 
East — Politic  conduct  of  Mohammed  Bujuk 243-250 


LEIPSIC,  1631  A.  D. 

The  Thirty  Years'  War  the  outgrowth  of  the  Reformation — Great  military 
chieftains — The  countries  involved — Gustavus  Adolphus — His  genius — Re- 
organization of  the  military  system  under  him — His  aid  solicited  by  the  Protes- 
tants of  Germany,  and  his  triumphant  march  to  join  them — Encounters  the 
Imperialists  under  Tilly  at  Leipsic — Confidence  of  the  latter — Allied  order 
of  battle — Heavy  fighting — Final  and  utter  defeat  of  Tilly — Moral  effects  of 
this  great  Protestant  victory — New  complications 25 1-264 


16  CONTENTS. 

LUTZEN,  1632  A.  D. 

Gustavus  Adolphus — Conqueror,  judge,  and  lawgiver — Tilly's  death  and  Wal- 
lenstein's  humiliation — Character  of  the  latter — His  reinstatement  to  oppose 
his  great  rival — They  meet  at  Liitzen — Strength  of  the  opposing  armies — 
Their  relative  positions  and  order  of  battle — The  night  before  the  battle — 
The  allied  army  begins  the  attack — Wallenstein  surprised — Death  of  Gusta- 
vus Adolphus — Renewed  energy  and  fervor  of  the  allies — Pappenheim  arrives 

His  death — Last  hope  of  the  Imperialists — Wallenstein  retreats  during  the 

night Again  deposed  from  command — His  assassination — New  complica- 
tions— Turenne  and  Conde  appear 265-278 

VIENNA,  1683  A.  D. 

Its  position  and  liability  to  attack — Besieged  by  the  Grand  Vizier  Kara  Mus- 
taph'a — Flight  of  the  Emperor — Count  Staremburg  undertakes  the  defence — 
Vigorous  investment  by  the  Turks — Suffering  in  the  city — Leopold  appeals 
to  John  Sobieski  for  assistance — Three  other  powers  join  him — The  march  to 
relieve  the  beleaguered  city — Attacking  the  Turks — Discipline  and  valor  of 
the  Polish  cavalry — Rout  and  disorderly  flight  of  the  Turks — Vienna  saved 
— End  of  Turkish  aggression — Ingratitude  of  Austria 279-287 

NARVA,  1700  A.  D. 

The  successors  of  Gustavus  Adolphus — Character  of  Charles  XII. — Secret 
plots  of  neighboring  sovereigns — Resolution  of  the  Swedish  King — He  takes 
the  field  and  humbles  Denmark — Meanwhile  Poland  assails  Riga,  and  Russia 
lays  siege  to  Narva — Unmindful  of  Augustus  of  Poland,  he  moves  on 
Peter  the  Great — Character  and  genius  of  the  latter — Charles  attacks  the 
besiegers  of  Narva — Great  disparity  in  the  strength  of  the  rival  forces — 
Fiery  impetuosity  of  Charles — One-third  of  the  Russian  army  captured,  and 
the  remainder  killed  and  dispersed — A  glory  to  Sweden  and  a  blessing  in 
disguise  to  Russia — The  prelude  to  Pultowa 288-297 

PULTOWA,  1709  A.  D. 

Amazement  of  Europe— Philosophical  view  of  Peter  the  Great — Charles  turns 
on  Poland — Artifice  of  Augustus — He  is  dethroned — Charles  is  visited  by 
Marlborough — The  former's  ambition — He  invades  Russia  in  midwinter 
— Marches  on  Moscow — Winning  victories  everywhere — Running  short  of 
supplies  his  generals  urge  him  to  await  the  arrival  of  the  Polish  allies  and 
his  provision  trains — Incapable  of  realizing  his  danger,  he  immediately  turns 
south  and  marches  into  the  wilds  of  the  Ukraine — Sufferings  and  demorali- 
zation of  his  army — Besieges  Pultowa — Great  odds  against  him — The 
Swedes  overwhelmed — Charles  wounded — His  flight  to  Turkey — His  sub- 
sequent career  and  tragic  death — Policy  of  Peter  the  Great — His  great 
achievements 298-307 


CONTENTS.  17 

BLENHEIM,  1704  A.  D. 

A  war  contemporaneous  with  that  of  Charles  XII.  and  Peter  the  Great — The 
Golden  Age  of  France — Her  great  captains — Grasping  policy  of  "Le  Grand 
Afonarque" — A  powerful  league  formed  against  him — Death  of  William  III. 
of  England — The  brilliant  Duke  of  Marlborough  in  command  of  the  Confed- 
erates— His  character — Influence  of  his  wife  at  court — Eugene  of  Savoy 
second  in  command — They  are  everywhere  successful — The  French  and  Bava- 
rians concentrating  at  Blenheim — Careful  preparations  on  both  sides — Irish- 
men in  the  PVench  service — The  great  struggle  begins — The  earlier  advantages 
with  the  French — Marlborough's  mistaken  supposition — The  British  line  recoils 
— Eugene  finally  turns  the  allied  left — Attack  on  the  French  centre — The 
English  cavalry  complete  their  defeat — Marshal  Tallard  a  prisoner — The 
gathering  darkness  favors  the  escape  of  his  shattered  army — The  power  of 
Louis  XIV.  broken — A  glorious  victory  for  England 308-328 

RAMILIES,  1706  A.  D. 

After  their  defeat  at  Blenheim  the  French  march  into  Holland — Honors  to 
Marlborough  at  Vienna — The  rival  armies  confront  each  other  at  Ramilies 
— Their  strength — The  destinies  of  the  Netherlands,  the  issue — The  French 
overconfident — The  attack  begins  at  noon — Villeroy,  the'  French  commander, 
misled  by  Marlborough's  movements — Prince  Eugene  absent  on  other  duty 
—Hard  fighting — The  Dutch  and  German  cavalry  in  confusion — Marlbor- 
ough's personal  danger — French  lines  driven  back  and  defeated  after  three 
hours'  fighting — Marlborough's  unerring  judgment — Effect  of  his  wife's  impe- 
rious temper — Serious  French  losses — The  waning  power  of  Louis  XIV.  re- 
ceives another  blow — Exultation  in  England 329~338 

OUDENARDE,  1708  A.  D. 

Bitter  experience  of  Louis  XIV. — Reverses  in  Spain — His  army  again  in  the 
field — Dissensions  among  the  Confederates  in  the  Low  Countries — Marl- 
borough  and  Eugene  again  to  the  front — The  French  lay  siege  to  Oudenarde 
— Its  position — Incompetence  of  the  Duke  of  Burgundy — The  French  out- 
manoeuvred— Amazed  at  the  rapid  movements  of  Marlborough — Vendome 
attempts  to  retrieve  their  evil  fortunes — Brilliant  work  of  the  Confederate 
cavalry — Renewed  blundering  of  Burgundy — Furious  charging  and  counter- 
charging— Bravery  and  firmness  of  the  Confederate  cavalry  leaders — The 
decisive  move  of  the  battle  at  6  p.  M. — The  last  hope  of  Burgundy  gone — 
Fearful  carnage  on  both  sides — Darkness  saves  the  French  from  utter  annihi- 
lation— Louis  XIV.  makes  proposals  of  peace — His  efforts  to  recall  Eugene 
of  Savoy — Public  thanksgiving  in  England — Marlborough's  victory  at  Mal- 
plaquet — His  invincibility  in  the  field — His  troubles  at  home 339~352 

LEUTHEN,  1757  A.  D. 

Frederick  the  Great,  the  most  renowned  general  of  this  period  prolific  of  great 
warriors — An  age  of  three  great  epochs — Eccentricities  of  Frederick's  father 
2 


13  CONTENTS. 

—  The  Seven  Years'  War  —  Prussia's  perfect  army  —  Menaced  by  encircling 
Europe  —  Frederick's  tactics  —  He  darts  upon  the  Austrians  first  —  The  great 
battle  of  Leuthen  a  masterpiece  of  movements,  manoeuvres  and  resolution  — 
Preliminary  movements  and  incidents  —  Frederick  hurries  on  to  Leuthen  to 
give  battle  to  an  overpowering  force  of  Austrians  and  Saxons  —  His  movements 
amaze  his  enemies  —  Daun  superseded  and  his  counsels  ignored  —  The 
Austrians  march  forward  to  open  battle  with  Frederick  —  His  memorable  ad- 
dress —  His  strategy  —  His  far-famed  oblique  order  —  Consternation  of  the 
Austrians  —  Their  left  wing  in  disorder  —  Terrible  fighting  around  Leuthen  — 
Lucchesi  trapped  and  killed  —  Utter  rout  of  the  Austrians  —  Their  enormous 
losses  —  The  most  decisive  of  all  of  Frederick's  victories  —  Maria  Theresa 
relieves  Prince  Charles  and  reinstates  Daun  —  Prussia  once  more  in  possession 
of  Silesia  .................................................  .  ----  353-368 

KUNERSDORF,  1759  A.  D. 

The  Russians  now  assail  Frederick  —  The  bloody  and  destructive  battle  of 
Zorndorf  —  His  fourth  campaign  —  He  introduces  to  the  military  world  the  first 
battery  of  horse  artillery  —  Frankfort-on-the  Oder  seized  —  Location  of  Kuners- 
dorf,  and  the  position  of  the  allied  Austrians  and  Russians  —  Frederick  again 
surprises  them  —  He  meets  with  an  intelligent  peasant  whom  he  interviews  — 
He  finally  storms  and  captures  the  Miihlberg  —  The  grandest  sight  of  Kuners- 
dorf  —  SoltikofT  rallies  his  Russians  —  The  Prussians  repeatedly  repulsed  — 
Loudon's  superb  Austrian  grenadiers  —  Despair  of  Frederick  —  "The  conse- 
quences of  this  battle  will  be  worse  than  the  battle  itself"  —  His  army  prac- 
tically annihilated  —  The  blackest  day  Prussia  had  ever  known  —  Russia  and 
Austria  fail  to  follow  up  their  great  opportunity  —  A  barren  triumph  —  Jealousy 
in  the  Russian  ranks  robs  Loudon  of  his  due  merit  —  Frederick  himself  again 
in  six  weeks 


TORGAU,  1760  A.  D. 

The  inaction  of  Frederick's  adversaries  enable  him  to  assemble  another  army 

—  His  fifth  campaign  —  His  fortunes  at  their  lowest  ebb—  Fairly  in  the  toils 
of  encircling  Europe  he  turns  upon  his  enemies  like  a  hunted  lion  —  Daun 
again    in  the   field  at  Torgau  —  Frederick  outwits  him  another  time  —  The 
situation  —  The  battle  opens  —  Ziethen's  premature  move  —  Frederick  furious 

—  Magnificent    charge  of   the    Prussian    grenadiers  —  Terrible    slaughter  of 
Frederick's    choicest   troops  —  Daun's    left    in    grievous   disorder  —  Ziethen's 
night  attack  —  Darkness  and  confusion  —  Complete  rout  of  the  Austrians  — 
The  pursuit  —  The  king  embraces  Ziethen  —  The  treaty  of  peace  —  France  gives 
up  the  contest  —  Frederick  the  Great,  lord  of  Silesia  —  End  of  the  "  Seven 
Years'  War  "  —  Prussia  the  acknowledged  military  leader  of  Europe.  .  .  .386-399 

SARATOGA,  1777  A.  D. 

The  story  of  the  revolution  —  Saratoga  one  of  Creasy's  "  Fifteen  Decisive  Bat- 
tles of  the  World  "  —  Sketch  of  Burgoyne  —  He  is  opposed  to  the  employment 
of  Indians  as  allies  —  Account  of  the  opening  of  the  campaign  —  Failure  of  the 


CONTENTS.  19 

British  Expeditions  of  St.  Leger  and  Baume — General  Starke's  brilliant  ser- 
vices— Gates  supersedes  Schuyler — The  situation  on  his  arrival — Burgoyne's 
position — Strength  of  his  forces — His  attack  on  Arnold's  division — The  Brit- 
ish repulsed — Enthusiasm  caused  by  Arnold's  appearance — Critical  situation 
of  the  British — Failure  of  Clinton  to  relieve  them — Their  offer  to  capitulate 
— Gates  finally  accedes  to  their  proposition — The  refusal  of  Congress  to  ratify 
his  terms — Backbone  of  British  aggression  broken — France  conies  to  the  aid 
of  the  Colonies — The  scale  turned 400-414 

MARENGO,  1800  A.  D. 

Childhood  of  Napoleon  Buonaparte — His  character  as  described  by  the  Military 
School — His  predilection  for  artillery — A  lieutenant  in  this  branch — His  early 
career — Backed  by  prominent  and  influential  men,  he  obtains  promotion  over 
others  above,  his  rank — His  vehement  ambition  aroused  to  feverish  activity — 
In  command  of  the  army  operating  in  Italy — He  overthrows  five  Austrian 
armies  in  succession — Amazing  the  world  by  his  marvellous  skill — His  Egyp- 
tian campaigns — First  Consul  under  the  new  constitution — His  wonderful 
passage  of  the  Alps — Confronts  de  Melas,  the  veteran  Austrian  commander — 
Lannes  and  Desaix  with  Napoleon — Relative  strength  of  the  opposing  armies 
. — They  meet  on  the  plains  of  Marengo,  Italy — Three  able  generals,  Lannes, 
Victor,  and  Murat,  with  the  thirst  Consul — The  Austrians'  first  attack  a  failure 
— Wearing  out  the  French — The  day  going  badly  with  them — The  "  Man  of 
Destiny"  on  the  scene — Lannes'  superb  courage  saves  the  army  from  total 
destruction — De  Melas  considers  the  day  won — Reckoning  without  his  host 
and  Desaix — Arrival  of  the  latter  with  his  corps  on  the  battle-field — "  There 
is  yet  time  to  win  another  " — Death  of  Desaix — Fearful  rout  of  the  Austrians 
— Their  army  in  Napoleon's  grasp — "  What  a  glorious  day" — Marengo  gives 
France  an  emperor 4*5-436 

AUSTERLITZ,  1805  A.  D. 

The  honors  conferred  on  Napoleon,  and  the  extension  of  his  power  excite  the 
jealousy  of  England  and  Austria — The  former  his  most  implacable  enemy — 
The  coalition  against  him — Concentrating  the  French  army  at  Boulogne — 
His  strategy — He  falls  suddenly  upon  General  Mack  in  the  Castle  of  Ulm, 
compels  him  to  surrender,  and  then  seizes  Vienna — Russia  to  the  rescue — 
Strength  of  the  Grand  Army  of  the  Empire — Famous  French  leaders  in 
command — The  opposing  army — A  look  at  the  battle-field — "  Behold  the  Sun 
of  Austerlitz" — The  anniversary  of  his  coronation — "Forward,  Soult,  -cut 
them  in  two  !  " — Terrible  fighting — The  Russian  centre  pierced — A  tremen- 
dous cavalry  fight — Forty  thousand  horsemen  engaged — The  infantry  and  artil- 
lery cease  fighting  to  look  on — The  Russian  right  ruined  by  Lannes,  the  hero 
of  Montebello — Second  great  cavalry  combat — Annihilation  of  the  Russians 
and  Austrians — Napoleon's  relentless  severity — "  Soldiers,  I  am  satisfied  with 
you  " — End  of  the  third  and  greatest  coalition  against  France,  after  three 
months'  duration — Austria  thoroughly  humbled — The  treaty  of  Presburg — 
"  The  Confederation  of  the  Rhine  " 437-462 


20  CONTENTS. 

JENA,  1806  A.  D. 

The  dread  of  Napoleon's  ambitious  designs — He  sets  up  kingdoms  for  his 
brothers — Prussia  declares  war  against  him — The  former  still  living  on  the 
reputation  of  Frederick  the  Great — Napoleon's  tactics  again  misleads  his 
enemies — Strength  and  movements  of  the  contending  armies — Concentrating 
at  Jena — The  old  Duke  of  Brunswick  .in  chief  command  of  the  Prussians 
— The  king  and  court  in  confusion — The  French  on  a  commanding  height  at 
Jena — "  Vive  Z'  Empereur" — Ney's  eagerness — A  bloody  and  terrible  com- 
bat rages — The  Prussians  defeated  and  panic-stricken — The  Saxons  the  last  to 
yield — Bravery  of  the  Prussian  officers — Mortality  among  them — Summary 
of  Prussia's  losses — Davout's  decisive  work  at  Auerstadt 463-481 

AUERSTADT,  1806  A.  D. 

Davout  encounters  a  large  division  of  the  Prussians  at  Auerstadt—  -Brunswick's 
great  blunder — Napoleon's  orders  to  Davout — Character  of  the  latter — Pit- 
ted against  enormous  odds — Bernadotte  fails  to  lend  him  assistance — Marshal 
"  Vorwaerts"  appears  for  the  first  time  against  the  French — His  character- 
istic traits — A  tremendous  struggle  around  Hassenhausen — The  key  of  the 
situation — The  Duke  of  Brunswick  mortally  wounded — Bliicher's  ineffectual 
charges — His  protestations  in  council  unheeded — A  retreat  decided  upon — 
Davout  leads  a  charge — A  decisive  and  glorious  victory — Sore  trials  of  the 
King  of  Prussia — His  army  annihilated — The  French  in  Berlin — Napoleon's 
next  move  on  Russia 452-  49J 

WATERLOO,  1815  A.  D. 

Napoleon  nt  the  zenith  of  his  power  in  the  winter  of  1808 — Having  humbled 
Austria  he  resolves  to  invade  Russia,  against  the  advice  of  all  thinking  coun- 
selors— The  reireat  from  Moscow  the  story  of  his  downfall — The  nations  of 
Europe  make  common  cause  against  him — The  allies  win  Leipsic — "  The 
Battle  of  the  Nations" — Napoleon  an  exile  in  Elba — Europe  again  thunder- 
struck— "The  Man  of  Destiny"  reappears  at  the  head  of  the  "Old  Guard" 
— England  heads  the  new  alliance  against  him — Description  of  the  various 
armies  put  into  the  field  — Anxiety  of  the  allied  leaders — Napoleon  in  Bel- 
gium— His  plans  for  crushing  the  allies — Ill-success  of  some  of  them — 
Ligny  and  Quatre  Bras — Concentrating  on  Waterloo — A  look  at  the  field — 
Strength  of  the  rival  armies — Napoleon  eager  for  battle — Anxiety  concerning 
Grouchy — Disposition  of  Wellington's  forces — The  French  order  of  battle 
— Napoleon's  last  review — Hougomont  invested — The  emperor's  old  tactics 
— Wellington  inquiring  for  Picton's  division — Terrible  fighting  everywhere — 
Death  of  Picton — The  French  on  Mont  St.  Jean — Brilliant  work  of  the 
Highlanders  and  Inniskillings — "Where  is  Grouchy?" — Ineffectual  assault 
on  Hougomont — Bliicher  appears  on  the  French  right  at  seven  P.  M. — Last 


CONTENTS.  21 

salute  of  the  "Old  Guard" — The  French  army  cut  to  pieces — Fearful  losses 

on  both  sides — Napoleon  a  prisoner  on  St.  Helena 494-528 

BALACLAVA,    1854  A.  D. 

"The  Charge  of  the  Light  Brigade" — The  many  lessons  of  this  war — Its 
origin — How  England  and  France  came  to  take  a  hand  in  it — The  first  time 
in  500  years  that  they  fight  side  by  side — The  Crimea  invaded — Composition 
of  the  English  invading  force — A  look  at  their  leaders — The  policy  that 
dictated  their  selection — Russian  cavalry  assault — The  Turks  driven  out  of 
their  works  in  great  confusion — Pomposity  and  stupidity  of  Lord  Cardigan — 
Charge  of  the  "Heavy  Brigade" — Blundering  of  the  Russian  general — 
Brilliant  individual  exploits — Alexander  Eliot — Insufferable  arrogance  of 
Lord  Lucan — Raglan's  famous  order — Misunderstandings  concerning  it — 
Enthusiasm  of  Captain  Nolan — The  eyes  of  five  nations  on  the  "  Six 
Hundred" — Darting  into  death,  utterly  without  support — Captain  Nolan  the 
first  victim — The  Light  Brigade  forced  to  turn  back — Two-thirds  of 
them  killed  and  wounded — "It  was  a  mad-brained  trick" — Efforts  m 
England  to  shield  Lucan  and  Cardigan — "A  peer  of  England  cannot  blun- 
der"— Kinglake's  conscientious  history — Admiring  Frenchmen  say  of  the 
charge  :  "  It  is  magnificent ;  but  it  is  not  war  " 529~55^ 

MANASSAS,  1862  A.  D. 

Political  events  that  culminated  in  war — Accession  of  Lincoln — Military  spirit 
of  the  South — First  attempts  to  coerce  the  seceding  States — The  movements 
on  Richmond — Halleck  and  Pope  loom  up — McClellan  obliged  to  fall  back 
— General  Lee  marching  northward — Stuart  in  Pope's  rear — Stonewall  Jackr 
son's  audacious  move — He  captures  the  Union  army's  supplies — Pope's  great 
opportunity — Jackson  outwits  his  antagonists — Taliaferro  and  Ewell  pounce 
on  Gibbon — Jackson's  celebrated  division  finds  its  match — Disappointment 
of  Pope  over  Stonewall  Jackson's  escape — Confusion  on  the  Union  side- 
McDowell's  conflicting  orders — Longstreet  reaches  forward  to  seize  the 
heights  that  commanded  the  Northern  lines — A  desperate  crisis — An  ap- 
palling struggle  around  Groveton — The  Federal  army  falls  back — Generals 
Kearney  and  I.  I.  Stevens  killed — The  South  jubilant — The  national  for- 
tunes at  their  lowest  ebb. ; 559~5^^ 

GETTYSBURG,  1863  A.  D. 

l?mboldened  by  success  General  Lee  decides  to  invade  the  North — Antietam  a 
fruitless  victory  to  the  Union  arms — Concert  of  action  among  Southern  gen- 
erals, and  its  lack  among  those  of  the  North — Bravery  and  determination  of 
the  rank  and  file  of  the  Union  army  in  spite  of  repeated  defeats  and  disasters 
—General  Halleck — Lee  marches  into  the  North — Hooker  considers  himself 
hampered  by  orders  from  Washington  and  resigns — George  G.  Meade  the 
new  commander — The  Southern  leaders,  that  confronted  him — Strength  of 


22  CONTENTS. 

Lee's  army — Sketches  of  Northern  generals — Both  armies  concentrating  at 
Gettysburg,  Pa. — Its  location — The  battle  begins — Death  of  Reynolds — 
Hancock  arrives  at  5  P.  M. — End  of  the  First  Day's  battle  with  odds  against 
the  North — The  Second  Day — Meade  rearranges  his  army  during  the  night — 
Lee's  plans — Longstreet's  attack  on  Little  Round  Top,  the  key  of  the  Union 
position — Both  sides  fight  like  demons — Death  of  Generals  Cross  and  Zook 
— End  of  the  Second  Day — The  odds«gain  slightly  in  favor  of  the  South — 
Meade  summons  a  council — The  Third  Day — Lee's  attack  on  the  Union 
centre — An  assault  that  reminds  one  of  Ney  and  the  Old  Guard  at  Waterloo 
— Hancock  sustains  the  brunt  of  this  onset — Dauntless  bearing  of  Pickett's 
men — Hancock  master  of  the  situation — The  Virginians  annihilated — Meade 
finally  victorious — Lee  sullenly  withdraws  southward  next  day — Enormous 
losses  on  both  sides — The  fall  of  Vicksburg,  July  4 — Hope  reviving  in  the 
North — The  tide  turned 587-618 

NASHVILLE,  1864  A.  D. 

The  year  1863  one  of  disaster  for  the  South — The  three  rising  generals  of  the 
North,  in  the  Western  armies — Grant,  lieutenant-general  of  the  armies  of  the 
United  States — Previous  discord  in  the  Army  of  the  Potomac — A  vigorous 
prosecution  of  the  war  determined  upon — Grant  "on  to  Richmand,"  and 
Sherman  "marching  to  the  sea" — General  Thomas' important  trust — Hood's 
Napoleonic  idea — A  glance  at  the  former's  situation — The  battle  of  Franklin 
— Nashville  and  its  fortifications — Impatience  with  Thomas  at  headquarters 
— His  masterly  strategy — On  a  level  with  the  tactics  of  the  victors  of  Leuthen, 
Austerlitz,  and  Jena — The  great  battle  begins — "Old  Slow  Trot"  out-gen- 
erals Hood — The  Confederate  left  turned — Their  leader  baffled,  beaten,  and 
bewildered — End  of  the  first  day — Hood's  disposition  of  his  forces  during 
the  night — Their  new  position  carefully  studied  by  Thomas — Again  pounced 
upon  and  driven  back — A  scene  of  wild  enthusiasm  in  the  Union  army — 
Hood  thoroughly  defeated — Demoralization  attending  his  retreat — His  losses 
— Estimate  of  Thomas'  ability  as  a  soldier — His  prominence  in  the  war — 
His  theories  of  a  campaign — One  of  the  noblest  figures  in  American  his- 
tory  619-645 

FIVE  FORKS  AND  LEE'S  SURRENDER,   1865  A.  D. 

The  Army  of  the  Potomac  in  front  of  Petersburg — Its  terrible  experience  since 
Gettysburg — Meade's  attempted  surprise  at  Mine  Run  and  its  failure — War- 
ren unjustly  censured — The  North  sore  at  heart — Grant  and  Sheridan  called 
"rom  the  West — The  former  in  chief  command — His  methods — Mortality  in 
:he  Wilderness — The  mine  fiasco  at  Petersburg — Good  news  from  Sherman 
mcl  Thomas — Sheridan  to  the  front — A  glance  at  the  map  of  the  country 
over  which  the  final  struggle  took  place — Brilliant  work  of  the  cavalry — 
:'  Let  us  end  this  business  here" — Grant's  army  as  reorganized  for  the  spring 
campaign — The  final  move  on  Lee — Lincoln's  last  visit  to  headquarters — 
Grant  assaults  Petersburg — Sheridan  on  Lee's  flanks — Rnpatience  of  the 


CONTENTS.  23 

former  with  Warren — The  failure  to  entrap  Pickett — Sheridan  and  Warren 
contrasted — Continued  fighting — Ayres  captures  a  whole  brigade — Death  of 
General  Winthrop — Pickett's  left  and  centre  routed — Warren's  decisive 
charge — His  suspension  from  command  the  saddest  feature  of  this  brilliant 
day — Five  Forks  a  brilliant  tactical  battle — One-third  of  Lee's  army  de- 
stroyed and  taken  prisoners — "  I  have  ordered  an  immediate  assault  along  the 
lines"— Lee  fights  to  the  last— Death  of  A.  P.  Hill— Flight  of  Jefferson 
Davis — Fall  of  Richmond — Lee  retreats  fighting  fiercely — He  hopes  to  effect 
a  junction  with  J.  E.  Johnston  at  Danville — Grant's  and  Sheridan's  determi- 
nation— Five  successive  days  and  nights  of  vehement,  never-relaxing  pursuit 
and  combat — Lee's  heavy  losses — Grant  asks  him  to  surrender  and  avoid 
further  bloodshed — Custer  destroys  Lee's  provisions — Sheridan  squarely 
across  the  Confederate  army's  track — The  white  flag  hoisted — Meeting  of 
Grant  and  Lee  to  arrange  the  terms  of  surrender — Striking  contrast  between 
the  two  great  leaders — Lee's  fortitude  gives  way — The  last  of  the  Army  of 
Northern  Virginia — Number  of  men  that  surrendered — Johnston  surrenders 
to  Sherman — The  Rebellion  at  an  end— The  assassination  of  Lincoln  changes 
joy  to  mourning  in  the  North 646-681 

GRAVELOTTE,  1870  A.  D. 

Early  life  and  adventures  of  Charles  Louis  Napoleon — His  unscrupulous 
methods  for  securing  power — Efforts  for  the  glory  and  progress  of  France — 
His  part  in  the  Crimean  war  and  subsequently  in  Mexico — Intriguing  by 
turns  with  Austria  and  Prussia — Perfect  military  system  of  the  latter — Her 
splendid  cannons  and  small  arms — Needle-gun  and  Chassepot  compared — 
Memories  of  Magenta  and  Solferino — The  Napoleon  gun  and  the  mitrailleuse 
— Strength  of  the  French  army  on  paper — Vigilance  and  activity  of  Prussia 
— Her  condition  in  1870 — The  king  and  his  able  ministers — Napoleon's  mis- 
calculations— The  troubles  concerning  the  Spanish  crown  afford  him  a  pre- 
text for  provoking  war  with  Germany — Previous  active  preparations  of  both 
nations — Difference  in  the  results — War  declared  by  France — "  On  to  Berlin  " 
— The  German  and  French  leaders  and  their  commands — The  emperor  and 
Louis  to  the  front — The  German  Crown  Prince  defeats  MacMahon  and 
seizes  the  key  to  Alsace — Von  Moltke's  precise  calculations — Bazaine  soon 
shut  up  in  Metz — Resistless  advance  of  Prussia — Gravelotte — Location  of  the 
field — The  French  fearfully  outnumbered  everywhere,  and  gradually  falling 
back — Bazaine  battered  out  of  Gravelotte  and  his  right  enveloped — The 
heights  in  front  of  the  town  held  by  the  French — Repulse  of  the  Germans 
— Friedrich  Karl's  army  to  the  rescue — Final  Prussian  success — Frightful 
losses  on  both  sides — Bazaine  still  shut  up  in  Metz — MacMahon  falls  back 
on  Sedan — His  position  immediately  attacked  by  the  Germans — Wounded, 
he  turns  over  the  command  to  General  Wimpffen — Napoleon  III.,  despair- 
ing and  broken-hearted,  surrenders  himself  and  the  army — Jena  avenged — 
Capitulation  of  Metz — France's  utter  humiliation — Her  enormous  indemnity 
to  Prussia,  and  loss  of  territory — Profiting  by  her  sad  experience 682-717 


24  CONTENTS. 

PLEVNA,  1877  A.  D. 

The  Russians  and  Turks  again  in  conflict — A  war  that  followed  closely  on  that 
of  France  and  Germany — The  causes  that  led  to  it — Turkey's  discontented 
provinces — Russia  declares  war — Turkey's  righting  strength — An  army  splen- 
didly equipped  with  rifles  and  artillery,  but  badly  managed — Inferiority  of 
the  Russian  arms  and  equipments — A  well-disciplined  army — The  Cossacks 
— Russian  disadvantages — Her  activity  and  Turkey's  inertness — A  powerful 
Russian  army  in  Turkey  — Their  early  successes  soon  lead  one  army  into  a 
trap — First  battle  of  Plevna — The  Turks  victorious — The  second  battle  of 
Flevna,  July  30 — Strong  position  of  the  Turks — Autocratic  orders  of  the 
Russian  commander-in-chief — An  immediate  attack  ordered — Murderous 
work  of  the  Peabody- Martini  rifles  of  the  Turks — First  appearance  of  Skobe- 
leff  in  the  war — Another  grievous  Russian  disaster — The  third  attack  on 

1  Plevna — Russia  and  Roumania  on  hand  with  100,000  men — Osman  Pasha's 
extensive  preparations  —  The  Russian  plan  of  attack  —  The  former  again 
victorious — Description  of  the  battle — Skobeleff 's  brilliant  and  desperate 
charge — Causes  of  this  great  defeat — Russia  now  sits  down  before  the  gates 
of  Plevna  and  starves  out  Osman  Pasha — His  final  surrender — Turkey  hum- 
bled— The  Treaty  of  Peace  as  ratified  by  the  Powers 718-752 


MAP  OF 

ANCIENT  GREECE 

and  of  tlie  divisions  of 

ASIA     MINOH, 

adjacent  to  the 
Aegean  Gulf. 


\      <v 

'    Cythera  fcyii 


FAMOUS  AND  DECISIVE 

BATTLES  OF  THE  WORLD. 


MARATHON. 

490  B.  C.  .          ;•     .  : 

,IVE  hundred  years  before  the  birth  of  Christ 
the  known  world  was  almost  one  vast  em- 
pire, with  King  Darius,  of  Persia,  at  its  head. 
His  possessions  included  all  of  Asia  west  of 
the  upper  Ganges,  all  of  Northern  Africa, 
far  west  as  where  Tripoli  now  stands,  and 
much  of  European  Russia  and  Turkey. 
Rome  had  not  yet  risen  to  power  or  great- 
ness, but  between  the  dominions  of  Darius 
and  the  vast  field  of  Europe  there  lay  a  little  rocky  peninsula, 
jutting  down  into  the  sea,  washed  by  the  ^Egean  on  the  east,  the 
Mediterranean  on  the  south  and  west.  This  was  Greece,  a  con- 
federation of  sturdy  little  states,  and  Greece  it  was  that  proved 
the  sentinel  that  stopped  the  way  of  the  Eastern  invader.  But 
for  Greece  all  Europe  would  have  been  overrun  by  the  conquer- 
ing armies  of  Persia. 

Immense  wealth  and  unlimited  forces  were  at  the  disposal  of 
the  Great  King,  as  Darius  was  termed.  He  had  conquered 
nation  after  nation  around  him,  but  up  to  500  B.  C.  had  made 
no  aggressive  move  at  the  expense  of  Greece  proper.  Macedon 
and  Thrace  to  the  north  of  it  had  succumbed,  and  most  of  the 
isles  of  the  Grecian  Archipelago,  in  the  yEgean  Sea,  were  sub- 
dued. Vague  rumors  had  reached  the  Persian  court  of  the 
warlike  character  of  some  of  the  states  of  the  Peloponnesus,  as 
the  lower  peninsula  was  called,  and  that  northeast  of  the  isthmus 

(25) 


26  MARATHON. 

of  Corinth  lay  another  powerful  and  vigorous  little  common- 
wealth, Athens.  The  Greeks  had  established  colonies  all  along 
the  coasts  of  Asia  Minor,  and  through  them  much  of  the  civil- 
ization and  something  of  the  literature  of  Persia  had  drifted 
into  the  young  confederacy,  and  though  Sparta  repelled  all  that 
savored  of  the  luxury  and  effeminacy  of  Persian  civilization, 
Athens  had  been  more  eager  to  learn  and  to  adopt. 

Presently  Persia  began  to  demand  tribute  of  these  colonies. 
The  colonies  resisted,  and  called  for  aid  from  the  mother  coun- 
try, and  a  desultory  warfare  sprang  up  along  the  shores  of  Asia 
Minor.  As  a  rule  the  Greeks  were  defeated.  Persia's  people 
were  numerous,  the  colonists  few,  and  their  troops  untrained 
irregulars,  but  the  ill  feeling  between  Greece  and  Persia  was 
rapidly  becoming  intensified.  Years  before,  when  on  an  expedi- 
tion to  conquer  Scythia,  Darius  had  nearly  been  sacrificed  by 
the  attempted  treachery  of  a  young  Athenian  officer,  Miltiades, 
who  at  the  time  was  governor  of  the  Thracian  Chersonese,  and 
had  to  serve  under  the  Persian  king.  Against  him  he  ever  after- 
wards cherished  a  bitter  resentment.  Then  in  510  B.  C,  after  a 
mighty  effort,  the  Athenians  had  succeeded  in  banishing  the 
tyrant  Hippias,  who  took  refuge  in  the  Persian  dominions,  and 
being  a  man  of  vast  energy  and  intrigue,  set  to  work  to  revenge 
himself  on  Athens  by  inducing  Darius  to  invade  and  punish  her. 
Artaphernes,  Satrap  of  Sardis,  demanded  of  Athens  that  Hippias 
should  be  reinstated.  Athens  refused,  and  voted  Hippias  a  rene- 
gade and  traitor.  Then  the  'Ionic  Greeks  revolted  against  Arta- 
phernes and  Persia.  Athens  lent  her  aid,  and  for  years  Persia 
was  involved  in  a  stubborn  contest  for  the  resubjugation  of  the 
Greek  colonies. 

During  this  war  Sardis,  the  capital  of  Artaphernes,  was  cap- 
tured and  burned  by  a  small  force  of  Athenians,  and  now  the 
rage  of  Darius  against  Attica  was  complete.  Barely  waiting  to 
complete  the  subjugation  of  the  lonians,  he  despatched  Mar- 
donius  with  a  powerful  fleet  of  triremes  and  a  large  army  to  sack 
Athens,  and  take  or  destroy  its  inhabitants ;  but  dire  misfortune 
overwhelmed  the  fleet.  A  terrible  storm  off  Mount  Athos 
wrecked  the  armada,  and  strewed  the  shores  with  the  corpses  of 


ATHENS   AND   SPARTA   DEFIANT.  27 

twenty  thousand  seamen,  while  the  camp  of  the  land  force  was 
surprised  by  night.  Mardonius  was  wounded,  and  returned  to 
Persia  broken  and  dejected. 

And  now  King  Darius  rallied  all  his  energies  for  a  final  effort. 
Orders  were  sent  to  all  his  seaports.  Vessels  of  war,  triremes, 
and  transports  were  rapidly  built  and  launched,  and  from  far  and 
near  his  allies  poured  in  their  contingents.  The  whole  area  of 
the  Peloponnesus  could  not  equal  that  of  the  smallest  of  the 
principalities  that  bent  the  knee  to  Persia,  and  it  looked  like  a 
war  of  all  Asia  against  one  little  state.  Greece  was  wild  with 
alarm  at  the  news ;  only  Athens  and  Sparta  seemed  to  retain 
either  spirit  or  composure. 

As  a  preliminary,  Darius  sent  heralds  to  all  the  Greek  isles 
and  cities  to  demand  the  customary  tribute  of  submission,  earth 
and  water,  and  both  from  sea  and  mainland  token  after  token 
was  rendered  with  eager  haste.  But  no  word  came  from  either 
Athens  or  Sparta.  At  last  Darius  heard  that  the  citizens  had 
seized  the  persons  of  his  heralds,  heaped  indignities  upon  them, 
cast  them  into  dungeons  or  wells,  and  this  was  an  outrage  equal- 
ling the  violation  of  a  modern  flag  of  truce.  It  was  now  war  to 
the  knife. 

Through  Hippias  Darius  learned  that  the  regular  army  of 
Athens  consisted  of  only  ten  thousand  hoplites,  heavy-armed 
infantry.  Of  course  he  knew  that  community  of  interest  would 
bring  reinforcements  from  other  states,  and  that  vigorous  defence 
might  be  expected.  He  intended  to  conquer  all  Greece,  but  to 
crush  to  atoms  the  power  of  the  defiant  young  states  that  had 
dared  outrage  his  heralds. 

For  this  purpose  the  force  which  was  assembled  on  the  great 
plain  of  Cilicia  and  in  the  adjacent  waters  was  simply  overpow- 
ering. Six  hundred  armed  triremes  or  ships  of  war  with  three 
banks  of  oars,  and  full  as  many  transports  for  horse  and  foot, 
were  moored  along  the  shores,  and  in  the  spring  of  490  B.  C., 
the  greatest  flotilla  and  the  most  numerous  army  ever  yet  massed, 
even  by  mighty  Persia,  set  sail  for  Greece.  The  command  was 
vested  jointly  and  equally  in  two  men,  an  arrangement  that  in 
itself  was  faulty  in  the  last  degree,  but  appears  to  have  been 


28  MARATHON. 

made  for  political  reasons.  For  the  first  time  in  Persian  history 
a  soldier  not  native  Persian  was  raised  to  the  highest  rank. 
Datis,  a  Mede  of  great  valor  and  long-tried  excellence  in  war, 
was  the  first  named.  He  commanded  the  respect  and  confidence 
of  the  entire  army,  but  Darius,  though  wishing  to  avail  himself 
of  the  great  ability  of  this  general,  dare  not  trust  him  entirely, 
and  so  named  as  his  colleague  Artaphernes,  son  of  the  Satrap 
of  Sardis,  who  had  done  so  much  to  bring  about  the  war,  and 
whose  loyalty  was  unquestioned.  His  son  therefore  was  named 
to  act  with  Datis,  but  more  probably  as  the  representative  of  the 
royal  or  noble  families  at  the  front,  than  because  of  any  known 
ability  or  skill.  In  all  that  followed,  judging  from  the  accounts 
of  the  only  historians  who  dwell  at  all  upon  the  campaign — the 
Greeks — Artaphernes  seems  to  sink  out  of  sight,  and  Datis  only 
is  recognized  as  the  moving  spirit. 

His  orders  were  explicit.  Generally  to  subdue  all  Greece. 
Specially  to  destroy  Athens  and  Eretria  (who  had  acted  together 
in  burning  Sardis),  and  bring  their  people  as  slaves  into  the 
presence  of  the  Great  King. 

Datis  decided  on  a  different  route  from  that  taken  by  Mar- 
donius.  He  coasted  along  Asia  Minor  westward  until  he  came 
to  Samos,  then  turned  square  across  the  ^Egean.  Island  after 
island  fell  before  him,  and  yielded  conscripts  to  his  army.  Naxos 
was  burned,  Delos  spared  as  the  birthplace  of  Apollo,  and  at 
last  the  fleet  anchored  off  the  shores  of  the  long,  finger-like 
mountainous  spur  that  stretches  down  along  the  coasts  of  north- 
ern Greece,  the  island  of  Eubcea,  and  hereon,  facing  the  narrow 
channel  that  separates  the  island  from  the  mainland,  lay  the  city 
of  Eretria.  It  too  fell  before  the  overwhelming  force  of  Datis, 
and  its  people  were  dragged  off  as  prisoners  to  neighboring  isles 
to  await  the  return  of  the  triumphant  Persians  from  the  destined 
sack  of  Athens. 

Late  in  August,  unopposed,  Median  Datis  disembarked  his 
immense  army  upon  the  plain  of  Marathon,  with  the  capital, 
Athens,  only  one  day's  march  away.  Literally,  thus  far,  had  he 
carried  out  his  orders.  Easy  victory  had  everywhere  attended 
him;  and  as  his  brilliant  host  marched  forth  upon  the  plain, 


THE   ARMY   OF   ATTICA.  29 

stretching  for  miles  along  the  shore,  no  wonder  he  looked  upon 
further  triumph  as  already  within  his  grasp.  Behind  him,  thickly 
dotted  over  the  ^Egean,  were  the  conquered  isles,  now  turned 
into  supply  depots  or  prison  pens.  Along  the  shore  were  beached 
his  thousand  ships.  Between  him  and  the  broad  expanse  of 
plain  to  the  westward  lay  his  great  army.  Beyond  his  lines  only 
a  short  mile  of  unobstructed  meadow  there  rose  parallel  to  his 
front  a  sharply  defined  range  of  hills;  behind  that  barrier,  Athens. 

In  slow,  stately  ceremony  had  he  accomplished  the  disembark- 
ation. Once  ashore,  no  signal  came  for  the  expected  advance. 
He  cared  to  give  none  till  every  detail  of  preparation  was  com- 
plete. Hippias,  too,  advised  the  policy  of  delay.  That  arch 
traitor  well  knew  the  under-current  of  disloyalty  beneath  the 
tide  of  Athenian  patriotism.  "  Spare  your  soldiery,"  he  urged ; 
"  wait  but  a  few  days  and  your  mere  presence  here  will  fan  into 
flame  the  embers  of  insurrection,  and  Athens  herself  will  open 
unto  you."  And  so  in  idleness  and  easy  confidence  the  Persian 
host  was  disposed  along  the  plain,  and  the  golden  moment  passed. 
Before  the  setting  of  a  second  sun  the  thickly  wooded  barrier  to 
the  front  blazed  with  the  sudden  sheen  of  spear,  shield,  and 
helmet,  and  the  army  of  Attica  appeared  before  their  eyes. 

Each  one  of  the  ten  tribes  of  Attica  contributed  its  thousand 
to  the  regular  army,  and  these  were  the  men  who  marched  for- 
ward to  the  crest  of  Pentelicus — the  low  range  that  stood  between 
their  city  and  the  plain — and  there  confronted  the  countless 
thousands  of  Persia.  Of  the  exact  numbers  of  Datis  on  the  day 
of  Marathon  we  have  no  accurate  information.  Herodotus,  the 
most  truthful  of  historians  of  the  day,  limits  his  land  force  to  one 
hundred  and  ten  thousand,  while  the  poets  and  the  boastful 
legends  of  local  writers  carry  the  number  up  to  half  a  million. 
At  least  estimate  it  more  than  five  times  outnumbered  the  force 
Athens  was  able  to  bring  against  him,  for,  in  addition  to  her 
ten  thousand  heavy  infantry,  the  regulars,  there  were  ten  thou- 
sand light  troops.  The  former  were  rigorously  trained  to  athletic 
pursuits,  were  stalwart,  sinewy,  warlike  men,  armed  with  long 
and  heavy  spears  and  short  swords  for  close  combat,  equipped 
for  defensive  purposes  with  heavy  helmets,  breastplate,  greaves 


30  MARATHON. 

for  the  legs,  and  carrying  on  the  left  arm  a  massive  shield  that 
well-nigh  covered  the  entire  person.  The  light  troops  wore  no 
defensive  armor,  but  carried  javelins  and  short  swords.  All  were 
footmen  (Athens  had  no  cavalry) ;  and  this  was  the  slender  force 
with  which  they  hoped  to  repel  the  advance  of  the  Asiatic  host. 
The  far-famed  plain  of  Marathon  lay  about  twenty-five  miles 
northeast  of  Athens,  separated  from  it,  as  has  been  said,  by  the 
range  called  Pentelicus.  It  was  nearly  a  level,  except  where  a 
water-course,  dry  through  most  of  the  year,  ran  like  a  shallow 
groove  from  west  to  east  through  the  middle  of  the  plain.  From 
the  foothills  to  the  sea  in  the  centre  was  about  two  miles ;  but 
north  and  south,  six  miles  apart,  the  hills  swept  around  to  the 
eastward,  hemming  in  the  level  ground  and  dipping  their  bases 
in  the  spray.  At  both  ends,  north  and  south,  lay  treacherous 
marshes,  impassable  for  horsemen  and  forming  admirable  protec- 
tion for  the  flanks  of  an  army  in  position.  They  stretched  some 
distance  towards  one  another  and  limited  the  dry  ground  between 
them  to  a  front  of  not  more  than  three  miles;  and  here  it  was, 
half  a  mile  advanced  from  the  shore,  that  Datis  had  drawn  up  his 
line  of  battle.  Just  where  he  posted  the  fine  cavalry  he  had 
brought  with  him  from  Asia  we  have  no  account.  It  has  been 
asserted  by  some  historians  that  much  of  this  arm  had  been  left 
behind  in  the  various  islands  to  hunt  down  the  hiding  inhabi- 
tants, and  that  but  a  small  portion  of  his  horsemen  appeared  at 
Marathon. 

Soon  as  it  became  known  that  Datis  was  threatening  the  coast, 
Athens  sent  couriers  southwest  to  Sparta,  invoking  her  aid ;  but 
the  Persians  landed  on  the  sixth  day  of  the  moon,  and  the  Spar- 
tans were  compelled  by  religious  superstition  never  to  send  forth 
a  hostile  army  until  after  the  full,  and  refused  to  deviate  from  their 
custom  even  in  such  emergency  as  this.  Then  it  was  that  the 
great  men  of  Athens  sprang  to  the  fore,  and  foremost  among 
them  was  Miltiades,  the  same  who  had  won  the  enmity  of  Darius 
years  before.  As  a  soldier  and  general  this  man  well  deserved 
the  confidence  reposed  in  him,  though  in  personal  and  political 
history  he  proved  to  be  far  from  pure.  The  delay  of  Sparta 
seemed  only  to  add  to  his  vehement  energy  and  courage.  The 


TLAT^EA  TO  THE  RESCUE.  31 

eleven  generals  of  Athens  met  in  immediate  council,  and  Mil- 
tiades  became  the  chief  speaker.  His  service  with  the  Persian 
army  in  the  Scythian  campaign  had  taught  him  contempt  for 
much  of  its  material,  and  he  sturdily  proclaimed  his  belief  in  the 
ability  of  Athens  to  defeat  Datis  then  and  there,  and  so  urgent 
and  earnest  was  he  in  his  reasoning  that  he  carried  conviction  to 
the  minds  of  four  at  least  of  his  colleagues.  On  taking  the  votes 
of  the  ten  generals  it  was  found  that  Miltiades,  Aristides,  and 
Themistocles,  the  three  leading  men  of  Athens  at  the  time,  with 
two  other  generals,  were  for  immediate  attack  on  Datis  as  he  lay 
along  the  sea  at  Marathon.  The  other  five  generals  voted  for 
delay  until  aid  could  reach  them.  The  deciding  vote  now  lay 
with  the  Polemarch  Callimachus,  and  to  him  Miltiades  appealed 
with  such  vehement  soldierly  eloquence  that  Callimachus  voted 
fight. 

Then  came  a  welcome  accession  to  their  ranks.  The  little  city 
of  Plataea,  over  in  Boeotia  to  the  northwest  of  Athens,  had  once 
besought  her  aid  when  she  was  being  crushed  by  a  powerful 
neighbor — Thebes — and  Athens  had  gone  to  the  rescue.  Now, 
as  ever  afterwards,  Plataea  came  to  stand  by  Athens.  She  sent  a 
sturdy  little  contingent  of  one  thousand  heavy  infantry — all  she 
could  spare — and  these  soldierly  fellows,  in  their  leather  helmets, 
marched  in  along  the  slopes  of  Pentelicus  and  were  posted  on  the 
extreme  left  of  the  Athenian  line. 

And  now  there  was  inaction  for  several  days.  Datis  was  in 
no  hurry  to  bring  on  an  engagement.  Miltiades  was  eager,  but 
the  law  of  Athens  required  that  each  of  her  eleven  generals 
should  command  one  day  at  a  time  in  rotation,  and  he  could  not 
assume  the  authority  to  order  attack  until  his  day  for  supreme 
command  arrived.  It  is  asserted  that  Aristides  and  others 
waived  their  rights  in  his  favor,  urging  him  to  lead  on  when  he 
would  and  pledging  earnest  support.  It  was  well  for  Miltiades 
that  he  had  such  patriotic  and  magnanimous  associates.  Calli- 
machus was  noble  by  birth,  noble  by  nature,  and  brave  and  wise 
as  he  was  noble.  Aristides  and  Themistocles  were  both  men 
of  the  people,  widely  differing  in  character,  and  destined  to  be 
bitter  rivals  subsequently.  Aristides  had  no  superior  in  patri- 


32  MARATHON. 

otism,  in  nobility  of  character,  and  integrity.  .He  was  surnamed 
"  The  Just."  Themistocles  was  superior  to  him  in  brilliancy, 
readiness,  and  tact,  was  besides  an  innate  politician,  a  man  of 
boundless  ambition,  but  of  so  jealous  a  nature  that  the  honors 
heaped  on  Miltiades  after  Marathon  deprived  him  of  sleep.  In 
all  his  public  life,  despite  his  eminent  services,  there  clung  to  him 
a  suspicion  of  corruption  and  extravagance  that  ultimately  was 
realized  to  the  full  and  proved  his  ruin.  He  swindled  his  people 
and  died  in  disgrace.  Of  the  other  generals  we  have  very  little 
record. 

From  the  heights  on  which  they  stood  Miltiades  could  mark 
the  indications  of  easy  confidence  which  pervaded  the  entire  Per- 
sian camp.  Directly  in  his  front,  occupying  the  Asiatic  post  of 
honor — the  centre — were  the  native  Persians  and  the  Sacae,  the 
very  finest  troops  of  the  line,  the  only  ones  probably  inspired 
with  any  national  pride  or  patriotism.  On  these  were  deployed 
the  vast  army  of  auxiliaries,  "  mountaineers  of  Hyrcania  and 
Afghanistan,  black  archers  of  Ethiopia,  swordsmen  from  the 
banks  of  the  Indus,  the  Oxus,  the  Euphrates,  and  the  Nile," — a 
superb  army  in  point  of  numbers  and  brilliancy  of  attire ;  but  no 
defensive  armor  was  there  to  be  seen,  no  protection  beyond  the 
light  archer's  shield.  Their  arms,  too,  were  weak  and  puerile 
compared  with  those  of  Greece — bows  and  arrows,  light  javelins, 
and  curved  cimeters.  There  was  nothing  to  dread  in  their  equip- 
ment, and  Miltiades  knew  it.  It  only  remained  for  him  so  to 
dispose  his  men  as  to  make  the  .best  use  of  their  limited  number 
against  the  overwhelming  force  of  the  foe. 

Here  he  had  the  advantage.  He  could  see  every  move  of  the 
enemy,  while  his  own  were  hidden  by  the  heights  and  the  thick 
growth  of  olive,  pine,  and  cedar  with  which  they  were  covered. 
Everything  goes  to  show  that  to  the  element  of  surprise  Miltiades 
owed  much  of  the  success  that  awaited  him. 

The  ordinary  formation  of  the  Athenian  phalanx  of  that  day 
was  in  eight  ranks,  but  in  order  to  cover  the  Persian  front  Mil- 
tiades was  compelled  to  reduce  the  depth  to  four  ranks.  His  plan 
was  daring.  Placing  Callimachus  in  command  of  the  right  wing 
with  massed  phalanxes  in  heavy  charging  columns,  the  Plataeans 


THE   SUDDEN  ATTACK.  33 

and  two  Athenian  tribes  being  similarly  disposed  on  the  left,  he 
deployed  his  remaining  troops  between  them  in  long,  slender 
line  of  battle  and  gave  this  line  in  charge  of  those  steadfast  sol- 
diers, Aristides  and  Themistocles.  With  steady  generalship  in 
the  centre  he  had  sublime  confidence  in  the  result. 

It  must  have  been  about  three  o'clock  on  the  afternoon  of  the 
loth  (probably)  of  August.  Thousands  of  the  Persian  soldiery 
were  dozing,  gambling,  or  sleeping  away  the  hot  summer  day, 
the  thousand  ships  of  the  fleet  dotted  the  curving  shores  or 
danced  upon  the  blue  waters  of  the  bay ;  the  tents  of  the  Asian 
host  stretched  like  a  great  populous  city  along  the  plain  ;  arms 
were  cast  aside,  all  thought  of  danger  banished.  Before  them 
stretched  that  long  level  barren  back  to  the  mountains ;  and  even 
were  Attica  to  advance,  long  before  her  lines  could  cross  that 
plain  the  troops  of  Asia  could  spring  to  arms,  form  their  ranks 
and  welcome  them  with  deadly  flights  of  arrows — that  is,  pro- 
vided Greece  advanced  to  the  attack,  as  was  her  custom,  singing 
her  war-songs,  sweeping  in  slow,  stately  march. 

Suddenly  there  comes  a  chorus  of  warning  yells  from  the  open 
plain,  suddenly  the  camp  rings  from  right  to  left  with  the  wild 
blare  of  horns  and  trumpets  sounding  the  alarm.  Hastily  the 
warriors  spring  to  arms  and  run  to  the  lines.  Sentinels  and 
pickets  are  rushing  in — no  use  for  them  to  stop  in  vain  attempt 
to  stem  the  coming  tide  ;  they  dart  through  friendly  openings  in 
the  forming  ranks,  and  Persia  looks  forth  upon  the  unobstructed 
plain.  There,  midway  to  Pentelicus,  with  burnished  helmet, 
shield,  and  spear,  with  ringing  war-cry  and  serried  ranks  that 
sweep  the  full  length  of  those  of  Asia,  with  perfect  alignment 
and  terrific  impetus,  for  the  first  time  in  her  history  Greece  comes 
charging  at  the  run. 

"  Gods  !  are  they  madmen  ?"  is  the  cry.  So  few  in  number — 
dare  they  attack  ? 

On  they  come,  unhesitating,  unshaken.  The  solid  earth  trem- 
bles beneath  their  tramp.  The  red  sun  behind  them  glares 
through  the  dust-cloud  at  their  backs.  Flash  go  the  feathered 
arrows  from  thousands  of  Persian  bows  as  the  mail-clad  lines 
come  dancing  into  range ;  but  they  rattle  harmless  upon  helm 
3 


>  34  MARATHON. 

and  shield,  and  with  ringing  cheer  the  athletes  of  Attica  charge 
headlong  upon  the  unready  lines  of  astonished  Asia. 

Here  in  the  centre  stand  the  best  and  bravest  Knighthood  of 
The  Great  King,  the  elite  of  a  superb  army ;  but  against  this 
rush  and  against  those  levelled  spears  they  for  the  moment  can 
oppose  nothing  but  puny  dart  and  unprotected  breast.  Down  go 
the  foremost,  and  over  their  prostrate  forms  sweep  the  ranks  of 
Attica.  Down  goes  the  second  line,  where  line  has  formed  at 
all ;  but  with  all  its  wild  impetus  and  glorious  manhood  and 
courage,  Greece  is  driving  home  into  a  solid  mass  of  humanity, 
for  the  foremost  recoil  upon  their  backers,  and  they  in  turn  upon 
rallying  thousands  in  the  rear.  The  great  spears — so  terrible 
.against  the  leading  lines — must  be  withdrawn  before  they  can 
repeat  their  work,  and  even  then  are  becoming  unwieldy  in  the 
surging  crowd  that  now  envelops  the  phalanx;  and  now  the 
Persians  sweep  in  between  the  spear-heads  and  assail  with  cim- 
^eter  and  dagger  the  armored  Greeks.  Dozens  crowd  upon  one, 
and  the  triumphant  rush  of  the  Athenian  centre  is  at  last 
•checked.  The  lines  of  Aristides  and  Themistocles  are  brought 
to  a  stand. 

And  now  is  Persia's  turn.  The  archers  spring  in,  delivering 
their  fire  almost  in  the  faces  of  their  foes,  while  the  knights  and 
the  Sacae  are  plying  cimeter  and  dagger.  The  slender  line  of 
Athens  is  slowly  crowded  back  by  the  weight  in  front,  but 
steadily,  slowly,  for  their  generals  are  watching  every  move. 
The  lines  are  unbroken,  the  organization  is  maintained,  but,  face 
to  the  foe,  battling  manfully,  the  Grecian  centre  is  undoubtedly 
falling  back  across  the  plain  of  Marathon  and  along  the  dry 
water-course  that  divides  it.  And  now,  with  rage  and  tumult, 
Persia  follows.  Order,  rank,  discipline,  all  forgotten,  if  ever 
.known,  they  press  in  wild  disorder  upon  the  retiring  spears. 
Leaving  camp,  leaving  all  behind  them,  bent  only  on  the  annihi- 
lation of  that  daring  foe,  looking  neither  to  right  nor  to  left, 
>caring  naught  for  comrade  assistance  in  this  supreme  hour  of 
triumph,  reckless  of  their  own  flanks  and  rear,  the  Persian  army 
of  the  centre  is  artfully  enticed  out  upon  the  open  plain. 

Meantime,  how  has  it  fared  with  Callimachus — how  with  the 


RETREAT   OF   THE   PERSIANS.  35 

Plataeans  ?  Opposed  by  full  as  many  foes  as  the  Centre,  they 
have  to  deal  only  with  hirelings  or  unwilling  conscripts,  even 
with  kinsmen — Greeks  of  Ionia.  These  fall  before  them,  barely 
striking  a  blow,  and  on  the  right  and  left  the  auxiliaries  of  Persia 
are  overthrown  and  hurled  back  by  the  deep  charging  columns 
of  Attica  and  Plataea.  Pursued  by  the  leading  phalanx,  they 
dare  not  stop ;  and  now,  on  right  and  left,  except  the  leading 
phalanx,  the  deep  masses  halt,  and  face  inwards.  Between  them 
the  Sacae  and  the  Knights,  the  guards  and  the  flower  of  the  Per- 
sian army,  are  being  lured  out  from  their  supports,  pursuing  in 
a  blind  ecstacy  of  victory. 

All  too  late  Datis  sees  the  fatal  blunder.  North  and  south 
the  spearmen  of  Plataea  and  Athens  have  closed  upon  the  surg- 
ing mass  of  his  best  and  bravest.  On  three  sides  the  resistless 
infantry  of  Greece  hems  in  the  hapless  Persians,  and  now  the 
carnage  begins.  For  a  while  the  Asiatic  host  rights  bravely, 
desperately,  but  soon  turns  and  flees  for  the  ships  and  safety. 
From  north  to  south,  along  the  plain  of  Marathon,  the  entire 
army  of  Persia  is  in  mad  retreat. 

But  brave  men  are  yet  there.  While  some  launch  the  vessels, 
embark  the  few  horsemen  and  the  wounded,  thousands  face  the 
charging  lines  and  keep  the  Greeks  at  bay.  Bent  on  the  capture 
of  the  ships  and  the  annihilation  of  the  army  of  invasion,  Mil- 
tiades  furiously  urges,  on  his  lines.  A  desperate  hand-to-hand 
conflict  is  maintained-  even  in  the  surf  along  the  shore  as  the 
vessels  are  launched  upon  the  waves.  Like  the  bowmen  of 
Duke  William  at  Hastings  long  afterwards,  the  archers  of  Asia 
now  shoot  upwards  that  the  arrows  may  fall  in  the  faces  of  the 
foe.  The  battle  has  been  hot  and  fierce.  The  sun  is  setting 
behind  the  range  to  the  west,  and  still  the  desperate  fight  goes 
on.  Some  few  ships  are  seized  and  fired  by  the  Greeks,  but, 
covered  by  the  dauntless  rear-guard  of  Datis,  the  embarkation 
goes  steadily  on ;  and  as  they  at  last  fall  back  to  the  ships  and 
the  well-nigh  exhausted  Greeks  plunge  into  the  waves  in  pursuit, 
many  there  fall  weighed  down  by  their  armor.  Here  it  is  that 
brave  Callimachus  receives  his  death-wound,  and  Stesilaus,  an- 
other general,  is  killed.  With  the  exception  of  six  or  seven 


36  MARATHON. 

destroyed  by  fire,  the  last  Persian  galley  pushes  forth  from  the 
shore  and  Marathon  is  won. 

Now,  panting  and  triumphant,  the  Athenians  betake  them- 
selves to  the  joyous  work  of  plunder.  Yonder  stands  the  rich 
camp  of  Persia,  and  the  spoil  far  exceeds  their  wildest  dreams. 
The  plain  is  strewn  with  Persian -dead,  especially  along  the  water- 
course which  marked  the  fateful  track  of  the  centre,  and  Mil- 
tiades,  receiving  the  congratulations  of  his  generals,  begins  to 
realize  the  magnificence  of  his  victory. 

Even  now  the  skill  and  wariness  of  the  soldier  do  not  desert 
him.  Watchful  eyes  have  noted  a  blazing  light  upon  the  rocks 
southward  where  the  headland  Sunium  juts  out  into  the  sea.  It 
is  a  signal-shield  inviting  the  vanquished  still  to  come  to  Athens, 
now  defenseless  in  the  absence  of  her  soldiery.  Southward,  too, 
far  as  the  eye  can  reach,  the  y£gean  is  dotted  with  the  myriad 
sails  of  the  hostile  fleet,  some  already  rounding  the  distant  cape. 

Loud  ring  the  trumpets  recalling  the  wearied  but  exultant 
Greeks ;  and  leaving  Aristides  with  his  tribe  to  guard  the  cap- 
tured camp,  Miltiades  leads  his  worn-out  army  back  towards 
Pentelicus.  Despite  fatigue  and  disappointment,  discipline  pre- 
vails, and  through  the  still,  moonlit  August  night  the  battle-worn 
army  marches  back  to  Athens ;  and  when  morning  dawns  and 
the  eager  fleet  of  Persia  comes  swarming  vengefully  up  the  bay, 
lo  !  the  heights  are  crowned  by  the  very  tcoops  who  had  so  com- 
pletely overmastered  them  so  short  a  time  before ;  and,  baffled 
and  broken,  Datis  signals  withdraw.  The  great  Persian  expedi- 
tion is  at  an  end  and  the  tide  of  her  conquests  checked  forever. 

And  now  Athens  springs  to  the  foremost  rank  in  Greece,  for 
all  the  sisterhood  of  states  sing  her  praises.  Before  her  almost 
unaided  arms  the  host  of  the  Great  King  has  fled,  dismayed, 
leaving  its  stores  and  treasure  and  six  thousand  four  hundred  of 
its  dead  upon  the  field.  Athens  has  lost  but  one  hundred  and 
ninety-two.  All. too  late  a  Spartan  phalanx  had  reached  the 
field,  and,  after  seeing  the  swarms  of  Persian  dead,  went  home 
to  exult  over  the  great  victory.  The  dead  of  Athens  were 
gathered  under  one  mound,  those  of  little  Plataea  under  another, 
and  eventually  a  third  was  erected  in  honor  of  Miltiades  himself. 


THE   ARMY   OF   ATTICA. 


37 


It  is  pitiful  to  think  of  his  subsequent  history.  Taking  ad- 
vantage of  the  enthusiasm  and  confidence  of  the  people  imme- 
diately after  Marathon,  he  induced  them  to  fit  out  and  give 
him  command  of  a  secret  expedition,  which  he  assured  them 
would  yield  great  profit  to  Athens.  It  turned  out  to  be  a  mere 
raid  upon  the  neighboring  island  of  Paros  to  satisfy  a  personal 
hatred  against  one  of  its  prominent  citizens.  The  expedition 
was  a  failure,  and  Miltiades  himself,  tricked  into  a  midnight 
rendezvous  with  the  so-called  priestess  of  the  temple,  fell  in  the 
darkness,  sustained  severe  injuries,  was  recalled  in  dishonor,  and 
died  at  Athens  in  disgrace,  the  wretched  dupe  of  a  woman. 

Marathon  checked  at  once  the  hopes  and  schemes  of  Darius, 
sent  the  discomfited  fleet  and  army  back  to  the  shores  of  Asia, 
and  roused  the  valor  and  enthusiasm  of  Greece  to  the  highest 
pitch.  As  a  purely  military  state  Lacedaemon  still  held  the  lead, 
but  in  all  that  related  to  national  affairs  and  speedily  in  all  that 
concerned  her  naval  force  and  policy,  Athens  by  her  great  vic- 
tory rose  to  the  first  rank.  For  ten  valuable  and  well-improved 
years  the  shores  of  Greece  saw  no  more  of  the  Persian  invaders. 


THERMOPYLAE. 


480  B.  C. 

T  cannot  be  claimed  that  this  was  a  great  battle, 
but  as  a  combat  renowned  in  history  for  chivalric 
devotion  and  valor,  its  incidents  can  never  lack 
interest  to  either  soldier,  scholar,  or  casual 
reader. 

After  Marathon,  when  Datis  and  his  defeated 
army  returned  to  Persia,  King  Darius  seems  to 
have  been  stunned  by  the  force  of  the  blow,  so 
much  so  that  he  forgot  even  the  destined  ven- 
geance on  the  prisoners  brought  from  Eretria. 
He  soon  rallied,  however,  and  resolved  upon  an 
expedition  that  should  far  exceed  in  strength  and  numbers  either 
that  of  Mardonius  or  the  later  one  of  Datis  and  Artaphernes. 
The  aim  of  his  life  became  the  utter  humiliation  and  conquest 
of  Greece. 

Once  again  the  edict  went  forth,  and  Persia  resumed  the  great 
work  of  preparation.  Once  again  Darius  himself  decided  to  lead 
in  person.  Three  busy  years  were  spent  in  building  ships, 
transports,  and  assembling  the  levies  of  troops ;  then  his  Egyptian 
provinces  broke  into  open  revolt,  and  before  he  could  resume 
operations  in  Europe  he  had  to  quell  this  rebellion.  It  took 
time,  baffled  and  annoyed  him,  and  in  his  impatience  and  vehe- 
mence told  upon  him  to  such  an  extent  as  to  accelerate  if  not 
develop  the  fatal  illness  which  seized  him  and  ended  his  life  in 
the  thirty-sixth  year  of  a  glorious  reign. 

Influenced  by  his  queen,  Atossa,  Darius  had  named  as  his  suc- 
cessor his  younger  son,  Xerxes,  and  confided  to  him  the  execution 
of  his  plans.     Just  five  years  after  Marathon  Xerxes  took  up  the 
sceptre.     Historians  say  he  was  the  handsomest  and  most  stately 
(38) 


Plate  I. — Ancient  Arms  and  Armor. 


j.  Shield  of  Macedonian  Hy- 
paspist. 
2.  Early  Greek  Helmet. 
3.  Later 
4.  Early      " 
5.  Greek  Shield. 
6.  Etruscan  Sword. 
7.   Persian         " 
8.   Etruscan      " 
9.   Roman  Helmet. 
10.  BreasfShield. 
n,  12,  13,  14.  Greek  Lances. 
15.  Roman  Helmet. 

1  6.  Greek  Sword. 
17.       "       Dagger. 
18.       "       Double-edged  Sword. 
19.   Persian  Scabbard. 
20.   Etruscan  Shield. 
21.  Roman  Helmet. 
22,  23.   Persian  Helmets. 
24.  Roman  Armor. 
25.         "        Helmet. 
26.   Persian        " 
27.        "        Shield. 
28.        "        Bow. 
29.        "        Shield. 
30,  31.  Roman  Lances. 

32,  33,  34-  Roman  Field  Stand- 
ards. 
35,  36.  Roman  Lances. 
37>  38,  39-  Roman  Field  Stand- 
ards. 
40.   Roman  Shield. 
41.          '       Armor. 
42.          '       Shield. 
43.                 Armor. 
44.          '       Scutum. 
45,  46.    '       Falchions. 
47.  Battering  Ram  and  Tower 
48.   Roman  Falchion. 
49.  Balista.    . 

PLATE   I.    ANCIENT   ARMS   AND   ACCOUTREMENTS. 
Famous  and  Decisive  Battles.) 


THERMOPYLAE. 


480  B.  C. 

T  cannot  be  claimed  that  this  was  a  great  battle, 
but  as  a  combat  renowned  in  history  for  chivalric 
devotion  and  valor,  its  incidents  can  never  lack 
interest  to  either  soldier,  scholar,  or  casual 
reader. 

After  Marathon,  when  Datis  and  his  defeated 
army  returned  to  Persia,  King  Darius  seems  to 
have  been  stunned  by  the  force  of  the  blow,  so 
much  so  that  he  forgot  even  the  destined  ven- 
geance on  the  prisoners  brought  from  Eretria. 
He  soon  rallied,  however,  and  resolved  upon  an 
expedition  that  should  far  exceed  in  strength  and  numbers  either 
that  of  Mardonius  or  the  later  one  of  Datis  and  Artaphernes. 
The  aim  of  his  life  became  the  utter  humiliation  and  conquest 
of  Greece. 

Once  again  the  edict  went  forth,  and  Persia  resumed  the  great 
work  of  preparation.  Once  again  Darius  himself  decided  to  lead 
in  person.  Three  busy  years  were  spent  in  building  ships, 
transports,  and  assembling  the  levies  of  troops;  then  his  Egyptian 
provinces  broke  into  open  revolt,  and  before  he  could  resume 
operations  in  Europe  he  had  to  quell  this  rebellion.  It  took 
time,  baffled  and  annoyed  him,  and  in  his  impatience  and  vehe- 
mence told  upon  him  to  such  an  extent  as  to  accelerate  if  not 
develop  the  fatal  illness  which  seized  him  and  ended  his  life  in 
the  thirty-sixth  year  of  a  glorious  reign. 

Influenced  by  his  queen,  Atossa,  Darius  had  named  as  his  suc- 
cessor his  younger  son,  Xerxes,  and  confided  to  him  the  execution 
of  his  plans.     Just  five  years  after  Marathon  Xerxes  took  up  the 
sceptre.     Historians  say  he  was  the  handsomest  and  most  stately 
(38) 


PLATE   I.    ANCIENT   ARMS   AND   ACCOUTREMENTS. 
Famous  and  Decisive  Battles.) 


MEMORABLE   FEATS   IN   ENGINEERING.  39 

man  of  his  day,  but  mentally  he  lacked  the  energy  and  purpose 
of  his  father  and  was  faint-hearted,  vain,  and  conceited.  Not 
until  he  had  been  delayed  two  years  was  the  revolt  in  Egypt 
crushed ;  then  Mardonius  became  one  of  his  chief  counsellors 
and  urged  him  to  set  forth  on  the  march  to  Greece.  Four  years 
more  were  spent  in  mighty  preparation,  and  then  the  expedition 
fairly  started. 

Twelve  hundred  ships  of  war  formed  his  fleet  and  over  a  mil- 
lion men  his  army.  In  some  parts  of  his  empire  only  women 
were  left  to  till  the  soil.  Never  before  had  Persia  mustered  such 
a  force,  never  again  was  she  able  to  do  so ;  and  the  campaign, 
thus  begun,  was  made  further  memorable  by  two  great  feats  in 
engineering — the  bridging  of  the  Hellespont  by  means  of  boats, 
and  the  digging  of  a  ship  canal  through  the  isthmus  back  of 
Mount  Athos. 

The  straits  which  connect  the  Euxine  with  the  ^Egean  are 
about  a  mile  in  width  at  the  point  selected  by  the  Phoenician  en- 
gineers for  the  crossing,  which  was  about  opposite  where  Abydos 
now  stands.  Two  bridges,  in  fact,  were  decided  upon,  and  they 
were  thrown  across  the  Hellespont  from  the  eastern  shore  to  the 
Thracian  Chersonese,  parallel  and  only  a  short  distance  apart. 
The  largest,  stoutest  ships  were  employed,  securely  anchored 
with  their  prows  down  stream,  and  only  four  or  five  yards  apart. 
Huge  cables  of  flax  and  fibre  of  papyrus  were  stretched  by 
capstans  from  shore  to  shore,  resting  on  the  ships,  and  on  these 
cables  the  beams  and  flooring  were  laid ;  an  earthen  road  was 
levelled  along  the  planking  and  a  stout  fence  was  built,  both 
to  prevent  the  cattle  from  crowding  one  another  off  into  the 
water  and  even  their  seeing  it.  Three  hundred  and  sixty  triremes 
and  penteconters  were  needed  for  the  upper  bridge,  three  hun- 
dred and  fourteen  for  the  lower ;  but  when  all  was  ready  a  violent 
storm  burst  upon  the  straits  and  destroyed  the  bridges.  Xerxes 
in  a  rage  caused  the  engineers  of  the  work  to  be  put  to  death 
and  ordered  new  bridges  built  at  once. 

Meantime  a  great  force  of  men  was  at  work  digging  the  ship 
canal  behind  Mount  Athos.  The  promontory  juts  far  out  into 
the  ^gean,  forming  a  bold  and  precipitous  headland,  and  for. 


40  THERMOPYLAE. 

centuries  this  had  been  the  storm  centre  of  those  seas.  It  was 
here  the  great  flotilla  of  Mardonius  was  wrecked.  It  is  here  that 
to  this  day  mariners  cannot  be  induced  at  certain  seasons  to  at- 
tempt to  sail  from  the  eastern  around  to  the  western  side  of  the 
peninsula.  Xerxes  determined  to  lose  no  more  ships  in  that 
undertaking,  and  a  broad  ship-canal,  wide  enough  to  pass  two 
triremes  sailing  abreast,  was  dug  across  the  isthmus.  Despite 
the  immense  force  at  his  disposal,  it  took  three  years  to  complete 
the  work,  only  a  mile  and  a  half  in  length. 

Just  at  sunrise  one  balmy  spring  morning  in  the  year  480 
B.  C,  the  great  army  of  Xerxes  began  the  crossing,  the  fighting 
force  taking  the  upper  bridge,  the  trains,  cattle,  and  camp-fol- 
lowers the  lower ;  and  for  seven  days  and  nights,  lashed  actually 
into  the  utmost  rapidity  of  march,  the  soldiery  poured  over  in 
ceaseless  stream. 

First  of  all  were  the  "Immortals,"  so  called  because  their 
number  was  never  allowed  to  fall  below  ten  thousand  or  to  ex- 
ceed it — a  division  of  infantry  that  was  the  honored  and  envied 
of  all  Asia,  superb  in  dress  and  appointments  and  bearing  pome- 
granates of  solid  silver  on  the  butts  of  their  spears.  One  thou- 
sand of  their  number  marching  at  stated  intervals  on  front,  flank, 
and  rear — non-commissioned  officers  probably — were  further  dis- 
tinguished by  gold  instead  of  silver  pomegranates.  After  the 
Immortals  rode  the  picked  horse-guard  of  Xerxes  himself,  one 
thousand  tried  and  trusted  knights  and  soldiers,  their  spears 
decorated  with  apples  of  gold..  With  them  rode  Xerxes  and  his 
glittering  court.  Behind  them  came  the  great  division  of  cavalry, 
ten  thousand  strong,  all  native  Persians  and  devoted  to  their 
king.  Then  came  the  vast  array  of  legionaries,  allies,  slaves, 
and  conscripts,  forty-six  nationalities  in  all  being  represented, 
each  bearing  the  arms  and  wearing  the  dress  peculiar  to  its  own 
land  and  clime.  From  the  east  as  far  as  the  Indus  and  Oxus, 
from  the  south  as  far  almost  as  the  head  waters  of  the  Nile,  from 
every  land  of  western  Asia  and  northern  Africa  they  poured  for 
one  living  week  across  the  trembling  bridge,  the  most  motley 
array  in  the  annals  of  warfare.  It  would  be  impossible  to  de- 
scribe all  the  varieties  of  arms  and  equipments.  One  point, 


AN   OVERWHELMING    PERSIAN    FORCE.  -41 

however,  ought  to  be  noted.  Even  as  at  Marathon  ten  years 
before,  hardly  one  command  was  provided  with  defensive  armor. 
Turbans  instead  of  helmets,  loose  robes  and  trousers  instead  of 
breastplates  and  greaves,  wicker-work  instead  of  shield  of  metal 
or  hides,  and  light  javelins,  arrows,  and  cimeters  instead  of  the 
heavy  spear  and  deadly  short  sword  of  the  men  of  Athens  and 
Sparta. 

Up  along  the  Chersonese,  westward  along  the  Gulf  of  Melos, 
across  the  great  plain  of  Doriscus,  where  he  mustered  and  re- 
viewed his  forces  and  found  himself  at  the  head  of  one  million 
seven  hundred  thousand  soldiers,  Xerxes  pressed  forward.  Down 
he  came  through  Thrace,  Macedon  and  Thessaly,  subjugating 
everywhere.  An 'attempt  was  made  to  check  him  in  the  narrow 
pass  of  the  Vale  of  Tempe,  but  the  army  sent  thither  under 
Themistocles  speedily  found  that  the  position  would  be  unten- 
able because  of  the  open  sea  to  the  right.  With  his  matchless 
fleet  Xerxes  could  land  thousands  in  their  rear,  and  Themistocles 
fell  back.  Only  one  point  was  known  to  exist  where  a  stand 
might  successfully  be  made — Thermopylae. 

Thermopylae — "  The  Warm  Gates" — was  a  noted  pass.  The 
road  from  Thessaly  and  the  entire  north  of  Greece,  the  one  high- 
way leading  from  Macedon,  Thrace,  Thessaly,  and  Dolopia  down 
to  Bceotia,  Athens,  and  the  Peloponnesus  was  here  confined  to  a 
narrow  causeway.  To  the  south  lay  the  jagged  precipices  of 
Mount  GEta,  to  the  north  the  lashing  waves  of  the  Maliac  Gulf. 
The  road  enters  this  strange  defile  from  the  west,  and  at  the 
western  entrance  the  cliffs  of  Mount  CEta  almost  overhang  the 
sea.  There  was  barely  room  between  them  and  the  deep  waters 
for  the  causeway.  A  little  further  on  the  mountain  seemed  to 
open  out.  There  was  a  mile  or  two  of  open,  gently  sloping  foot- 
hills, a  space  large  and  level  enough  to  utilize  as  the  camping- 
ground  of  a  few  thousand  men ;  then,  at  the  eastern  end  of  the 
defile,  the  mountain  again  closed  in  and  shouldered  the  roadway 
out  against  the  sea.  Everywhere  throughout  its  length,  where 
the  waves  themselves  did  not  break  upon  the  embankment,  there 
lay  to  the  north  of  the  road  a  deep,  treacherous  morass,  utterly 
impassable.  Near  the.  middle  of  the  pass  were  some  warm 


42  THERMOPYLAE. 

springs  out  in  the  open  ground,  and   from  these  it  took  its 
name. 

With  the  gulf  on  the  north  and  the  jagged  heights  of  Mount 
CEta  on  the  south,  it  is  easy  to  see  that  flank  attack  was  here 
impossible.  A  small  army  could  confront  a  vast  one,  and  here 
it  was  that  Greece  determined  to  make  her  stand.  But  what 
was  to  prevent  the  position  being  taken  in  reverse,  as  was  or 
would  have  been  the  case  with  Tempe  farther  north  ?  There 
was  the  arm  of  the  sea.  Where  were  the  ships  of  Xerxes  ? 
Off  Tempe  lay  the  broad  Thermaic  Gulf,  opening  out  into  the  sea 
itself.  Off  Thermopylae  lay  a  narrow  arm  approachable  through 
a  still  narrower  channel — the  Straits  of  Euboea.  A  small  and 
determined  fleet  could  hold  those  straits  against  the  1,200  ships 
of  Asia,  and,  thanks  to  the  wisdom  of  Themistocles  and  his 
vehement  exertions  after  Marathon,  Athens  at  last  had  a  navy 
that  was  a  credit  to  Greece.  Off  Artemesium  in  Eubcea,  far  to 
the  east  of  Thermopylae,  the  fleet  of  Greece  was  now  in  readiness 
to  hold  that  of  Persia;  and  at  Thermopylae  itself  King  Leonidas 
of  Sparta,  with  300  picked  men  from  his  own  city  and  a  force 
of  about  4,000  troops  from  other  Grecian  states  (none,  however, 
from  Athens),  sprang  forward  and  seized  the  pass.  It  was  just 
about  the  end  of  June. 

We  are  told  by  some  historians  that  when  Xerxes  halted  be- 
fore Thermopylae  he  had  under  his  banners  nearly  2,000,000 
men.  This  vast  army  was  confronted  by  less  than  5,000.  The 
national  games  were  then  being  carried  on  throughout  Greece, 
and  nothing  would  induce  the  Peloponnesians  especially  to  drop 
them  and  go  to  the  aid  of  this  little  advanced  post.  At  first  it 
was  unmolested.  Xerxes  saw  that  front  attack  in  that  narrow 
defile  would  not  be  apt  to  have  effect — thousands  would  have  to 
stand  and  look  on  where  one  could  fight.  He  hurried  forward 
his  fleet,  hoping  to  "  turn  "  the  position,  but  a  terrible  storm 
wrecked  400  of  his  ships  on  the  coast  of  Magnesia,  and  the  fleet 
of  Eurybiades  confronted  the  remainder  at  the  eastern  entrance 
of  the  straits.  He  could  not  take  Leonidas  in  rear  by  sea. 
Was  there  any  chance  by  land  ?  Apparently  not.  Mount  GEta 
stretched  like  a  huge  barrier  for  miles  across  the  southern  sky, 


THE   ATTACK.  43 

but,  reliant  on  his  overpowering  force  and  the  bravery  of  his 
chosen  Persians,  he  determined  to  order  the  attack.  The  calm 
and  indifference  of  the  Spartans,  whom  his  scouts  reported  quietly 
sitting  outside  the  stone  wall  that  then  stood  at  the  western  gate, 
was  exasperating.  As  a  preliminary,  he  ordered  a  tower  to  be 
erected,  from  the  top  of  which  he  proposed  to  watch  the  demoli- 
tion of  the  defenders.  Then  one  bright  morning  about  the  1st 
of  July  the  assault  began. 

Two  fine  divisions,  the  Medes  and  Kissians,  sprang  forward, 
the  former  in  the  lead,  and  advanced  along  the  causeway. 
There  is  solemn  stillness  and  expectation  a  while  as  these,  the 
bravest  and  best  troops  (if  we  except  the  Guards  and  "  Immor- 
tals "),  the  flower  of  Persia's  army,  sweep  forward  to  the  attack. 

Little  by  little  the  precipices  to  the  right  crowd  and  contract 
the  front ;  the  left  flank  is  being  forced  out  into  the  morass  and 
is  "shaving  off"  as  the  lines  advance.  Narrower  grows  the 
defile,  and  now,  as  nothing  but  a  mere  carriage  way,  perhaps 
thirty  feet  in  width,  is  left  for  their  front,  they  come  upon  an 
impenetrable  wall  of  stone,  against  which  javelin  and  spear  are 
alike  impotent — against  a  living  wall  of  iron,  from  which  their 
puny  missiles  glance  with  harmless  ring ;  but  this  wall  bristles 
with  a  deadly  thicket  of  spears,  and  on  these  spears  the  foremost 
ranks,  half  in  eager  valor,  half  in  helpless  surrender  to  the  throng- 
ing impetus  from  the  rear,  are  rushed  to  bloody  death.  Sparta  and 
Persia  are  locked  in  conflict,  and  for  hours,  with  apparent  gain 
on  neither  side,  the  struggle  goes  on.  It  is  not  long  before  a 
third  barricade  is  heaped  across  the  road — the  mangled  dead  of 
Persia,  for  they  go  down  in  swarms  before  the  mail-clad  lines  of 
Greece.  Xerxes  gazes  in  amaze  and  fury;  leaps  from  his  seat 
and  orders  in  fresh  battalions.  The  attempt  is  simply  madness. 
Fresh  and  vigorous  comrades  fill  the  places  of  the  wearied  men 
in  the  foremost  ranks  of  Sparta,  and  the  sun  goes  down  upon  a 
scene  of  carnage  for  which  Xerxes  can  find  no  excuse  whatever. 
Yet  he  orders  the  attack  to  be  resumed  on  the  morrow,  and  the 
morrow  is  but  a  repetition  of  the  first  day.  Approached  from 
the  front,  Leonidas  was  invincible.  Was  there  no  other  way  ? 

Winding  over  the  mountains  to  the  west  and  south,  almost 


44  THERMOPYLAE. 

forgotten,  practically  unused  for  years,  was  a  pitiful  foot-path,  a 
mere  goat-track.  Of  its  existence  even  Leonidas  had  known 
nothing  until  his  arrival  at  the  pass,  and,  trusting  to  a  similar 
ignorance  on  the  part  of  Xerxes,  he  had  done  no  more  toward 
its  defence  than  to  place  a  guard  of  a  thousand  Fhocians  at  the 
point  where  it  reached  the  summit,  intending  if  attacked  that 
way  to  reinforce  the  detachment  and  defend  it  to  the  utmost. 

But  treachery  had  been  at  work.  Ephialtes,  a  Malian,  had 
betrayed  to  Xerxes  the  secret  of  the  footpath ;  a  strong  detach- 
ment of  Persians,  under  Hydarnes,  stole  from  camp  after  dark- 
ness on  the  second  day  had  set  in,  and  in  the  stillness  of  the 
following  dawn  fell  upon  the  Phocian  outpost  and  carried  all  be- 
fore them.  Long  before  noon  on  the  third  day  the  bitter  tidings 
reached  Leonidas  that  his  heroic  defence  had  been  in  vain. 
Treachery  had  turned  the  pass.  The  Persians  were  in  his  rear. 

There  was  yet  time  to  escape.  To  Leonidas  and  his  Spartans 
desertion  of  the  position  they  had  been  detailed  to  defend  meant 
dishonor.  The  others  might  go.  Their  services  would  else- 
where be  available,  but  the  Spartan  king  with  his  brave  300, 
with  some  700  Thespians  and  a  handful  of  Thebans,  stood  to  their 
ground. 

Xerxes  had  decided  to  postpone  until  noon  the  third  attempt, 
judging  that  by  that  time  the  command  of  Hydarnes  would  have 
struck  the  Spartan  rear.  What  was  his  amaze  when  those  heavy 
armed  hoplites  suddenly  issued  from  the  defile  in  front  of  him — 
the  pass  they  had  been  defending;  and  now,  deploying  their 
lines  and  straightening  their  ranks,  their  mail-clad  athletes,  in 
close,  compact,  invulnerable  order,  came  charging  down  the 
causeway  full  upon  his  unprepared  centre.  For  a  time  it  seems 
as  though  nothing  can  stand  before  them.  Only  a  thousand, 
yet  that  thousand  is  charging  home  to  the  heart  of  a  thousand 
times  their  number.  They  are  dashing  in  upon  his  very  look- 
out tower ;  piercing  their  way  through  the  swarming  hordes  of 
Asia  like  an  iron  wedge ;  they  are  coming  straight  at  him,  and 
a  little  more  and  he  must  fly  or  fall.  Noble  after  noble,  general 
and  chief  and  knight  go  down  before  those  thousand  spears  in 
vain  effort  to  check  their  onset  Two  royal  princes,  brothers 


THE   SPARTANS   ANNIHILATED.  45 

of  Xerxes,  are  slain  in  defence  of  their  royal  brother,  and  then 
the  monarch  is  seized  by  terrified  friends  and  borne  in  panic  far 
to  the  rear. 

But  the  wild  dash  could  not  last.  One  by  one  the  terrible 
spears  are  broken,  bent  or  wrenched  away.  Little  by  little  the 
exhaustion  of  hours  of  conflict  is  telling  upon  the  devoted  band. 
Leonidas  himself  goes  down,  mortally  wounded,  fighting  like 
a  lion  to  the  last,  scorning  to  abandon  his  post.  Knowing  that 
there  he  and  his  men  must  be  slowly  butchered,  he  determined 
on  the  brilliant  and  daring  sortie  that  struck  home  to  the  very 
core  of  Asia's  army,  and  ended  in  his  own  glorious  death. 
And  now  at  last,  battered,  breathless,  but  sword  in  hand,  face  to 
the  foe,  bearing  the  body  of  their  gallant  leader  in  their  midst, 
they  bend  to  the  weight  of  hundreds  of  fresh  and  exultant  ene- 
mies, who  would  not  dare  meet  them  hand-to-hand  when  morn- 
ing dawned.  But  the  sun  is  setting  now,  and  in  the  dust  and 
grime  of  battle  one  after  another  the  heroes  of  the  little  band 
are  falling,  ever  with  faces  to  the  foe.  At  last  the  remnant  is 
borne  backward  on  the  mighty  rush  and  torrent  and  carried 
within  the  pass;  and  there,  hemmed  in  on  every  side,  even  the 
swords  broken  and  dinted  now,  they  gather  grimly,  undauntedly, 
on  a  little  hillock,  too  weak  to  stand  or  longer  struggle ;  too 
superb  to  surrender,  but  daring  and  defiant  to  the  last,  they 
sell  their  storied  lives,  and  only  when  the  life-blood  of  the  last 
is  drained  is  Thermopylae  won. 

There  was  now  nothing  left  to  check  the  onward  march  of 
the  Asiatic  conqueror  towards  Athens.  In  six  days  more  his 
chariot  was  thundering  through  the  deserted  streets,  and  the 
inhabitants  had  scattered  across  the  Saronic  Gulf  or  huddled 
upon  their  ships  at  Salamis.  One-third  of  Greece  was  in  his 
power,  and  Sardis  was  avenged. 


PLAT^EA. 

479  B.  C. 

HE  great  naval  battle  of  Salamis,  which  resulted 
in  the  disastrous  defeat  of  the  Persian  fleet 
soon  after  the  occupation  of  Athens,  com- 
pletely cured  Xerxes  of  any  desire  to  see 
further  fighting.    Leaving  three  hundred  thou- 
sand men  as  an  army  of  occupation  under 
Mardonius,  he  himself  with  the  bulk  of  his 
army  marched   back  the  way  he  came,  suf- 
fered  severely  during   the  six  weeks  of  re- 
treat  to  the    Hellespont,  found   his   bridges 
again    destroyed,   but   crossed  his   land   force   on   the   vessels 
that  remained  to  him,  and  made  the  best  of  his  way  back  to  his 
capital. 

Great  hopes,  however,  were  entertained  of  Mardonius  and  his 
army.  The  nobles  of  Persia  could  not  and  would  not  believe 
that,  properly  handled,  their  forces  either  on  land  or  sea  were 
not  able  to  conquer  the  Greeks.  The  orders  left  Mardonius  were 
to  hold  the  conquered  territory  north  of  the  Isthmus  of  Corinth 
until  spring  and  then  be  prepared  to  resume  the  offensive.  At 
the  same  time  a  strong  corps  of  sixty  thousand  men  under  Ar- 
tabazus,  who  had  escorted  Xerxes  to  the  confines  of  Thrace, 
was  ordered  to  winter  there  and  join  Mardonius  early  in  the 
spring.  The  latter,  with  his  command,  had  retired  to  the  plains 
of  Thessaly,  and  the  Athenians,  after  their  great  victory  at  Sal- 
amis,  had  returned  and  reoccupied  their  capital. 

The  first  move  of  Mardonius  in  the  early  spring  was  to  make 
one  effort  at  the  honor  of  Attica.     There  is  something  pathetic 
in   the   situation  of  this   gallant   little   state   at  the  time,  and 
(46) 


Thermopylae 


AN   INSIDIOUS   OFFER.  47 

a  glance  at  the  map  of  Greece  will  make  it  clear.  There,  down 
in  the  southeast  corner,  jutting  out  between  the  ^Egean  and  the 
Mediterranean,  is  a  little  rocky  peninsula,  Greece.  From  the 
west  an  arm  of  the  sea  is  thrust  in  five-sixths  of  the  way  across 
and  almost  meets  a  shorter  arm  from  the  eastern  sea.  The 
narrow  neck  of  land  which  separates  these  two  watery  arms 
is  the  Isthmus  of  Corinth ;  all  the  mainland  below  it  was  then 
called  the  Peloponnesus,  now  the  Morea.  Therein  lay  Sparta, 
Argos,  Messene,  Elis,  and  Olympia,  Sicyon  and  Corinth,  the 
great  cities  of  confederated  Greece.  But  Athens  ?  Athens  stood 
alone,  northeast  of  the  isthmus,  the  outpost  of  the  confederacy. 
All  north  of  her  now  had  been  overrun  by  the  hordes  of  Asia ; 
and  she,  that  had  once  before  at  Marathon  so  superbly  defied 
and  defeated  them,  that  had  already  been  sacked  and  burned 
in  their  second  resistless  advance,  stood  now  a  third  time  be- 
tween them  and  her  sister  states  beyond  the  isthmus.  Twice 
has  she  borne  the  brunt  and  saved  them  from  invasion.  Now, 
as  a  third  time  the  foe  advances,  she  is  foremost  in  the  path, 
calling  upon  the  sister  states  she  has  twice  defended,  to  come, 
not  for  her  sake,  but  the  sake  of  all,  to  help  her  meet  this  new 
invasion.  And  they  were  walling  her  out,  barricading  the  isth- 
mus behind  her. 

Then  it  was  Mardonius  attempted  his  insidious  offer.  King 
Alexander  of  Macedon  (who  must  not  be  confounded  with  Alex- 
ander the  Great,  who  came  to  the  fore  in  the  following  century) 
was  sent  as  envoy.  He  pointed  out  that,  exposed  and  unsup- 
ported as  she  was,  she  could  not  hope  to  withstand  the  Persian 
advance.  "  Join  us,  help  us  to  conquer  Sparta  and  the  Pelopon- 
nesus, who  have  deserted  you  who  never  deserted  them,  and  we 
pledge  you  the  friendship  of  the  Great  King.  We  will  rebuild 
your  city,  we  will  enrich  you  in  every  way,  and  you  shall  be  in- 
dependent." It  was  a  desperate  temptation,  for  the  facts  were 
not  inaccurately  stated.  The  Peloponnesus  was  ready  to  abandon 
Attica  to  her  fate;  but  at  thought  of  her  becoming  the  ally  of 
Persia,  terrible  alarm  was  felt  south  of  the  isthmus.  "  Stand 
firm,"  said  Sparta ;  "  be  true  to  Greece  ;  we  hasten  to  your  aid." 
And  the  offer  of  Mardonius  was  rejected.  Athens  sent  a  lofty 


48  PLAT^A. 

and  patriotic  reply,  penned,  some  say,  by  Aristides,  who  had 
returned  from  banishment  just  before  Salamis,  recalled  by  his 
great  rival,  Themistocles,  who  had  secured  his  expulsion  five 
years  after  Marathon ;  for  now  Athens  needed  every  man  she 
had,  and  Themistocles  well  knew  the  power  and  force  of  the 
patriot  whom  he  had  ostracised  solely  because  of  his  opposition 
to  his  own  ambitious  schemes.  Athens  would  and  did  stand 
firm,  and  Mardonius  at  once  advanced. 

Now  that  Athens  had  committed  herself  to  the  common  cause 
and  could  not  again  expect  a  renewal  of  the  offer  of  alliance, 
Sparta  and  her  coadjutors  failed  her.  The  expected  aid  did  not 
come,  was  not  sent.  Sparta  was  the  military  head  of  Greece, 
and  Sparta  withheld  all  assistance.  Betrayed  and  deserted,  the 
Athenians  once  more  were  forced  to  abandon  their  city  and  take 
refuge  on  their  ships.  And  now,  once  more,  Mardonius  tempted 
them,  promising  to  spare  their  city,  pointing  out  that  he  had  pro- 
hibited all  pillage,  inviting  them  to  return,  pledging  them  honors, 
protection,  prosperity,  if  they  would  only  join  him  against  the 
states  which  had  so  basely  abandoned  and  deceived  her.  Then 
Sparta  heard  that  Athens  was  about  to  yield  and  realized  her 
own  peril.  That  very  night  Pausanias  of  Sparta,  with  five  thou- 
sand hoplites,  pushed  forward  for  the  isthmus,  and  at  last  rein- 
forcements were  on  the  way. 

The  Peloponnesus  now  woke  up  in  earnest.  By  July  I  an 
admirable  and  disciplined  army  was  concentrated  in  Corinthia, 
north  of  the  isthmus,  threatening  the  position  of  Mardonius  in 
Athens.  Numerically  the  Persians  were  far  stronger  but  still 
no  match  for  the  trained  and  disciplined  Greeks.  Mardonius 
promptly  abandoned  Athens  and  fell  back  by  a  circuitous  route 
into  Bceotia,  placing  the  river  Asopus  between  himself  and  the 
foe. 

Here,  reinforced  by  Artabazus,  with  the  fortified  city  of  Thebes 
at  his  back,  with  a  broad  plain  suitable  for  his  cavalry  on  which 
to  manoeuvre,  he  awaited  with  confidence  the  expected  onward 
move  of  the  Greeks ;  and  to  strengthen  himself  in  this  position 
he  caused  to  be  built  a  great  fortified  enclosure  or  stockade,  a 
mile  and  a  quarter  square,  and  this  he  designed  to  be  the  rally- 


THE   FORCES    ENGAGED.  49 

ing  point  of  his  army  in  the  event  of  disaster.  He  was  not  all 
confidence,  it  seems.  His  Persian  officers  were  disheartened  at 
the  withdrawal  of  Xerxes.  The  Thebans  and  Boeotians  were 
alarmed  at  the  rally  of  the  Peloponnesus,  and  Artabazus,  second 
in  command,  was  suspiciously  disloyal. 

And  now  the  Grecian  army,  under  command  of  Pausanias,  one 
hundred  and  ten  thousand  strong,  but  all  footmen,  marched 
northward  through  Megara,  climbed  the  slopes  of  Cithaeron,  arid 
from  thence  gazed  down  upon  the  plain  and  valley  of  the  Asopus. 
Forty  thousand  of  these  troops  were  hoplites,  soldiers  and  citi- 
zens of  the  first  rank,  and  thoroughly  skilled  in  the  use  of  their 
arms.  The  rest  were  light  troops,  irregulars,  helots,  but  quite  as 
effective  as  the  generality  of  the  Asiatic  force.  All  the  Pelo- 
ponnesian  cities  seem  to  have  contributed  their  quota,  but  the 
finest  troops  were  undoubtedly  the  five  thousand  Spartans  and 
the  battle-tried  heroes  of  Athens,  eight  thousand  hoplites,  and 
six  hundred  from  faithful  little  Plataea,  who,  as  veterans  of  Mar- 
athon, were  organized  in  one  division  under  one  of  their  old 
leaders,  Aristides. 

Along  the  mountain  range  Pausanias  waited.  Knowing  the 
great  superiority  of  the  Persians  in  point  of  numbers,  and  real-, 
izing  that  down  on  the  plain  their  cavalry  would  have  immense 
advantage,  he  clung  to  the  heights.  But  Mardonius  took  the 
initiative.  He  had  an  admirable  force  of  horsemen;  they  were 
armed  with  bows  of  great  strength,  were  expert  archers,  and"his 
theory  was  that  they  could  ride  around  the  massive  infantry  of 
Greece,  shooting  arrows  into  their  very  faces,  and  there  could  be  no 
defence  so  long  as  the  horsemen  kept  out  of  spears'  length.  Greece 
had  few  missile  weapons :  spear  and  sword  were  her  reliance. 

The  armies  faced  each  other,  the  Persians  north  of  the  Asopus, 
the  Greeks  along  the  range  of  hills.  Mardonius  impatiently 
ordered  his  cavalry  to  attack,  and  the  squadrons  of  Asia  swept 
up  the  slopes  and  fell  upon  the  footmen  of  Megara,  who  hap- 
pened to  be  most  exppsed,  and  dire  was  the  slaughter  until  the 
phalanx  of  Athens  came  charging  to  the  rescue,  and  with  the 
loss  of  their  leader,  the  greatest  cavalry  soldier  of  his  day,  .Ma- 
sistius,  the  Persians  were  driven  in  disorder  from  the  field. 


50  PLAT^A. 

Having  killed  him  and  defeated  his  troopers,  Pausanias  feared 
no  longer  to  try  issue  on  the  open  field  below.  He  marched 
rapidly  down  into  the  valley,  out  past  the  devoted  little  city  of 
Plataea,  and  formed  line  facing  north  along  the  Asopus.  Here, 
in  accordance  with  time-honored  custom,  they  were  drawn  up 
according  to  tribe  or  nation — the  Spartans  in  the  post  of  honor 
on  the  extreme  right,  covering  a  famous  spring,  the  fountain  of 
Gargaphia.  The  Athenians  were  posted  upon  the  opposite 
flank,  that  of  second  honor. 

Plataea  lies  just  north  of  the  mountain  range  of  Cithseron  and 
west  of  south  from  Thebes.  To  meet  this  move  Mardonius  had 
to  face  his  army  to  the  west,  march  a  short  distance  up  the 
Asopus,  and  then,  directly  in  front  of  the  Grecian  force,  he  again 
-deployed ;  he,  with  the  Persians  and  Medes,  taking  post  on  the 
left  of  his  line  so  as  to  face  the  Spartans,  the  most  renowned  sol- 
diers of  Greece.  The  Sacae,  full  as  brave  and  reliable  as  the 
Persians,  held  the  centre,  while  over  against  the  Athenians  on 
the  extreme  (Persian)  right  were  posted  the  Macedonians  and 
•conquered  conscripts  from  northern  Greece. 

Nothing  warlike  was  done  in  those  days  without  consulting 
the  oracles,  and  the  answer  now  given  was  for  both  sides  the 
.•same — "  Await  attack  and  yours  is  the  victory."  Consequently, 
neither  side  desired  to  open  the  ball. 

For  nearly  a  fortnight  the  armies  confronted  each  other,  the 
•cavalry  of  Persia  constantly  harassing  the  flanks  and  rear  of  the 
Greeks  and  cutting  off  or  driving  back  their  supplies.  At  last, 
one  night,  the  sentries  in  front  of  the  left  of  the  line  sent  in  and 
reported  that  a  single  horseman  halted  at  the  outposts  announced 
himself  as  Alexander  of  Macedon  and  desired  to  speak  with 
their  chiefs.  In  the  conference  that  followed  it  was  revealed  that 
at  dawn  Mardonius  proposed  to  attack  in  force  along  the  whole 
line.  Greece  was  warned  to  be  on  her  guard. 

Then,  to  the  surprise  of  all,  Sparta's  king  suggested  that  they 
and  the  men  of  Athens  should  exchange  places,  "  because,"  he 
said, "  the  Athenians  have  fought  the  Persians  before  and  under- 
stand them.  We  can  be  sure  of  overthrowing  the  Macedonians." 
The  change  was  made  and,  at  dawn,  instantly  detected  by  Mardo- 


THE  SPARTANS  SURPRISED.  51 

nius,  who  made  a  corresponding  transfer  of  his  flanks.  Then 
once  more  Pausanias  ordered  his  Lacedaemonians  to  the  right ; 
the  Persians  followed,  and  the  day  was  spent  in  senseless  and 
fatiguing  countermarching.  The  Spartans  were  barely  back  in 
their  proper  position  on  the  right  when  the  battle  of  Platsea 
began  in  good  earnest.  A  daring  and  desperate  charge  of 
Oriental  cavalry  overthrew  and  hurled  them  back  upon  their 
supports.  , 

Taken  unawares,  before  they  had  time  to  form  their  ranks,  the 
Spartans  were  for  a  few  moments  at  great  disadvantage,  and 
those  few  moments  were  precious ;  for  the  Persians  seized  their 
opportunity  and  choked  up  the  fountain  which  had  rendered  the 
best  supply  of  water,  that  from  the  river  being  almost  unobtain- 
able owing  to  the  vigilance  of  the  Asiatic  archers.  The  loss 
was  most  serious,  and  Pausanias  instantly  decided  upon  another 
move. 

Two  miles  and  a  half  away  behind  their  left  lay  Platsea.  In 
front  of  Platsea,  on  the  broad  plain,  the  river  CEroe  came  down 
in  two  branches  from  Cithaeron,  united  and  flowed  off  westward 
to  the  Gulf  of  Corinth.  The  Asopus,  rising  near  it,  ran  directly 
eastward.  Pausanias  determined  to  move  over  to  the  ground 
between  the  two  branches  of  the  CEroe,  "The  Island,"  as  it  was 
called.  There  he  would  have  ample  supply  of  water,  which  could 
not  be  intercepted  by  the  enemy. 

At  midnight  the  Corinthians  and  Megarians  in  the  centre  were 
silently  withdrawn  and  ordered  to  move  a  mile  or  so  to  the  west, 
cross  the  eastern  branch  of  the  CEroe,  and  take  up  a  new  posi- 
tion facing  north  still,  but  unquestionably  somewhat  more  retired 
than  the  one  they  had  occupied  during  the  day.  The  Athenians 
on  the  extreme  left  were  to  hold  their  ground  to  cover  the  move 
until  assured  that  the  centre  was  beyond  reach  of  attack,  and 
then  in  silence  to  move  off  to  their  left  and  rear,  passing  around 
west  of  the  low  hills  which  separated  the  CEroe  from  the  Asopus. 
Last  of  all,  the  Lacedaemonians  and  Tegeans  were  to  withdraw 
and  take  post  on  the  right  of  the  new  line. 

The  Corinthians  started  at  the  appointed  time,  but  they  had 
been  savagely  handled  by  the  Persian  cavalry  during  the  day, 


52  PLAT^EA. 

were  anxious  to  avoid  such  conflict  on  the  morrow,  and  went  too 
far.  They  passed  the  designated  point,  and,  with  the  Megarians, 
kept  on  until  they  got  under  the  walls  of  Platsea,  where  the  steep 
hillside  would  protect  them  from  charge  of  cavalry. 

Having  sent  off  the  troops  in  the  centre,  Pausanias  now  re- 
paired to  the  extreme  right  and  ordered  the  withdrawal  of  the 
Spartans ;  but  here  trouble  arose.  Amompharetus,  a  stout  old 
soldier,  refused  to  budge.  He  would  not  fall  back  himself,  and 
his  men  would  not  fall  back  without  him.  In  vain  Pausanias 
and  his  generals  strove  to  point  out  that  the  move  was  only  one 
for  water  and  to  draw  the  Persians  after  them.  Amompharetus 
swore  he  would  not  fall  back  an  inch.  It  was  a  violation  of 
Spartan  honor.  Pausanias  had  no  alternative  but  to  leave  him 
'  and  his  handful  of  troops  to  come  to  their  senses.  He  hastened 
back  after  his  main  line.  Most  of  the  Lacedaemonians  had  gone 
»  already,  and  the  Athenians  from  the  extreme  left  were  sending 
anxious  inquiries  as  to  what  was  going  on.  Dawn  was  breaking 
and  there  was  no  time  to  be  lost. 

Fortunately  Amompharetus  soon  thought  better  of  the  matter, 
and  just  as  it  became  light  enough  to  see,  his  command  moved 
off,  following  in  the  track  of  their  comrades  towards  Plataea.  At 
the  same  hour,  far  to  the  west,  the  Athenians  silently  stole  away, 
and  as  the  sun  rose  over  the  rocky  heights  of  Eubcea,  dimly 
visible  through  the  morning  mists  of  the  valley,  and  the  Persian 
cavalry  pushed  out  to  the  front  to  renew 'the  manoeuvres  of  the 
previous  day,  they  discovered  that  the  south  bank  was  aban- 
doned. The  Greeks  had  gone.  All  that  was  left  to  view  was 
the  slender  column  of  Amompharetus  slowly  toiling  up  the  low 
"  divide  "  over  towards  Plataea. 

Then  all  was  excitement  and  disorder  in  the  Persian  ranks. 
Hardly  waiting  to  don  his  armor,  Mardonius  called  his  guard  to 
follow  him  and  rushed  out  to  join  the  disorganized,  mob-like  pur- 
suit already  begun.  Persian,  Mede,  and  Sacae  sprang  forward  to 
the  chase;  no  ranks,  no  discipline,  no  recognized  leader;  every 
man  for  himself,  apparently,  those  who  felt  so  disposed  chased  off 
across  the  Asopus  ;  those  who  did  not,  stood  still  and  looked  on. 

Among  the  latter,  with  a  disciplined   and  valiant   corps  of 


PAUSANIAS    IMPATIENT.  53 

nearly  forty  thousand  men,  was  Artabazus.  He  formed  his 
ranks,  moved  forward  a  short  distance,  then  halted  and  simply 
stood  still  watching  the  rush  of  Mardonius  towards  Plataea.  He 
had  predicted  disaster  if  attack  were  attempted,  and  he  did  not 
mean  to  lend  aid  to  stultify  his  prophecy.  Artabazus  stopped 
short  and  awaited  the  result. 

Meantime  Pausanias  had  overtaken  his  right  wing,  the  Lace- 
daemonians, just  as  they  had  crossed  the  low  ridge  southwest  of 
the  Asopus.  He  halted  them  and  looked  back.  The  wild  rush 
of  Persia  had  begun.  The  hordes  of  Asia  were  crowding  upon 
the  little  band  of  Amompharetus.  Coolly  the  latter  marched  to 
the  crest,  then  faced  about.  Quickly  their  comrades  of  Lace- 
dsemon  ranged  themselves  on  their  right  and  left,  and  with  low- 
ered shield  the  threatening  hedge  of  spears  crashes  down  to  the 
charge.  It  is  a  trying  moment,  for  Pausanias,  compelled  by 
religious  duty  to  offer  up  battle  sacrifices  and  consult  the  wishes 
of  the  gods  before  deciding  what  to  do,  is  eagerly  waiting  for 
the  report  of  his  priests  while  the  Persian  arrows  are  dealing 
death  in  his  patient  ranks. 

Invincible  in  the  charge  and  in  open  ground  when  aided  by 
the  impetus  of  assault,  the  solid  phalanx  is  like  a  goaded  bull 
when  compelled  passively  to  face  the  foe.  All  around,  at  short 
range,  the  Orientals  have  planted  a  bulwark  of  their  light  archer 
shields  and  are  pouring  in  a  ceaseless  flight  of  arrows,  while  the 
cavalry  swarming  about  the  flanks  are  making  ugly  gaps  in  the 
mail-clad  ranks.  Pausanias  can  stand  it  no  longer.  Raising  his 
eyes  through  the  dust  and  din  of  battle,  he  catches  sight  of  the 
distant  pinnacle  of  the  temple  of  Juno,  shining  above  the  walls 
of  Plataea,  and  to  her,  imploringly,  he  stretches  forth  his  hands. 
Under  those  walls,  a  mile  or  more  away,  most  of  his  troops  are 
huddled.  He  is  alone  out  here  in  the  open  hillside  with  his 
Spartans  and  Tegeans.  Instantly  the  priests,  who  have  been 
ominously  silent  before,  declare  the  auspices  favorable.  Instantly 
he  gives  the  longed-for  order.  "  Now,  Sparta,  advance ! "  And 
with  the  pent-up  rage  of  battle,  with  the  Vehement  longing  for 
action  that  has  been  burning  in  their  breasts  all  these  wasted 
moments,  the  serried,  solid  ranks  of  Lacedaemon  dash  upon  the 


54  PLAT^EA. 

over-confident  foe.  Down  go  the  fragile  breastworks,  down  go 
the  defenders.  Mede  and  Persian  reel  before  this  machine-like 
onslaught.  In  vain  the  struggle  with  javelin  and  poinard,  in  vain 
Mardonius  at  the  head  of  his  gallant  horse-guard  charges  upon 
the  spears.  Down  he  goes,  felled  by  the  hand  of  ^Eimnestus, 
and  the  phalanx  tramples  over  his  prostrate  body.  Gaining  in 
force  and  impetus  with  every  stride,  the  heavy  infantry  of  Sparta 
literally  tears  its  way  through  the  heart  of  Persia's  army,  and  in 
a  few  moments  more,  leaving  their  leader  and  hundreds  of  their 
comrades  dead  upon  the  field,  the  host  of  Mardonius,  nothing 
but  a  mob  now,  is  fleeing  for  life  back  to  and  across  the  Asopus. 

And,  seeing  them  come,  what  dispositions  are  made  upon  the 
north  bank,  where  at  least  a  hundred  thousand  of  their  comrades 
are  looking  on  ?  Artabazus  waits  just  long  enough  to  see  the 
beginning  of  the  route,  then  marches  his  corps  from  the  field  of 
battle,  passes  by  Thebes,  and  abandons  his  comrades  to  their 
fate.  With  him  went  the  last  chance  of  a  successful  stand. 
Had  he  remained,  with  his  fresh  and  vigorous  troops  he  could 
have  pounced  upon  the  Spartans,  already  exhausted  after  their 
long  conflict  and  headlong  pursuit.  He  could  have  caught  them 
utterly  isolated  from  their  comrades,  for  in  their  ardor  they  had 
taken  no  thought  of  support,  and  the  Grecian  centre  was  still 
way  back  at  Plataea,  and  the  left  wing  heavily  engaged  with  the 
Thebans  across  the  CEroe.  He  could  have  crushed  the  Spartans 
by  weight  of  numbers  as  they  had  been  crushed  at  Thermopylae, 
and  he,  Artabazus,  would  have  been  the  hero  and  victor  of 
Plataea.  As  it  was  he  was  simply  the  traitor. 

But  far  on  the  left  the  battle  is  still  raging,  for  there  Greek 
meets  Greek  ;  Athens  is  pitted  against  Thebes.  For  a  time  the 
issue  is  doubtful,  but  at  last  the  practised  valor  of  the  veterans 
of  Marathon  proves  too  much  for  the  men  of  Boeotia.  Slowly 
but  surely  they  are  borne  back.  Furious  charges  of  the  Theban 
cavalry  help  them  somewhat  and  relieve  them  of  immediate 
pressure ;  but  learning  that  utter  rout  has  overwhelmed  the  Per- 
sian left,  they  fall  back  in  comparative  order  to  the  walled  city 
of  Thebes.  There  at  least  they  are  safe  from  further  assault. 

Meantime,  the  battle  being  virtually  won,  the  centre  seems  to 
have  awakened  and  with  much  clamor  and  spirit  to  have  has- 


MASSACRE   OF   THE   PERSIANS.  55 

tened  forward  from  the  walls  of  Plataea.  The  Megarians  came 
eagerly  down  to  where  the  Athenians  were  resting  after  their 
severe  and  exhausting  conflict  with  the  Thebans,  and,  supposing 
that  the  latter  were  in  full  retreat,  they  streamed  out  *over  the 
open  plain  in  wild  pursuit,  and  while  thus  scattered  were  sud- 
denly and  viciously  charged  by  the  Theban  horse  and  driven  in 
consternation  back  to  the  shelter  of  the  Athenians,  leaving  six 
hundred  of  their  number  overtaken  and  slaughtered  upon  the 
plain. 

And  now  the  Persian  army  made  for  the  fortified  enclosure 
already  described.  There  was  no  order,  no  leader,  no  discipline. 
They  huddled  in  like  sheep,  and  thither  presently  they  were 
followed  by  the  panting  Spartans,  now  strongly  reinforced  by  the 
Corinthians  and  others  from  the  centre,  and  in  all  the  fury  of 
hate  the  assault  began. 

Brave  and  impetuous  as  they  were,  however,  they  had  no  skill 
in  the  assault  of  fortified  places,  and  for  hours  they  were  unable 
to  effect  an  entrance.  At  last  the  Athenians  arrived  and  then 
matters  began  to  take  definite  shape.  Here,  as  heretofore,  the 
men  of  Attica  gave  proof  of  their  superiority,  and  under  their 
leadership  the  great  enclosure  was  stormed  and  carried,  and  now 
nothing  remained  but  the  work  of  slaughter  and  pillage. 

Over  this  part  of  the  story  one  can  scarce  repress  a  shudder. 
No  mercy  was  shown,  no  quarter  given.  Greece  revenged  her 
wrongs  in  one  terrible  and  unparalleled  massacre. 

Of  the  exact  losses  of  Plataea  we  have  no  accurate  account. 
The  best  authorities  place  those  of  the  Greeks  at  about  thirteen 
hundred,  all  told — mainly  Spartans,  Tegeans,  Athenians,  and 
Plataeans;  though  the  six  hundred  lost  by  the  Megarians  as 
their  share,  the  result  of  their  bombastic  effort  to  reap  some  of 
the  fruits  of  the  victory,  are  of  course  included.  The  Asiatic 
loss  is  simply  incalculable.  Herodotus  states  that  only  three 
thousand  survived  of  those  who  did  not  march  away  with 
Artabazus.  This  would  bring  the  total  of  their  killed  or  mas- 
sacred to  over  one  hundred  thousand. 

Plataea  ended  once  and  for  all  the  attempted  march  of  con^ 
quest  of  Persia.  From  this  time  forth  there  was  <m  eid  to 
eastern  invasion. 


LEUCTRA. 

371  B.  C. 

a  century  after  Platsea  there  was  almost 
incessant  warring  in  Greece.  Jealousies  of 
all  kinds  had  risen  in  the  sisterhood  of 
states.  By  dint  of  her  rigorous  military 
system  Sparta  had  managed  to  keep  at  the 
head  of  affairs  until  the  close  of  what  was 
termed  the  Peloponnesian  war,  although 
Athens  had  pushed  her  hard  for  leadership 
before  that  struggle.  But  sieges  and  pesti- 
lence at  home  reduced  the  power  and  num- 
bers of  the  Athenians,  and  the  great  expedition  sent  to  conquer 
Sicily  in  415  B.  C.  met  with  woful  disaster  at  Syracuse.  Then 
the  last  fleet  of  Athens  was  destroyed  at  ^Egospotami  by  Lysan- 
der,  and  in  404  B.  C.  Athens  surrendered  and  Sparta  stood 
supreme  throughout  Greece. 

But  Sparta  proved  revengeful  and  despotic.  She  humbled  her 
neighbors  in  many  inexcusable  ways.  Her  former  allies  turned 
against  her.  Fresh  wars  broke  out.  In  the  movements  that 
followed  the  Spartans  succeeded  in  seizing  and  holding  the  cit- 
adel of  Thebes — the  Cadmeia,  as  it  was  called.  It  was  retaken 
by  a  band  of  conspirators,  who  entrapped  the  Spartan  leaders  at 
a  banquet  and  put  them  to  instant  death. 

Then  Sparta  sent  an  army  in  the  dead  of  winter  to  avenge  the 
treachery  (so  she  termed  it)  of  the  Thebans.  It  certainly  was  a 
piece  of  treachery,  but  no  more  of  a  crime  than  that  by  which 
Sparta  had  seized  the  Cadmeia ;  and  as  a  similar  attempt  had 
just  been  made  to  seize  the  Piraeus,  the  seaport  of  Athens,  the 
Athenians  joined  forces  with  Thebes  against  the  Spartans.  Two 
(56) 


EPAMINONDAS   APPEARS.  57 

sharp  actions  were  fought  at  Tanagra  and  Tegyra,  and  for  the 
first  time  in  their  history  the  Spartans  were  compelled  to  retreat 
before  an  inferior  force.  The  supremacy  of  Sparta  was  de- 
stroyed. 

Then  a  great  convention  of  the  states  was  called  at  Sparta. 
Persia  wished  aid  from  them  in  quelling  a  revolt  in  Egypt,  and 
here  the  trouble  broke  out  afresh.  It  seems  that  after  the  affair 
at  Tegyra,  Thebes  had  assumed  the  same  domineering  attitude 
towards  the  other  cities  of  Bceotia  that  Sparta  had  to  those  of 
the  Peloponnesus.  The  Athenians,  in  some  jealousy  of  the 
growing  powers  of  Thebes,  had  well-nigh  decided  to  withdraw 
from  their  alliance.  Speeches  were  made  by  eminent  Athenians, 
proposing  peace  on  terms  satisfactory  to  all  but  Thebes.  Athens 
and  Sparta  would  have  deprived  Thebes  of  all  control  over  her 
neighbors  in  Bceotia,  yet  retained  certain  powers  of  their  own. 

This  brought  to  his  feet  the  sole  envoy  of  Thebes,  Epaminon- 
das,  a  man  who  already  had  become  the  object  of  much  atten- 
tion throughout  the  entire  confederacy.  From  the  day  of  its 
congress  at  Sparta  he  became  the  most  prominent.  In  plain, 
emphatic  language  he  dared  what  none  but  he  had  dared  before. 
Sparta  was  vehemently  assailed  for  her  conduct  towards  the 
cities  of  Laconia,  which,  said  he,  was  infinitely  more  arrogant 
than  that  of  Thebes  toward  her  neighbors  of  Bceotia.  In  ex- 
asperation Agesilaus,  King  of  Sparta,  sprang  from  his  seat. 
"  Speak  plainly,"  said  he  to  Epaminondas  ;  "  will  you  or  will  you 
not  leave  the  cities  of  Bceotia  free  from  all  interference  on  your 
part?" 

"  Will  you  promise  freedom  to  your  neighbors  of  Laconia  ?  " 
was  the  answer. 

And  Thebes  was  stricken  from  the  rolls  as  exempted  from  the 
terms  of  the  treaty.  This  was  in  June,  371  B.  C.  Epaminondas 
returned  in  haste  to  Bceotia.  Athens  withdrew  from  her  old 
alliance,  and  all  Greece  stood  aside  to  see  Thebes  and  Sparta 
meet  in  single  combat. 

This  time,  even  though  Thebes  stood  alone,  Sparta  had  reason 
to  be  cautious. 

To  begin  with,  the  finest  soldier  and  tactician  yet  born  to 


58  LEUCTRA. 

Greece  stood  at  the  head  of  the  Theban  army,  and  as  scholar  and 
statesman  he  was  as  complete  as  soldier. 

Epaminondas  was  the  son  of  Polymnis.  His  family  was  poor, 
had  always  been  poor,  but  among  the  oldest  of  Thebes.  They 
claimed  their  origin  from  the  very  dragon's  teeth  sown  by  Cad- 
mus. At  the  time  of  the  democratic  reorganization  in  Thebes 
—378  B.  C. — Epaminondas  was  in  the  prime  of  life.  He  had 
spent  years  in  military  and  gymnastic  training,  was  skilled  in 
music,  and  learned  in  philosophy,  history,  and  politics.  It  was 
said  of  him  that  no  man  of  his  day  knew  more  and  talked  less. 
He  was  pure,  true,  valiant,  and  steadfast,  and  to  him  Thebes 
confided  her  fortunes  when  the  Spartan  army  came  swarming 
over  the  mountain  boundary  from  Phocis  on  the  west ;  for  in 
Phocis  it  so  happened  the  Spartans  at  that  moment  had  some  ten 
thousand  well-trained  soldiers  under  Cleombrotus. 

But,  pre-eminent  as  the  men  of  Laconia  had  been  up  to  the 
day  of  Tegyra,  they  now  had  to  encounter  a  foe  skilled  and  dis- 
ciplined as  themselves.  For  years  past,  under  such  soldiers  as 
Pelopidas  and  Epaminondas,  a  regular  camp  of  instruction  had 
been  maintained  on  the  open  plain  near  Thebes ;  and,  while  all 
the  soldiery  had  been  put  through  a  sharp  course  of  training, 
one  battalion  in  particular,  an  organization  perfected  in  378  B.  C., 
was  now  renowned  throughout  Greece.  It  never  had  its  superior, 
if  indeed  it  ever  found  its  equal.  This  was  "  The  Sacred  Band." 
It  was  composed  of  three  hundred  hoplites,  heavy  armed  in- 
fantry, and  consecrated  to  the  defence  of  the  Cadmeia  or  Acro- 
polis. It  was  under  constant  training,  and  consisted  of  young 
men  picked  from  the  best  families  of  Thebes,  and  so  drawn  up 
in  ranks  that  each  pair  of  neighboring  soldiers  were  intimate 
friends.  To  join  it  required  years  of  trial  and  exercise  in  the 
palaestra — the  martial  games  and  contests  of  the  city.  To  be- 
long to  it  was  the  highest  honor  to  which  a  young  soldier  could 
aspire.  Destined  at  first  to  form  a  front  rank  for  the  Theban 
infantry,  it  was  soon  changed  by  Epaminondas  into  a  regiment 
acting  by  itself,  formed  in  deep  charging  column.  And  this  was  the 
compact  little  phalanx  that  had  hewn  its  way  through  the  hitherto 
indomitable  Spartans  at  Tegyra.  It  had  proved  irresistible. 


THEBES   AND    SPARTA   IN   CONFLICT.  59 

With  only  six  or  seven  thousand  men,  all  told,  Epaminondas 
set  forth  from  Thebes  to  contest  the  march  of  Cleombrotus  with 
his  ten  thousand  from  Phocis  into  Boeotia.  But  the  Spartan 
had  met  the  "  Sacred  Band  "  before,  and  knew  better  than  to 
assail  it  when  between  him  and  home.  He  did  a  thing  Spartan 
generals  hitherto  scorned  to  do — manoeuvred.  He  moved  rap- 
idly southward,  seized  the  port  of  Creusis  on  the  Crissaean  Gulf, 
captured  the  twelve  Theban  triremes  in  the  harbor,  left  a  garrison 
there  to  hold  the  place,  marched  northward  again  over  the  low 
mountain  range,  and  encamped  on  the  high  grounds  of  the  eastern 
slopes  of  Mount  Helicon,  near  a  little  town  called  Leuctra,  west 
of  Thebes,  only  a  short  march  from  it,  and  not  far  northwest  of 
Platsea,  with  which  we  formed  acquaintance  in  the  previous 
chapter. 

Here  the  Thebans  came  down  to  meet  them.  They  were  dis- 
comfited and  annoyed  by  the  success  of  the  Spartan  move  and 
the  loss  of  their  seaport.  It  took  all  the  energy  and  vim  of 
Epaminondas  to  keep  them  firm.  Of  the  seven  commanders — 
Bceotarchs,  as  they  were  called — three  already  showed  great 
timidity  and  urged  the  policy  of  falling  back  on  Thebes  and 
standing  a  siege,  but  the  vote  of  the  seventh  decided  in  favor  of 
the  plan  of  Epaminondas — to  fight  then  and  there  on  the  open 
ground.  There  was  no  exultation,  no  lively  hope  ;  the  Thebans 
simply  meant  to  do  their  duty  and  die  there  rather  than  submit 
to  Sparta.  Then  superstition  came  to  their  aid. 

From  the  Theban  temples  came  encouraging  omens  ;  but,  best 
of  all,  a  Spartan  exile,  now  serving  in  the  Theban  ranks,  an- 
nounced his  conviction  that  here  was  the  very  spot  designated 
by  the  gods  for  the  overthrow  of  Sparta.  Here,  he  pointed  out, 
stood  the  tomb  of  two  maidens  of  Leuctra,  who,  wandering 
together  in  the  fields,  had  been  seized  and  violated  by  some  sol- 
diers of  Lacedaemon  a  few  years  before.  Dishonored  and  de- 
spairing, they  slew  themselves ;  and  their  father,  after  vainly 
imploring  redress  from  Sparta,  invoked  curses  on  the  kinsmen 
of  those  who  had  wrought  such  foul  wrong  to  him  and  to  his, 
died  by  his  own  hand  at  their  grave,  and  the  three  were  now 
entombed  together. 


60  LEUCTRA. 

In  a  dream  Pelopidas  was  visited  by  the  spirit  of  the  father, 
and  assured  that  if  the  Thebans  would  but  sacrifice  "  an  auburn 
virgin  "  at  the  tomb  victory  would  be  theirs.  The  Theban  gen- 
erals were  sorely  perplexed  as  to  what  was  meant  by  an  "  auburn  " 
virgin,  but  in  the  midst  of  their  consultation  a  mare  with  a  chest- 
nut filly  galloped  up.  The  prophet  Theocritus  sprang  to  his 
feet,  exclaiming :  "  Here  comes  the  very  victim  required,  sent  by 
the  gods  themselves."  And  with  eager  haste  and  infinite  relief 
the  soldiers  captured  the  filly  and  offered  her  as  sacrifice  upon 
the  tomb. 

Fanciful  as  this  story  may  be,  there  is  universal  testimony  to 
the  effect  that  all  the  omens  were  in  favor  of  attack.  In  the 
highest  spirits  the  men  of  Thebes  and  Bceotia  sprang  to  their 
places,  and  the  memorable  battle  of  Leuctra  began. 

Epaminondas  had  neglected  no  human  precaution.  His 
enemy  outnumbered  him  almost  two  to  one.  Hitherto  armies 
met  with  a  simultaneous  clash  along  the  whole  line.  The  day 
of  Leuctra  marks  the  first  change. 

The  Spartans  were  drawn  up  as  usual  in  heavy  masses,  with 
Cleombrotus  and  the  principal  chiefs  on  their  right.  Epamiron- 
das  massed  his  best  men  opposite  those  on  his  extreme  left.  All 
through  the  Spartan  lines  was  eager  haste  and  zeal  for  battle. 
They  were  frantic  to  avenge  the  disgrace  of  Tegyra.  Seeing  the 
calm  preparations  of  the  Thebans,  the  army  of  Sparta  had  first 
finished  a  hearty  morning  meal  and  then  pushed  well  out  from 
camp,  their  cavalry  dispersed  along  their  entire  front.  But  cav- 
alry was  something  comparatively  new  in  Sparta,  while  for  years 
the  men  of  Thebes  had  been  accustomed  to  handling  their  arms 
while  on  horseback.  Behind  the  cloud  of  horsemen  to  the  south 
the  army  of  Laconia  advanced  at  slow  and  stately  march  toward 
the  Theban  camp,  the  Spartans  on  the  right  being  drawn  up 
twelve  deep.  Between  the  rapidly  nearing  lines  of  cavalry  lay 
a  shallow  depression  in  the  ground,  running  from  northwest  to 
southeast  pretty  nearly.  Each  army  was  marching  down  hill 
towards  the  other  and  would  be  apt  to  meet  at  the  very  bottom. 
But,  before  beginning  his  move  to  the  front,  Epaminondas  had 
ordered  back  to  Thebes  all  his  baggage  and  camp-followers. 


LOCKED   IN   THE   DEATH-STRUGGLE.  Ql 

Seeing  some  lack  of  confidence  among  his  allies,  he  called  out 
that  those  tribes  who  felt  too  weak  or  uncertain  to  contend 
against  the  Spartans  might  fall  out  at  the  same  time  and  get  out 
of  the  way.  He  wanted  no  faint  hearts  with  him.  And  the 
Thespians  went.  No  sooner  had  they  started  than  a  large  force 
of  Spartan  allies  gave  chase,  scouring  over  the  rolling  hills  to  the 
northeast  to  head  them  off.  The  Thespians  scurried  back  be- 
hind their  comrades  once  more,  and  the  Spartan  allies  started 
back  to  their  own  lines.  But  in  their  zeal  they  had  gone  a  long 
distance — were  widely  separated  from  the  Spartan  army,  now 
sensibly  weakened  by  their  absence ;  and  now  was  the  Theban 
opportunity.  Epaminondas  was  the  first  to  see  it.  He  hurls  his 
cavalry  forward  in  headlong  charge.  They  are  hardly  withstood 
at  all.  The  Spartan  cavalry,  greatly  inferior  in  skill  and  horse- 
manship, whatever  it  may  be  in  numbers,  is  sent  whirling  back 
upon  the  infantry  supports.  They  cannot  get  through  ;  the  in- 
fantry cannot  advance.  So  here  for  a  few  moments  the  Theban 
horse  ride  around  and  over  them,  unmercifully  belaboring  the 
southern  cavalry  and  even  storming  in  upon  the  Spartan  flanks. 
And  now  Cleombrotus  urges  forward  the  superb  Spartan  phalanx 
on  the  right  Twelve  deep,  in  orderly  disciplined  array,  they 
forge  ahead,  brushing  away  the  swarming  horsemen,  friend  and 
foe,  like  billows  from  an  iron  prow.  Soon  their  serried  ranks 
sweep  their  way  out  to  the  front  and  are  seen  in  all  their  solid 
strength.  They  head  squarely  down  the  slope  towards  the 
Theban  left.  Presently  they  are  practically  alone,  out  in  the  air, 
for  the  centre  and  left  of  the  Lacedaemonian  line,  composed  of 
allies  or  inferior  troops,  have  failed  to  hew  their  way  through  the 
crowding,  contending  horsemen  in  front.  Indeed,  they  can  see 
nothing  ahead  of  them  but  this  mass  of  plunging  steeds  and 
battling  riders.  And  now,  once  more,  Epaminondas  gazes  with 
eager  satisfaction.  On  the  northern  slope  his  left  is  massed  in 
charging  column  four  times  the  depth  of  that  of  Sparta.  There 
stand  the  Sacred  Band,  and  behind  them  in  solid  phalanx — the 
whole  nearly  fifty  deep — the  other  hoplites  of  Thebes.  Off  to 
their  right,  but  "  refused,"  as  the  military  term  is — thrown  back 
considerably  behind  the  line  of  the  left  wing — stood  the  battal- 


62  LEUCTRA. 

ions  of  the  centre,  and  to  their  right  and  still  further  "  refused  " 
the  other  troops  of  Bceotia  there  enlisted.  Epaminondas  was 
the  first  general  to  attack  in  echelon,  as  though  his  battalions 
formed  a  succession  of  steps  from  right  to  left.  \ 

Now,  as  the  Spartan  band  reaches  the  foot  of  the  slope  and 
begins  the  ascent,  he  gives  the  word  to  advance ;  and  his 
left  wing,  with  levelled  spears,  with  great  shields  close  locked, 
for  all  the  world  like  one  bristling  battering-ram,  with  all  the 
impetus  of  down-hill  charge  in  column  of  fifty  deep  is  hurled 
upon  the  up-hill-struggling  square  of  Sparta. 

Desperately,  heroically,  inflexibly  as  the  latter  fights,  what 
possible  chance  has  it  ?  On  purely  mechanical  principles  the 
Thebans  are  sure  of  success.  The  phalanx  of  Lacedaemon  is 
hewn  to  pieces.  Cleombrotus  himself  receives  his  death-wound ; 
Deinon,  the  polemarch,  is  slain  ;  all  the  most  eminent  officers  of 
the  Spartan  army  fall  there  with  him.  Despite  obstinate  resist- 
ance and  fearful  slaughter,  the  strength  of  Sparta  is  wasted 
against  the  science  of  Thebes.  Science  and  generalship  win  the 
battle  for  Epaminondas.  All  the  stress  of  the  battle  fell  upon 
the  limited  front  where  Spartan  and  Theban  were  locked  in  their 
death-struggle.  Hardly  anywhere  else  were  the  infantry  lines 
engaged.  Leuctra  was  fought  and  won  just  where  Epaminon- 
das intended  it  should  be — on  his  Sacred  Band. 

And  now,  bearing  their  dying  leader  as  their  forefathers  had 
borne  Leonidas  at  Thermopylae,  the  Spartans  fell  back  fighting 
until  they  reached  their  camp.  Then  the  Thebans  were  called 
off,  and  in  perfect  order  Epaminondas  retired  his  wearied  left 
wing  to  the  support  of  the  rest  of  his  line.  The  Lacedaemonians 
could  fight  no  longer,  for  their  losses  had  been  from  their  very 
best.  Their  general  dying,  their  leaders  killed,  only  three  hun- 
dred of  the  city  troops  of  Sparta  left  of  the  seven  hundred  who 
so  confidently  swept  forward  in  the  triumphant  charge  of  the 
morning,  the  allies  now  lukewarm  or  utterly  disheartened,  there 
was  nothing  left  for  them  but  to  beg  permission  to  bury  their 
dead  and  go.  Fifteen  hundred  men  of  Lacedeemon  were,  by  the 
grace  of  Thebes,  gathered  and  interred  there  upon  the  field 
where  they  had  fought  so  fruitlessly  and  well,  and  five  hundred 


THE  CONQUEROR  EPAMINONDAS. 


63 


years  afterwards  the  shields  and  weapons  of  their  principal  war- 
riors still  ornamented  the  temples  of  Thebes. 

Only  twenty  days  had  elapsed  since  he  quitted  the  hall  of 
convention  in  Sparta,  and  here,  on  the  field  of  Leuctra,  with  a 
loss  of  not  more  than  four  hundred  of  his  men,  Epaminondas 
stood  the  conqueror  of  the  time-honored  leaders  and  heroes  of 
Greece.  Sparta  had  gone  down  before  the  phalanx  of  Thebes. 


BATTLE-FIELD  OF   LEUCTRA. 


MANTINEA. 

362  B.  C. 

INE  years  after  Leuctra,  Thebes  and  Sparta 
again  met  in  battle  far  more  important  in  point 
of  numbers  engaged  and  in  its  results.  Leuctra 
is  memorable  as  the  first  battle  fought  on  the 
new  tactical  ideas  introduced  by  Epaminon- 
das ;  Mantinea  as  the  last  he  ever  fought,  and 
the  end  of  Theban  supremacy. 

During  the  eight  intervening  years  there  had 
been  no  peace  between  the  rival  states.  Pelopidas,  the  great  co- 
adjutor of  Epaminondas,  had  been  killed  in  action  in  363  B.  C., 
and  a  large  Theban  army  in  362  was  marching  to  and  fro  in 
the  Peloponnesus  striking  at  Sparta  and  her  allies.  Epaminon- 
das himself  was  in  command.  He  had  made  an  unsuccessful 
assault  on  Sparta,  and  followed  it  up  by  another  equally  unsuc- 
cessful against  the  city  of  Mantinea.  Both  attempts  had  been 
defeated  by  fortuitous  accidents,  and  now  two  large  armies  were 
confronting  each  other  on  an  elevated  plain  in  the  very  heart 
of  the  Peloponnesus,  about  forty  miles  due  north  of  Sparta. 

This  plain,  now  called  Tripolitza,  is  about  2,000  feet  above 
the  sea-level.  It  is  hemmed  in  on  all  sides  by  mountains  ;  is 
about  ten  miles  in  length  from  north  to  south,  and  in  its  widest 
part  is  about  eight  miles  across.  The  city  of  Mantinea  lay  at 
the  northern  end,  while  that  of  Tegea  was  at  the  southern.  The 
province  in  which  lay  the  plain  was  then  and  is  now  called  Ar- 
cadia, and  the  site  of  Mantinea  is  now  occupied  by  a  little  town 
called  Palaeopoli. 

About  four  miles  south  of  Mantinea  the  mountains  east  and 
west  seem  to  send  out  a  long  spur,  forming  a  ridge  across  the 


COMPOSITION   OF  THE   FORCES.  65 

plain,  through  which,  about  the  middle,  was  a  depression,  and 
through  this  depression  ran  the  road  from  Tegea  to  Mantinea. 

Along  this  ridge,  facing  south,  was  formed  the  army  of  Sparta 
and  her  allies,  old  King  Agesilaus  of  Sparta  being  himself 
present,  it  is  believed,  though  now  in  his  eightieth  year.  Be- 
sides the  hoplites  of  his  own  city  and  of  Lacedaemon  generally 
there  were  gathered  there  a  fine  body  of  Athenian  cavalry,  and 
all  the  infantry  of  Mantinea  and  other  towns  of  Arcadia ;  also 
the  available  troops  of  Elis  and  Achaia,  the  provinces  bordering 
Arcadia  on  the  west  and  north.  The  entire  force  numbered 
probably  about  22,000  men,  of  whom  2,000  were  cavalry. 

And  now  Epaminondas  (who  had  been  resting  his  men  within 
the  walls  of  Tegea  after  the  rapid  marching  required  in  the 
attempted  surprise  of  Sparta  and  Mantinea)  determined  upon  a 
pitched  battle  with  his  antagonists.  Of  the  exact  number  in  his 
army  we  have  no  definite  account  Xenophon  and  Diodorus 
are  both  accused  of  strong  leaning  to  the  Spartan  side,  exag- 
gerating the  numbers  of  the  Thebans.  It  seems  probable  that 
the  forces  actually  engaged  in  the  battle  were  about  equally 
matched.  Epaminondas  had  between  two  and  three  thousand 
horse,  but  they  had  been  roughly  handled  in  the  cavalry  fight 
with  the  Athenians  around  the  wall  of  Mantinea  a  few  days  pre- 
vious. They  were  all  native  Thebans  and  Thessalians.  The 
infantry  of  his  army  was  made  up  by  the  celebrated  Theban 
Sacred  Band  and  the  Bceotian  hoplites,  footmen  of  Eubcea  and: 
Thessaly,  Locrians  and  other  allies  of  northern  Greece.  Then; 
from  the  Peloponnesus  he  had  been  joined  by  all  the  Arcadians 
living  along  the  Spartan  frontier  and  hating  the  Spartans  for  old 
aggressions,  and  the  Argeians  and  Messenians  who  had  joined^ 
him  for  similar  reasons.  Both  armies  were  filled  with  long  tried 
and  hardy  soldiers ;  both  were  confident  of  success,  and  eager 
for  the  coming  battle. 

In  the  army  of  Epaminondas  the  order,  "  Prepare  for  battle," 
was  received  with  great  enthusiasm  ;  the  horsemen  whitened 
their  helmets ;  the  hoplites  burnished  up  their  arms  and  shields 
and  sharpened  sword  and  spear.  Even  the  Arcadian  peasants 
and  villagers,  who  had  nothing  but  clubs,  were  eager  to  take 
5 


6(5  MANTINEA. 

their  part  in  the  fray,  and  so  decorated  their  puny  wooden  shields 
with  the  Theban  colors.  The  army  marched  out  from  the  gates 
of  Tegea  full  of  hope  and  confidence. 

Once  outside  the  gates,  Epaminondas  arranged  his  order  of 
march.  He  with  his  chosen  Thebans  and  Boeotians  in  the  ex- 
treme lead ;  the  Messenians,  Arcadians,  Eubceans  followed,  and 
last  of  all  came  the  Argeians.  The  formation  must  have  been 
peculiar,  and  was  evidently  the  result  of  a  good  deal  of  study 
.and  planning.  The  road  was  broad ;  the  plain  open  and  unob- 
structed. At  the  head  of  column  strode  the  phalanx  of  Thebes, 
marching  in  files  fifty  deep,  each  "  lochus,"  or  company  of  fifty, 
headed  by  its  "  lochage,"  or  captain,  acting  as  file  leader.  Just 
how  many  of  these  files  of  fifty  there  were  marching  side  by 
.side  we  do  not  know.  The  Sacred  Band  alone  would  have  six 
files,  and  it  is  probable  that  the  other  Theban  battalions  were 
no  smaller  than  it — 300  men,  and  it  would  seem  that  at  least 
two,  and  probably  three  or  four,  of  these  battalions  marched  side 
by  side,  forming  a  front  of  at  least  twelve  and  possibly  of  twenty- 
four  men.  This  very  deep,  compact  and  heavy  formation,  how- 
ever, was  confined  to  the  Thebans  and  Boeotians.  The  Eubce- 
.ans,  Thessalians,  and  the  Peloponnesian  allies  marched  in  lighter 
•order,  but  all  well  closed  toward  the  head  of  the  column ;  no 
;such  thing  as  straggling  or  opening  out  being  permitted. 

From  the  gates  of  Tegea  to  the  ridge  on  which  the  army  of 
.Sparta  stood  waiting  their  coming  was  perhaps  five  miles  and  a 
.half,  and  until  the  last  of  his  army  was  well  outside  those  gates 
Epaminondas  marched  squarely  up  the  road  towards  the  centre 
•of  the  enemy's  position.  Then  all  at  once  the  whole  army  be- 
:gan  to  incline  well  over  to  the  west  until  it  almost  reached  the 
foothills  of  the  range,  and  now,  disposing  his  cavalry  along  his 
right  flank,  the  Theban  commander  resumed  his  northward 
march.  He  was  aiming  so  as  to  march  between  the  right  flank 
of  the  Spartans  and  the  mountains  to  the  west.  The  move 
-puzzled  them,  and  the  Spartan  leaders  could  not  understand  its 
object.  They  crowded  together  in  consultation,  for  the  same 
extraordinary  system  prevailed,  no  one  man  being  in  chief  com- 
mand. Up  to  the  day  of  Leuctra,  as  has  been  said,  there  was 


EPAMINONDAS'   NEW  TACTICS.  67 

only  one  recognized  way  of  fighting  a  battle — a  simultaneous 
attack  along  the  whole  front.  There,  however,  Epaminondas 
had  taught  Greece  a  lesson  in  fighting  tactics  that  kept  them 
all  in  awe  of  him.  They  were  prepared  to  have  him  throw  for- 
ward his  right  or  his  left  in  heavy  charging  column  now,  but — 
what  did  this  mean  ?  From  all  accounts  it  would  appear  that 
by  keeping  his  cavalry  well  out  between  him  and  the  enemy 
Epaminondas  prevented  their  seeing  his  formation.  Otherwise 
there  can  be  no  excuse  for  the  inaction  of  the  Spartans  then,  or 
after  the  Thebans  had  halted. 

At  all  events,  utterly  unmolested,  Epaminondas  marched  his 
column  on  up  the  ridge  until  the  head  of  it  was  beyond  or  at 
least  squarely  in  line  with  the  Spartan  right.  Here  he  halted  his 
men,  closed  their  ranks,  and  then,  deliberately  facing  them  to 
their  right,  toward  the  east  that  is,  he  commanded  "  ground 
arms ;  "  and  the  wondering  army  of  Lacedaemon  came  to  the  con- 
clusion that  Thebes  did  not  mean  to  fight  that  day.  They  had 
simply  marched  up  to  get  within  range,  and  now  they  were  going 
into  camp  for  a  good  rest  before  trying  conclusions  on  the  mor- 
row. Nobody  seemed  capable  of  explaining  the  matter  other- 
wise. They  could  not  see  what  Epaminondas  himself  was  doing 
at  the  head  of  column  because  that  veil  of  horsemen  was  still  out 
between  the  Mantineans  on  their  right  and  the  Thebans  and 
Boeotians ;  but,  back  toward  the  centre  and  rear,  it  was  plain  to 
see  that  the  Messenians,  Arcadian  renegades,  as  the  Manti- 
neans regarded  their  countrymen  serving  with  Thebes,  and  the 
Argeians  had  laid  down  their  spears  and  shields  and  were  idly 
waiting  in  ranks,  for  the  order  to  go  into  camp.  Of  course  a 
corresponding  change  had  to  be  made  in  the  direction  of  the 
Spartan  line  so  as  to  face  that  of  Thebes,  and  probably  before 
breaking  ranks  the  change  was  made,  swinging  round  in  a  great 
wheel  to  the  west;  but  then,  with  the  Mantineans  and  Lacedae- 
monians on  their  right  and  right  centre,  the  allies  in  the  centre, 
the  Athenians  on  the  left,  and  beyond  them  the  skilled  horsemen 
of  Athens,  the  army  of  Sparta  threw  down  shield  and  spear, 
horsemen  took  off  their  own  breastplates  and  the  bridles  of  their 
steedsv  and  in  easy  confidence  and  disorder  sprawled  about  the 


68 


MANTINEA. 


plain.  On  their  right,  however,  their  Eleian  horsemen  had  to 
keep  on  the  alert,  for  there  they  were  confronted  by  the  restless 
and  mysterious  movements  of  the  Theban  cavalry. 

And  now,  behind  that  cavalry  screen,  what  was  Epaminondas 
doing  ?  Resuming  in  silence  its  arms  and  shields,  the  phalanx 
of  Thebes  and  Boeotia  was  wheeled  to  the  right,  so  as  to  bring 
each  "lochage"  or  file-leader  toward  the  Mantineans.  Standing 
as  they  now  did  the  new  front  of  these  battalions  projected  some 
distance  out  beyond  the  general  line,  which  was  never  more  than 
eight  files  in  depth  except  the  mass  with  which  Epaminondas 
proposed  to  charge;  and  here,  just  as  at  Leuctra,  he  had  formed 
it  on  the  left  of  his  line.  Next  the  cavalry  are  suddenly 
drawn  aside,  the  Theban  and  Thessalian  horsemen  trotting  into 
their  places  on  the  left  of  the  phalanx  so  as  to  face  the  horsemen 
of  Elis.  Another  body  rides  off  to  the  right  rear  of  the  Boeotian 
battalions  to  protect  them  in  case  the  Athenian  horse  should  de- 
tect the  move  in  time  and  strive  to  sweep  down  along  the  whole 
length  of  the  line  and  take  the  phalanx  in  flank.  Everything 
had  been  planned  by  Epaminondas  beforehand.  Everything 
moved  like  clock-work.  Even  the  peltasts  or  light  troops  whom 
he  designed  to  have  act  with  the  horsemen  in  the  intervals  be- 
tween their  squadrons,  even  they  were  in  place  as  the  cavalry 
swept  off  to  right  and  left,  and  revealed  to  the  amazed  eyes  of 
the  Spartan  army  the  grand  phalanx  of  Thebes — a  bristling, 
compact,  metallic  mass  just  springing  forward  to  the  attack.  At 
the  same  instant  the  signal  "  Take  arms  !  "  rang  along  the  Theban 
line,  and  the  ready  soldiers  seized  shield  and  spear,  awaiting  the 
signal  to  advance. 

And  now,  in  haste  and  confusion,  the  allies  of  the  Peloponnesus 
run  to  their  places  in  ranks.  Only  the  Eleian  cavalry  has  re- 
mained ready  for  action,  but,  'before  they  can  trot  to  the  front  to 
throw  themselves  upon  the  left  flank  of  the  advancing  Thebans, 
with  wild  shouts  and  clangor  the  horsemen  of  Boeotia  and  Thes- 
saly,  ranged  in  deep  columns  somewhat  like  the  infantry,  come 
tearing  down  upon  them  in  full  charge.  The  men  of  Elis  are 
only  four  deep ;  the  squadrons  of  Thebes  are  at  least  twelve,  and 
mass  and  velocity  are  both  in  their  favor.  In  three  minutes  the 


GREEK   MEETS   GREEK.  69 

Peloponnesian  horsemen  are  tumbled  over  the  plain  or  sent  scat- 
tering off  to  the  rear.  Meantime  the  infantry  has  formed  its 
lines,  eight  deep,  and  yet  the  men  have  barely  got  their  places 
before  the  phalanx  is  upon  them.  There,  foremost  of  all,  after 
the  fashion  of  the  day,  fights  Epaminondas  ;  the  general-in-chief, 
armed  and  equipped  like  any  of  his  comrades,  on  foot,  with 
spear,  sword,  and  shield,  leads  tys  men  into  battle.  The  stoutest, 
bravest  of  his  officers  fight  by  his  side.  Then  comes  the  front 
rank  of  the  phalanx,  made  up  as  it  is  of  the  most  stalwart  sol- 
diers of  them  all,  the  "  lochages;"  then,  close  at  their  heels,  the 
compact  thousand,  moving  with  cadenced  step  as  one  powerful 
man.  The  shock  is  irresistible.  In  vain  Spartans  and  Manti- 
neans  throw  themselves  upon  the  wall  of  shields.  They  cannot 
penetrate  that  solid  front ;  they  cannot  bring  mass  enough  to 
check  the  headway  of  that  united  rush.  They  fight  desperately, 
gallantly ;  they  back  one  another  up ;  their  overlapping  flanks 
crowd  in  towards  the  centre.  No  man  shirks,  but  they  have  no 
organization  to  resist  this  organized  assault.  Epaminondas  with 
his  tactics  and  science  is  sweeping  all  before  him.  Still  the 
Spartans  will  not  turn ;  they  are  borne  backward,  but  fighting 
every  inch  of  the  way.  Greek  has  met  Greek  in  deadly  grapple, 
and  now  indeed  is  the  tug  of  war.  Then  the  Theban  cavalry 
falls  upon  the  flank  of  the  Mantineans,  and  at  last,  as  the  head 
of  the  phalanx  bursts  through  the  opposing  masses,  the  Spartans 
had  to  turn,  had  to  run.  And  when  Sparta  could  turn  tail  no 
other  Greek  need  be  ashamed  to  go.  Now,  as  the  Theban  right 
and  centre  sweep  forward  in  support,  their  opponents,  even  the 
men  of  gallant  Attica,  make  no  resistance  of  any  consequence. 
In  consternation  at  the  utter  rout  of  Sparta  they  too  fall  back 
before  triumphant  foemen,  and  the  whole  army  of  the  Pelopon- 
nesus is  in  full  retreat. 

But  at  what  cost?  Pressing  forward  in  the  ardor  of  pursuit, 
after  killing  a  Spartan  officer  in  hand-to-hand  conflict,  Epami- 
nondas receives  a  thrusting  spear  full  in  the  breast,  and  is  brought 
to  earth.  He  had  turned  probably  to  cheer  on  his  soldiers,  had 
forgotten  for  an  instant  his  guard,  and  a  Spartan  officer,  seizing 
the  opportunity,  had  dealt  the  fatal  blow,  leaving  his  spear 


70 


MANTINEA. 


quivering  in  the  body  of  the  victor ;  the  handle  broke,  but  the 
barbed  point  had  taken  deep  root. 

The  news  spread  like  wildfire.  The  pursuit  was  instantly 
abandoned ;  the  army  of  Sparta  was  allowed  to  form  again  some 
few  miles  away.  All  the  Thebans  crowded  in  dismay  about 
their  prostrate  chief.  All  theif  hopes,  all  their  confidence  had 
been  centred  on  him.  Without  him  they  were  paralyzed,  and 
what  should  have  been  an  overwhelming  and  decisive  blow  to 
Sparta  was  turned  into  a  mere  temporary  victory  for  Thebes. 

Epaminondas  felt  that  his  wound  was  mortal.  The  surgeons 
assured  him  that  if  the  spear-head  were  withdrawn  the  rush  of 
blood  would  end  his  life.  First  he  inquired  if  his  shield  and 
arms  were  safe,  and  was  assured  that  they  were.  Then  he 
called  for  the  two  officers  whom  he  most  trusted,  and  to  one  of 
whom  he  probably  intended  to  delegate  the  command.  Both 
had  been  killed  in  the  charge.  "  Then  you  must  make  peace 
with  the  enemy,"  said  he,  for  there  was  now  no  one  left  who  was 
competent  to  command.  Then  he  directed  the  spear-head  to  be 
withdrawn,  and  with  it  the  life  went  out  of  the  greatest  soldier 
Greece  had  yet  known.  With  it  the  power  of  Thebes  departed. 
Peace  was  signed  on  the  basis  of  an  independence  of  the  separate 
states,  and  the  era  of  Epammondas  was  over. 


BATTLE-FIELD   OF   MANTINEA. 


20 


15 


MAP  OF  THE 

MEDI TERRANE  AN 

azvd. 
BLACK    SEAS 

Avitlv  tlie  ancient  divisions  of  the 
Adjoining   Countries. 


ARBELA, 


331  B.  C. 

ITH  the  death  of  Epaminondas  at  Mantinea 
all  thought  of  Theban  conquest  died  with 
him.  His  was  the  master  mind  of  his  day, 
and  without  him  his  state  fell  back  to  her 
former  rank,  and  then,  some  twenty  years 
after,  all  Greece  found  itself  attacked  and 
speedily  overcome  by  a  new  antagonist — 
a  neighbor  hitherto  little  known  and  less 
**  feared.  Rugged  Macedon,  her  northern 

borderer,  swept  down  and  became  mistress  of  the  confederacy. 

In  the  old  days  of  the  military  school  at  Thebes,  while  train- 
ing his  Sacred  Band,  Epaminondas  had  received  and  educated 
a  soldierly  young  Macedonian,  a  man  who  three  years  after 
Mantinea  became  ruler  of  his  own  province,  and  who  speedily 
turned  to  good  account  the  teachings  of  his  youth.  Philip,  King 
of  Macedon,  began  his  reign  in  359  B.  C,  and  to  him  is  due  all 
credit  for  the  adoption  or  invention  of  the  most  perfect  military 
system  known  even  to  warlike  Greece — a  system  that  speedily 
made  him  the  conqueror  of  all  the  nations  around  him ;  that 
eventually  made  his  renowned  son  the  conqueror  of  the  known 
world.  Alexander  the  Great,  when  only  twenty  years  of  age, 
sprang  to  the  throne  vacated  by  the  murder  of  his  father,  and 
during  the  eleven  years  of  his  reign  he  won  a  name  as  warrior, 
leader  and  general  that  has  never  been  excelled.  As  a  successful 
soldier  he  stands  perhaps  without  a  peer. 

The  boyhood  of  this  renowned  chieftain  had  been  spent  mainly 
at  the  court  of  his  father,  King  Philip.  For  liis  tutor  and  mentor, 
no  less  a  scholar  than  the  great  Aristotle  had  been  selected, 

(71) 


72  ARBELA. 

and  his  education,  mental  and  physical,  had  been  far  more 
thorough  than  that  of  the  noble"  youth  of  his  day.  His  delight 
was  in  the  history  of  warfare,  however,  and  all  his  energies  were 
bent  to  the  mastery  of  that  one  science.  His  boyhood  had 
been  passed  in  scenes  of  strife,  for  the  drunken  old  king  on  more 
than  one  occasion  had  striven  to  slay  him  in  some  insane  fit  of 
rage.'  Between  father  and  son  there  was  no  accord;  and  it  was 
with  eagerness,  not  filial  regret,  that  Alexander  took  up  the 
reins  of  government  before  he  had  fairly  reached  his  majority. 
A  brief  campaign  in  southern  Greece  secured  him  the  submission 
of  Athens,  already  crippled  by  Thebes  and  Sparta.  Then  in 
solemn  convention  at  Corinth  he  was  chosen  Imperator  of  the 
Greeks,  despite  the  opposition  of  Sparta.  Then  followed  his 
sharp  and  decisive  war  with  Thrace,  and  a  short  campaign  across 
the  Danube,  both  eminently  successful  from  a  military  point  of 
view.  But  during  his  absence,  emboldened  by  rumors  of  his 
death  in  distant  lands,  the  Thebans  rose  and  threw  off  the  Mace- 
donian yoke,  and  then,  to  their  consternation,  after  a  wonder- 
fully rapid  and  skillful  march,  Alexander  appeared  suddenly 
before  their  gates  to  avenge  the  insult  of  their  disloyalty. 
Thebes  was  razed  to  the  ground  and  its  garrison,  scorning  to 
plead  for  mercy,  died  to  a  man,  sword  in  hand,  while,  to  the 
lasting  shame  and  subsequent  bitter  regret  of  the  conqueror, 
hundreds  of  helpless  women  and  children  were  slaughtered  in 
cold  blood. 

All  this  was  accomplished  within  a  year  of  his  accession  to 
the  throne.  His  rule  throughout  the  states  of  southeastern 
Europe  was  now  undisputed,  and  with  eager  eyes  he  turned  east- 
ward. There  lay  the  fabulous  wealth  of  the  empire  that  for 
years  had  threatened  and,  up  to  the  day  of  their  crushing  defeat 
at  Plataea,  invaded  Greece.  From  his  very  boyhood  the  dream 
of  his  life  had  been  the  conquest  of  that  array  of  nations  still 
following  the  banners  of  the  Great  King,  and,  now  that  all  was 
peace  and  quiet  at  home,  he  rapidly  prepared  for  a  counter- 
invasion. 

Alexander  had  neither  wealth  nor  even  100,000  men.  Macedon 
was  poor,  and  Greece  had  been  engaged  in  ceaseless  civil  strife 


REMARKABLE  CAREER   OF   ALEXANDER.  73 

for  an  entire  century  and  was  well-nigh  reduced  to  poverty. 
Alexander  had  the  upper  hand,  however,  and  held  it  with  iron 
grasp.  It  was  indispensable  that  he  should  leave  at  home  a  suf- 
ficient force  and  an  energetic  viceroy  to  check  incipient  insur- 
rection before  he  could  feel  at  liberty  to  move ;  and  the  home 
garrisons  having  been  selected,  and  one  of  his  father's  most 
trusted  officers — Antipater — assigned  as  ruler  in  his  absence, 
with  full  power  to  summarily  crush  any  sedition  or  revolt  that 
might  arise,  the  young  King  of  Macedon  proceeded  at  once  to 
Pella  to  organize  his  invading  force. 

With  only  30,000  infantry,  4,500  cavalry,  and  a  small  "  train  " 
of  projectile-throwing  machines,  Alexander  was  ferried  across 
the  Hellespont  in  his  own  vessels  and  entered  upon  a  series  of 
conquests  the  like  of  which  the  world  never  saw.  Macedonian 
by  birth,  he  never  again  returned  to  the  state  of  his  nativity ;  he 
never  recrossed  the  straits.  Adding  year  by  year,  month  by 
month,  to  his  immense  possessions  in  Asia,  he  lived  and  died  in 
the  new  empire  won  by  his  sword. 

Small  as  was  his  army,  it  was  the  most  efficient  ever  yet  seen 
upon  the  plains  of  Greece.  It  was  the  perfected  machine  of  a 
century  of  experiment. 

Already  the  Macedonian  phalanx,  the  creatipn  of  King  Philip, 
had  made  itself  known  in  Greece.  Designed  only  to  fight  on 
open  ground,  and  mainly  to  overcome  the  hitherto  invincible 
hoplites  of  Athens,  Sparta  and  Thebes,  it  was  an  established 
success.  It  had  hurled  back  the  heavy-armed  pike  and  spear- 
men of  Hellas,  and  the  ponderous  depth  of  the  charging  column, 
the  tactical  offspring  of  Epaminondas,  was  powerless  against  it. 
Unwieldy  as  an  anvil  though  it  may  seem  to  us  to-day,  it  had 
its  uses.  It  was  never  beaten,  says  the  historian  Polybius,  when 
attacked  in  front  or  on  ground  suitable  for  its  massive  man- 
oeuvres. Later  we  shall  see  how  a  still  more  scientific  order,  the 
Roman  legion,  ground  it  into  powder. 

At  the  time  of  the  first  campaign  of  Alexander  the  "  phalan- 
gites  "  of  Macedonia  were  drawn  up  in  separate  files,  each  called 
a  lochus,  of  sixteen  stalwart  men ;  the  first  man,  or  file-leader, 
was  selected  for  superior  strength,  skill,  courage  and  endurance ; 


74  ARBELA. 

he  was  graded  as  a  non-commissioned  officer ;  the  second,  third 
and  last  men  of  the  file  were  also  picked  soldiers,  receiving 
higher  pay  than  their  fellows.  While  the  lochus  may  have  been 
the  unit  of  organization,  the  lowest  subdivision  which  appears  to 
have  been  maintained  and  manoeuvred  as  a  distinct  command 
was  the  syntagma,  a  square  battalion  of  sixteen  lochi :  a  solid 
mass  of  men  sixteen  front,  sixteen  deep,  each  man  having  about 
two  feet  "  fighting  space." 

Allowing  one  foot  depth  and  about  twenty-two  inches  width 
or  front  as  the  space  occupied  by  a  soldier  in  ranks,  and  two  feet 
space  from  back  to  breast  throughout  the  files,  we  have  a  depth 
of  forty-eight  feet  for  the  syntagma,  and  the  front  being  equal 
to  the  depth  there  was  a  trifle  over  one  foot  of  space  between  the 
shoulders  of  the  men  in  the  same  rank  or  line.  This  space  was 
needed,  as  will  be  seen  when  their  armament  is  described.  To 
each  syntagma,  posted  outside  the  square,  were  attached  five 
officers — the  commander,  a  syntagmatarch  (corresponding  to  our 
major),  whose  position  was  in  front  of  the  centre ;  a  second  in 
command,  who  stood  in  rear  of  the  battalion;  an  adjutant,  a 
herald  and  a  trumpeter,  who  accompanied  the  chief. 

When  the  casualties  of  war  reduced  the  number  of  men  in  a 
syntagma  and  the  vacancy  could  not  be  filled,  a  reduction  was 
made  in  the  front  of  the  command,  never  in  its  depth.  Sixteen 
deep  was  the  invariable  formation  of  the  Macedonian  phalanx, 
far  deeper  than  had  been  considered  necessary  by  any  nation 
except  Thebes. 

Such  was  the  massive  formation  of  the  phalanx  of  Alexander. 
Now  as  to  its  armament — this,  too,  the  device  of  King  Philip. 
All  Greece  had  done  its  fighting  for  years  past  with  a  sharp  and 
heavy  spear,  falling  back  on  its  short  sword  only  when  the  spear 
was  broken  or  wrenched  away.  This  spear,  heavy  as  it  was,  and 
somewhat  unwieldy,  was  handled  only  with  the  right,  the  left 
arm  being  cumbered  with  a  ponderous  shield  that  covered 
almost  the  entire  person,  and  which  could  itself  be  used  as  an 
offensive  weapon  in  headlong  charge. 

Philip  discarded  the  great  shield,  put  a  breast-plate  on  his  pha- 
langites,  and  into  their  hands,  both  of  which  it  took  to  wield  it, 


THE   ARMAMENT   OF   KING   PHILIP.  75 

a  tremendous  spear,  not  less  than  twenty-one,  some  say  twenty- 
four  feet  in  length  from  tip  to  butt — the  far-famed  Macedonian 
sarissa. 

Advancing  to. the  charge,  or  repelling  attack,  this  weapon, 
grasped  in  both  hands,  was  lowered  nearly  to  the  horizontal.  It 
projected  at  least  fifteen  feet  in  front  of  the  spearman,  and  the  re- 
maining six  or  eight  feet  behind  the  hands  was  weighted  to  form 
a  partial  balance.  The  spears  of  the  second  rank  projected 
twelve  feet,  those  of  the  third  nine  feet,  those  of  the  fourth  six, 
and  those  of  the  fifth  three  feet  beyond  the  soldiers  of  the  fore- 
most rank,  the  lochages  themselves ;  so  that  any  soldier  armed 
with  pike,  poniard  or  sword  would  have  to  hew  his  way  in 
through  all  these  spear-heads  before  he  coul'd  hope  to  reach  the 
foeman  himself.  The  sixth  and  following  ranks  did  not  lower 
the  spear  to  the  horizontal,  but  held  it  sloping  over  the  shoulders 
of  the  ranks  in  front. 

This  was  the  heavy  infantry  ot  Macedon,  and  to  aid  them,  to 
cover  their  flanks  and  rear,  were  the  light  infantry  of  the  line — 
shield  and  pike-bearers,  drilled  and  disciplined  like  Grecian  hop- 
lites,  but  trained  for  hand-to-hand  combat.  At  first  Alexander 
had  but  few  of  these  guards,  as  he  termed  them — hypaspists  as 
they  are  generally  known — but  they  proved  their  usefulness  on 
many  a  field,  and  were  soon  greatly  added  to.  These  infantry- 
men of  the  line  occupied  an  intermediate  place  between. the  pha- 
langites  and  the  skirmishers  (peltastae),  who  were  selected  always 
from  the  auxiliaries,  and  at  the  time  of  his  review  of  the  army 
after  entering  Asia  Minor  and  before  his  first  encounter  with 
Persia,  his  infantry  was  divided  as  follows :  Phalangites  and  hy- 
paspists, 12,000;  peltastae,  7,000;  mercenary  troops,  5,000; 
Thracian  and  Illyrian  footmen,  5,000;  archers,  1,000. 

Admirable  as  was  the  organization  of  his  infantry,  Alexander 
seems  to  have  taken  most  pride  in  the  Macedonian  cavalry,  the 
favorite  arm  of  the  nation  for  years.  "  Companions  "  he  termed 
his  heavy  cavalry,  who  were  all  native  Macedonians,  and  of 
these,  one  pet  squadron,  the  Agema,  was  the  "  King's  Own,"  for 
at  its  head  Alexander  himself  charged  in  person.  Heavily  clad 
in  defensive  armor,  these  horsemen  carried  a  xyston,  or  heavy 


76  ARBELA. 

thrusting  pike,  a  dreaded  weapon  in  a  melee,  and  a  terrible  foe- 
man  did  this  heavy  cavalryman  prove  in  the  shock  of  combat. 
To  aid  him  and  to  cover  his  flanks,  as  the  hypaspists  sheltered 
those  of  the  phalanx,  was  a  large  and  well-trained  body  of  light 
horse — lancers,  in  fact — armed  with  a  light  but  long  and  power- 
ful sarissa.  Then,  again,  it  was  so'on  in  the  power  of  Alexander 
to  organize  a  very  efficient  body  of  irregulars  from  among  the 
horsemen  of  the  nations  he  overran,  so  that  both  in  cavalry  and 
infantry  he  was  provided  with  three  distinct  classes  of  troops : 
the  "  heavies,"  for  attack  in  solid  mass,  bearing  all  before  them 
in  the  impetus  and  weight  of  the  charge ;  the  intermediate,  or 
light  linesmen,  covering  the  flanks  of  the  unwieldy  mail-clad  foot 
and  horse,  but  fighting  in  serried  ranks  themselves ;  and  third, 
skirmishers  and  irregulars,  hovering  like  falcons  over  front,  flank 
and  rear,  the  eyes  and  ears  of  his  army. 

In  addition  to  these  troops  and  a  rude  artillery  useful  only 
when  it  came  to  the  assault  of  fortified  cities,  Alexander  had 
grouped  about  his  person  a  corps  of  chosen  men,  the  Body 
Guards,  recruited  from  the  sons  of  the  chief  men  of  Macedon, 
organized  first  as  Royal  Pages ;  then,  after  severe  training,  to  fit 
them  for  the  bodily  wear  and  tear  demanded  of  those  who  were  to 
accompany  the  monarch,  himself  the  most  energetic,  untiring 
athlete  of  them  all,  they  joined  his  guard,  and  from  this  promi- 
nent position  under  his  vigilant  eye  were  selected  for  various  im- 
portant duties,  being  detached  as  adjutants  for  the  various  gen- 
erals or  frequently  assigned  to  high  commands.  The  Royal 
Pages  were  the  cadet  corps  of  Macedon. 

Over  them  all  was  the  monarch  himself,  a  man  of  superb 
physique,  a  man  of  iron  constitution  and  dauntless  courage,  a 
man  who  added  to  infinite  personal  bravery  and  restless*  energy 
the  rapid  inspiration  of  a  military  genius.  Quick  to  seize  on 
every  and  any  advantage,  quick  to  act,  making  his  strategical 
combinations  with  unerring  skill,  'ind  handling  his  troops  upon 
the  field  of  battle  with  rare  tactical  ability,  planning  everything 
before  the  fight,  giving  his  orders  with  the  clearness  of  day,  then 
sharing  the  brunt  of  battle  with  the  humblest  soldier. 

Opposed  to  him  and  them  was  a  new  Darius.     Of  this  mon- 


NAPOLEON'S    CRITIQUE.  77 

arch  we  know  very  little.  He  was  accepted  as  ruler  without 
much  opposition  apparently  by  the  Persians ;  was  a  descendant 
of  one  of  the  brothers  of  Artaxerxes  Memnon,  and  had  killed  a 
formidable  antagonist  in  single  combat,  so  his  authority  was  pas- 
sively accepted.  He  made  himself  conspicuous,  however,  by 
boasting  that  he  had  instigated  the  murder  of  Philip  of  Macedon, 
and  by  sneering  at  the  boy-king  who  succeeded  him — two 
things  he  learned  speedily  to  regret. 

Persia  had  no  such  infantry  as  in  the  old  days,  either  in  num- 
ber or  discipline.  Her  cavalry  was  still  powerful  and  efficient, 
but  when  Darius  hastened  his  forces  toward  the  Hellespont  to 
confront  the  army  of  Alexander,  he  could  muster  less  than  thirty 
thousand  footmen.  The  fatal  error  had  been  committed  of  per- 
mitting the  Macedonians  to  cross  the  straits,  and  now  with  only 
twenty  odd  thousand  infantry,  but  at  least  that  many  well- 
equipped  horsemen,  all  under  command  of  a  skillful  general, 
Memnon,  an  attempt  was  made  to  fight  in  the  open  field. 

No  more  terse,  comprehensive  and  soldierly  critique  of  the 
campaign  that  followed  has  ever  been  written  probably  than  that 
of  the  great  Napoleon,  who  placed  Alexander  as  one  of  the  seven 
greatest  generals  of  the  world.  Five  days  after  leaving  the  Hel- 
lespont Alexander  had  forced  the  passage  of  the  Granicus,  scat- 
tering to  the  winds  the  army  of  Memnon.  "  He  spent  the  whole 
year  333  in  establishing  his  power  in  Asia  Minor,"  says  Napo- 
leon. "  In  the  year  332  he  met  with  Darius  at  the  head  of  sixty 
thousand  men  who  had  taken  up  a  position  near  Tarsus,  on  the 
banks  of  the  Issus,  in  the  province  of  Cilicia.  He  defeated  him, 
took  Damascus,  which  contained  all  the  riches  of  the  great  king, 
and  laid  siege  to  Tyre.  This  superb  metropolis  of  the  commerce 
of  the  world  detained  him  nine  months.  He  took  Gaza  after  a 
siege  of  two  months,  crossed  the  desert  in  seven  days,  entered 
Pelusium  and  Memphis,  and  founded  Alexandria.  In  less  than 
two  years,  after  two  battles  and  four  or  five  sieges,  the  coasts  of 
the  Black  Sea,  from  Phazis  to  Byzantium  (now  Constantinople), 
those  of  the  Mediterranean  as  far  as  Alexandria,  all  Asia  Minor, 
Syria  and  Egypt  had  submitted  to  his  arms." 

Such,  in  brief,  is  the  summary  of  one  great  soldier  and  con- 


78  ARBELA. 

queror  of  the  two  years'  campaign  of  a  great  predecessor.  It  was 
in  the  year  331  that,  returning  from  Egypt,  Alexander  re-entered 
Damascus,  crossed  the  Euphrates  and  Tigris,  and  won  the  bloody 
and  decisive  battle  of  Arbela. 

Darius  Codomannus  had  turned  out  to  be  a  coward  of  the 
worst  order.  At  the  battle  of  the  Jssus,  in  the  previous  year,  he 
fled  from  the  field  in  absolute  panic,  leaving  his  mother,  his  wife 
and  children  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  victor.  He  led  the  re- 
treat in  which  so  many  of  his  thousands,  hemmed  in  by  the  walls 
of  the  mountain  defile  through  which  they  were  compelled  to  rush 
for  their  lives,  were  trampled  under  foot  by  their  own  comrades. 
It  is  impossible  to  understand  how  the  knights  of  Persia,  who  were 
unquestionably  brave  and  warlike  men,  could  ever  have  rallied 
to  his  defence  a  second  time,  but  they  did ;  and  on  reaching  Da- 
mascus on  his  return  from  Egypt,  Alexander  learned  that  Darius 
with  an  immense  army  lay  east  of  the  Tigris  or  Euphrates  ready 
to  contest  his  march  to  the  interior.  At  the  Issus  the  Persians 
were  compelled  to  fight  on  ground  where  their  numerical  supe- 
riority hampered  rather  than  aided  them,  but  east  of  the  Tigris, 
near  the  village  of  Gaugamela,  lay  a  broad  plain  most  favorable 
Or  the  evolutions  of  a  great  body  of  men,  and  here  Darius  de- 
termined to  make  his  stand.  To  this  end  he  established  his  camp 
of  supply  at  Arbela,  some  twenty  miles  east  of  the  position  which 
he  had  selected,  and  then  systematically  prepared  the  field  for  the 
coming  conflict.  This  was  to  be  the  third  and  final  attempt  of 
Persia  to  crush  the  now  dreaded  conqueror.  Ruin  must  inevi- 
tably await  the  vanquished  army.  If  Alexander  should  prevail, 
all  Persia  lay  at  his  feet.  Babylon,  Susa,  Pe.rsepolis,  the  wealthy 
capitals,  lay  but  a  short  distance  to  the  south.  On  the  other 
hand,  could  Darius  but  gather  sufficient  force  to  overwhelm  the 
Macedonian,  there  would  be  no  further  foe  to  dread,  for  with  the 
Tigris  and  Euphrates  behind  them,  the  army  of  Greece  would  be 
cut  off  from  all  possibility  of  retreat  to  the  seaboard,  and  their 
fate  would  be  annihilation. 

So  far  as  number  was  concerned,  Darius  had  no  difficulty  in 
bringing  to  his  standard  an  army  abundantly  sufficient  to  over- 
whelm, outflank,  surround  and  eventually  destroy  the  solid 


THE   CHOSEN   BATTLE-FIELD.  79 

little  force  of  Macedon.  Forty-seven  thousand,  all  told,  was 
the  limit  of  the  command,  at  the  head  of  which  Alexander 
crossed  the  Euphrates  ;  we  have  it  from  the  journals  of  h'is  two 
distinguished  generals,  Aristobulus  and  Ptolemy,  whose  records 
of  the  entire  campaign  have  become  the  keystones  of  history, 
and  against  that  number  it  was  in  the  power  of  Darius  to  mar- 
shal at  least  ten  to  one.  His  cavalry  force  alone  is  put  at  forty 
thousand ;  his  infantry,  archers  and  javelin-throwers  were  in 
myriads.  Arrian  says  there  were  a  million,  but  half  that  number 
would  be  more  than  Darius  could  handle  in  action.  Elephants 
armed  and  caparisoned  for  war  made  their  first  appearance  on  a 
battle-field  at  Arbela ;  for,  with  all  his  numbers,  Darius  knew 
that  some  device  must  be  resorted  to  to  break  through  the 
hitherto  impenetrable  wall  of  the  phalanx,  and  now  he  believed 
he  had  solved  the  problem.  Two  hundred  war-chariots,  drawn 
by  powerful  horses,  driven  by  mail-clad  men,  provided  with  sharp 
scythes  jutting  out  from  the  axles,  and  sword-blades  projecting 
from  the  end  of  the  pole,  were  daily  exercised  in  charging  across 
the  plain.  Every  hillock  had  been  razed,  every  hollow  filled  so 
as  to  present  a  level  track  for  their  advance,  and  with  these  en- 
gines and  his  huge  elephants,  urged  at  headlong  speed,  Darius 
counted  upon  crushing  his  way  into  the  heart  of  the  phalanx, 
and  then,  launching  forth  his  cavalry,  to  hew  it  into  fragments. 

Confidently  awaiting  the  coming  of  Alexander,  he  posted  his 
immense  force  upon  this  plain  of  Kurdistan,  facing  a  little  west 
of  north,  his  left  resting  near  the  Tigris,  his  right  near  the  river 
Zab,  a  rapid  and  difficult  branch  that  had  taken  him  five  days  to 
cross.  In  front  of  him  lay  the  vast  level,  along  which  he  invited 
the  foe  to  advance ;  beyond  that,  three  short  miles  away,  lay  the 
low  range  of  hills,  over  which  Alexander  must  come.  Already 
Darius  knew  of  his  crossing  of  the  Tigris,  five  days'  march 
above  him.  Confident  in  his  ability  to  crush,  he  had  not  op- 
posed by  a  single  arm  the  transfer  of  the  Macedonian  army  to  the 
eastern  bank.  He  wanted  them  to  cross.  It  would  place  them 
utterly  in  his  power. 

And  now,  deployed  upon  the  field  on  which  the  destiny  of 
Asia  was  to  be  decided,  stood  the  army  of  King  Darius.  The 


g0  ARBELA. 

left  wing,  under  command  of  Bessus,  Satrap  of  Baktria,  was  made 
up  of  Baktrians,  Dahae  and  Arachosians,  the  native' Persians, 
both  horse  and  foot,  the  Susians  and  Kadusians.  In  the  centre 
of  the  entire  line  was  Darius  himself,  with  his  chosen  horse-guard, 
his  division  of  Persian  spearmen,  successors  of  the  "  Immortals" 
of  Xerxes,  now  carrying  golden  apples  at  the  butt  of  their 
spears ;  Karians  and  Mardians,  his  best  archers,  and  the  strong 
division  of  hireling  Greeks,  the  only  troops  he  dared  hope  could 
successfully  cope  with  the  phalanx  should  the  phalanx  force  its 
resistless  way  in  upon  his  chosen  position. 

On  the  right  lay  the  Syrians ;  then  in  order,  from  right  to  left, 
the  Medes,  Parthians,  Sacae,  Tapyrians,  Hyrkanians,  Albanians, 
and  Sakesinse.  This  was  the  main  line.  To  the  rear  were  vast 
forces  from  Babylon  and  the  deserts  to  the  west,  the  wilds  to  the 
east  of  Susiana.  These  seem  to  have  been  the  reserves.  In 
front  of  the  left  wing,  nearest  the  Tigris,  were  posted  one  hundred 
of  the  scythed  chariots,  guarded  by  picked  bodies  of  caval-ry, 
Scythians  and  Baktrians.  Fifty  more  were  in  front  of  Darius  in 
the  centre,  and  the  remaining  fifty  in  front  of  the  right  wing, 
covered  by  cavalry  escorts  from  the  Armenians  and  Cappadocians. 

From  the  fact  that  the  preponderance  of  his  force  was  from 
the  centre  to  the  left,  it  would  seem  that  Darius  expected 
Alexander  to  "  hug  "  the  Tigris  in  his  advance,  keeping  his  right 
secure  from  being  flanked — a  very  reasonable  supposition.  And 
now,  armed  far  better  than  they  had  ever  been  before,  with  strong 
swords  and  formidable  thrusting-pikes  in  place  of  the  puny  jave- 
lins of  the  past,  and  protected  for  the  first  time  in  their  history, 
the  infantry  by  shields,  the  horsemen  by  breast-plates,  the  great 
army  of  Darius  impatiently  awaited  the  coming  of  the  foe. 

But  Alexander  was  in  no  hurry.  Throwing  forward  a  suf- 
ficient force  to  hold  the  crossing  at  Thapsacus  on  the  Euphrates, 
he,  by  easy  marches,  reached  that  point  about  the  end  of  August, 
crossed  and  turned  northward  toward  the  mountains  instead  of 
southward  through  the  deserts,  beyond  which  lay  Babylon  and 
Susa.  Carefully  watching  the  bearing  of  his  men,  guarding  them 
against  unnecessary  suffering  or  fatigue,  he  felt  his  way  along  the 
foothills  towards  the  Tigris,  and  about  the  2Oth  of  September 


FIRST   SIGHT   OF   THE   FOE.  81 

learned  that  somewhere  down  around  the  town  of  Gaugamela 
Darius  awaited  his  coming.  Then,  for  a  day  or  two,  he  hurried 
forward,  seized  the  fords  of  the  Tigris,  and,  unopposed  by  the 
Persians,  but  with  great  difficulty  and  danger,  marched  his  army 
through  the  deep,  rushing  waters,  and  halted  on  the  east  bank 
to  take  breath,  and  two  great  rivers  lay  between  him  and  his 
ships  and  supplies,  three  weeks'  march  away. 

A  short  rest  is  taken  here  while  the  scouts  feel  their  way 
down  to  the  southward,  but  they  bring  no  definite  tidings,  and 
once  more  cautiously,  steadily,  the  army  of  Macedon  sets  forth. 
For  four  days  it  moves  down  along  the  left  bank  of  the  Tigris. 
It  is  toward  the  evening  of  the  fourth  day  that  the  advance 
sends  in  word  of  the  presence  of  hostile  cavalry,  and  Alexander, 
dashing  in  person  to  the  front,  charges,  scatters  them,  captures  a 
few  prisoners,  and  from  them  learns  that  Darius  with  an  immense 
army  awaits  him  near  Gaugamela  on  the  plain  below.  He  halts 
his  army  and  goes  forward  to  reconnoitre.  Gaugamela  lies  be- 
yond a  low  range  of  hills  to  the  southward,  and  there  a  tre- 
mendous struggle  must  take  place.  With  wise  discretion  he 
rests  his  men  four  days  more,  that  they  may  be  fresh  and  vigor- 
ous for  the  fray;  intrenches  meantime  his  camp',  places  therein 
all  stores,  engines  of  war  and  equipage  not  needed  in  conflict  in 
the  open  plain ;  weeds  his  army  of  all  weak  men  or  ineffectives,  fills 
up  every  gap  in  the  sturdy  phalanx;  and  then,  with  nothing  but 
a  superb  and  unhampered  fighting  force,  he  moves  forward  on 
the  night  of  the  fourth  day  of  rest,  deploys  his  line  of  battle,  and 
in  serried  order  marches  upon  the  northern  slope  of  the  low  hills, 
once  again  halting  at  their  summit.  From  east  to  west  the 
plain  below  swarms  with  the  countless  hordes  of  Darius.  It  is 
just  daybreak,  and  Alexander  pauses  to  survey  the  field.  Away 
off  to  his  own  right  flows  the  rapid  Tigris ;  far  over  towards  the 
east  leaps  the  torrent  of  the  foaming  Zab,  and  nearly  from  stream 
to  stream  stretches  the  great  line  of  Asia's  countless  soldiery. 
With  the  practised  eye  of  the  veteran  soldier,  Alexander  marks 
their  vast  superiority  of  numbers.  Extend  his  line  though  he 
may,  even  in  thin  rank,  he  cannot  cover  that  front.  He  marks 
the  solid  formation  of  the  mercenary  Greeks  in  the  Persian  cen- 
6  / 


§2  ARBELA. 

tre,  the  threatening  squadrons  far  out  beyond  his  left,  the  mass- 
ing of  the  war-chariots  on  the  Persian  left  and  centre  ;  and,  gazing 
along  the  plain,  he  sees  where  the  engineers  have  been  at  work, 
the  patches  of  freshly  upturned  earth — what  do  they  portend  ? 
Pitfalls  for  his  cavalry?  What  else,  if  not  that?  Too  much  is 
at  stake  to  hazard  an  ill-advised  'move.  He  summons  his  gen- 
erals to  immediate  council.  There  on  the  heights  they  cluster, 
well  out  in  front  of  the  lines  of  Macedon,  and  the  trained 
warriors,  resting  on  their  .spears,  watch  with  eager  yet  trustful 
eyes  the  deliberations  of  their  chiefs.  Fiery,  impetuous  men  are 
there,  leaders  who  have  learned  contempt  for  Persian  prowess  or 
valor,  and  many  and  vehement  are  the  appeals  for  immediate  at- 
tack. Around  the  king  are  grouped  such  soldiers  as  Aristobu- 
lus,  his  recorder  and  trusted  aid ;  Philotas,  chief  of  his  horse- 
guards  ;  Nicanor,  general  of  hypaspists ;  Meleazer,  Ccenus, 
Perdiccas,  Simmais,  Polysperchon  and  Craterus,  brigade  com- 
manders of  the  great  phalanx;  Eriguius,  of  the  allied  cavalry; 
Philippus,  of  the  Thessalian  horse,  and,  above  all,  the  veteran 
Parmenio,  cool,  clear-headed,  cautious,  but  indomitably  brave. 
The  men  of  Macedon  were  safe  in  the  hands  of  such  tried  war- 
riors as  these.  Urgent  as  were  some  appeals  for  instant  attack, 
the  wiser  counsel  of  Parmenio  prevailed.  Alexander  spent  the 
day  in  personally  reconnoitring  the  entire  plain,  escorted  by  a 
small  band  of  cavalry,  but  undisturbed  by  the  enemy.  His 
stores,  supplies,  "  ineffectives "  were  moved  forward  from  the 
camp  of  the  night  before,  a  new  position  intrenched  for  their 
protection  on  the  heights,  and,  as  the  sun  went  down,  Alexander 
summoned  his  generals  once  more  to  his  presence,  and  in  brief, 
ringing,  soldierly  words  explained  to  them  the  situation,  and  then 
dismissed  them,  hopeful  and  enthusiastic,  for  their  needed  rest. 

All  through  the  still  September  night  the  Persian  army  waits 
and  wakes  expectant  of  attack.  Parmenio  indeed  had  urged 
upon  his  sovereign  the  propriety  of  such  attack  because  of  the 
known  tendency  of  the  Asiatics  to  become  timid  and  confused 
except  in  the  open  light  of  day,  but  Alexander  disdained  "  to 
filch  a  victory."  In  fair,  soldierly  conflict  he  meant  to  contest 
with  Darius  the  empire  pf  the  East,  and  so  while  Persia  watches 


DAWN   OF   DECISIVE   BATTLE.  83 

and  wearies  through  till  dawn,  the  veterans  of  Macedon  sleep 
soundly  and  well,  waking  with  the  rising  sun  vigorous  and 
refreshed. 

And  now  the  lines  of  Greece  spring  to  arms,  and  before  the 
eyes  of  overwhelming  Asia  the  devoted  little  army  straightens 
out  its  ranks,  the  phalanx  silently,  solidly,  moves  to  the  crest,  the 
troopers  vault  into  saddle  and  the  squadrons  sweep  into  line. 
Insignificant  as  may  be  its  numbers  when  confronted  by  that  vast 
host  across  the  plain,  there  is  that  air  of  confidence  and  determi- 
nation about  the  men  of  Macedon  that  bids  the  observer  think 
twice  before  hazarding  an  opinion  as  to  the  result. 

"  You  fight  for  the  dominion  of  Asia,"  Alexander  impressed 
upon  his  men,  "  Be  silent,  be  steady.  Let  each  man  act  as 
though  the  result  of  the  battle  depends  upon  his  individual 
effort,  and  when  the  time  comes  to  charge  let  the  silence  pre- 
served until  then  make  your  war-cry  the  more  ringing,  the  more 
terrible." 

And  now  as  it  calmly  awaits  the  signal  to  advance,  the  army 
of  Alexander  is  drawn  up  in  two  lines,  ready,  if  need  be,  to  in- 
stantly form  an  immense  hollow  square,  to  repel  attack  on  flank 
or  rear.  In  all  his  career  the  youthful  conqueror  is  destined  to 
fight  no  battle  so  glorious  as  this,  his  greatest  and  most  decisive  ; 
therefore  every  item  of  preparation  becomes  of  interest. 

On  the  right  of  his  front  line  rode  the  regiments  of  horse 
guards,  eight  in  number,  each  commanded  by  its  colonel,  all 
commanded  by  Philotas,  the  intrepid  son  of  old  Parmenio.  On 
their  left,  at  short  intervals,  are  drawn  up  the  light  infantry  of  the 
line,  hypaspists.  Then,  in  the  centre,  in  six  magnificent  brigades, 
stand  the  massive  syntagmata  of  the  phalanx  itself,  and  to  their 
left  again  are  the  other  divisions  of  hypaspists  protecting  the 
deep  flanks  of  the  heavy  brigades,  while  the  light  infantry  in 
turn  are  covered  by  cavalry,  as  in  the  right  wing;  the  regiments 
of  Eriguius,  all  allies,  being  nearest  the  footmen,  while  the  ex- 
treme flank  is  held  by  the  five  squadrons  of  Thessaly. 

In  every  detail  of  its  formation  the  line  is  scientific  and  sym- 
metrical. The  reserve  line  is  equally  so.  Its  centre  is  composed 
of  phalangite  infantry,  heavy  and  solid  as  the  brigades  of  the 


g4  ARBELA. 

first  line,  each  flank  covered  by  light  infantry  and  archers,  with 
regiments  of  horse,  heavy  and  mail-clad  near  the  centre,  light 
and  armed  with  lances  on  the  extreme  flanks.  The  tried  troop- 
ers of  Aretus  are  among  those  on  the  right,  and  their  orders  are 
to  watch  well  for  any  attempt  of  the  Persians  to  wrap  around  the 
flank  of  the  first  line,  to  charge  instantly  if  the  attempt  be  made, 
and  so  to  outflank  the  would-be  flankers.  Similar  dispositions 
and  orders  are  given  the  cavalry  of  the  left  wing.  A  division  of 
Thracian  footmen  is  detailed  to  guard  the  camp,  and  all  is 
ready. 

Not  quite.  His  careful  examination  of  the  plain  has  taught 
Alexander  that  those  fresh  patches  of  earth  are  not  pit-falls,  but 
depressions  filled  and  hillocks  graded  down.  The  conclusion  is 
obvious.  Darius  means  to  attempt  to  rush  his  chariots  at  racing 
speed  upon  the  phalanx  and  hurl  down  the  hitherto  impregna- 
ble wall  of  spears.  What  can  be  done  to  checkmate  so  power- 
ful a  move?  Out  from  the  ranks  of  the  allies  and  light  troops 
spring  a  cloud  of  elastic,  nimble-footed  young  fellows,  keen-eyed 
and  daring.  For  all  the  world  like  our  modern  skirmishers,  they 
swarm  to  the  front;  their  arms  are  bows  or  javelins;  their 
quivers  bristle  with  arrows.  Out  still  farther  they  run,  two — 
three  hundred  yards — till  the  entire  front  of  the  phalanx  is  cov- 
ered by  little  knots  and  groups  of  these  eager  hunters.  Trained 
shots  and  swift  racers  as  they  are,  woe  to  charioteer,  woe  to 
horse  that  may  dash  among  them  :  few  will  ever  penetrate  half- 
way toward  the  bristling  wall  of  spearmen. 

And  now,  glittering  in  his  brilliant  armor,  Alexander  of  Mace- 
don  rides  with  his  noble  agema  to  the  right  front.  Parmenio 
takes  his  station  with  the  left.  Well  out  beyond  his  bravest 
squadrons  the  conqueror  reins  his  steed,  gives  one  searching 
glance  along  his  line,  and  then  with  mighty  throb  at  heart  sig- 
nals the  advance.  In  ominous  silence,  in  perfect  order,  in  mas- 
sive, stately  array,  with  one  accord  the  compact  army  of  Greece 
begins  the  descent. 

It  is  the  first  day  of  October,  three  hundred  and  thirty-one 
years  before  the  birth  of  Christ,  and  the  stake' for  which  the  con- 
test opens  is  the  empire  of  the  world. 


PERSIA'S    OPPORTUNITY.  85 

Macedon  makes  the  first  move — a  general  advance  of  the  en- 
tire line  until  it  clears  the  crest.  Then  a  deflection.  Darius, 
nervously  watching  the  machine-like  perfection  of  the  manoeuvre, 
waiting  until  those  confident  lines  shall  have  swept  clear  of  the 
slopes  and  entered  upon  the  open  plain  before  making  his  coun- 
termove,  suddenly  starts  with  impatience  and  disquiet.  Alexan- 
der, instead  of 'coming  squarely  at  him,  is  now  inclining  to 
the  west.  The  solid  phalanx  is  obliquing  to  the  right,  and 
they  are  still  well  up  the  slope.  What  does  it  mean?  He 
pauses  irresolute,  staring  at  the  placidly,  smoothly  moving  troops 
of  the  opposing  array.  At  this  rate  the  extreme  left  of  the  lines 
of  Macedon  will  soon  be  directly  in  front  of  his  own  position, 
and  the  phalanx  he  desires  to  crush  is  edging  over  to  his  left. 
As  yet  the  vast  length  of  his  line  far  overlaps  towards  the  west 
the  right  flank  of  Macedon,  but  soon  even  that  advantage  will 
be  lost.  Stupefied,  possibly,  by  this  utterly  unlooked-for  move, 
he  fails  to  see  and  grasp  the  immense  advantage  he  now  has  over 
the  Grecian  left.  He  is  puzzling  over  the  object  of  Alexander's 
oblique,  and  while  precious  moments  are  wasted,  makes  no  sign. 
Suddenly  it  flashes  upon  or  is  pointed  out  to  him.  His  wary 
antagonist  has  read  the  secret  of  those  tell-tale  patches  on  the 
plain,  he  expects  the  dash  of  those  terrible  chariots,  and  is  edg- 
ing over  towards  the  Tigris  where  the  hillocks  have  not  been 
leveled,  and  where  the  chariots  will  be  powerless.  Already  he 
is  well  out  upon  the  plain ;  already  the  phalanx  is  opposite  the 
Persian  left.  Now  or  never,  Darius,  in  with  your  chariots ! 
There  is  still  time  for  them  to  act,  provided  you  .can  check  that 
oblique  and  force  him  back  to  the  leveled  ground.  Now, 
Scythians  and  Baktrians,  out  with  your  pikes  and  cimeters ! 
sweep  well  over  to  the  left  and  front,  then  wheel  and  crash  in 
on  that  western  flank.  Away  they  go — four  thousand  glorious 
horsemen,  their  burnished  weapons  flashing  in  the  sun,  their 
wild  war-cry  thrilling  on  the  air ;  but  even  as  they  circle  like 
poising  hawk  upon  their  prey  and  come  thundering  in  upon  the 
Macedonian  right,  a  thunder  as  deep,  a  war-cry  low,  hoarse  and 
intense,  bursts  in  upon  their  own  advance.  The  squadrons  of 
Menidas  have  met  them.  Aretus  has  charged  forward  from  the 


86  ARBELA. 

second  line,  and  the  horsemen  of  Bactria  and  Scythia  go  down 
in  scores  before  them.  No  chance  for  the  chariots  yet.  All  the 
cavalry  of  his  left  wing  Darius  launches  in  to  the  rescue  of  his 
first  assault,  and  again  the  Macedonian  second  line  is  equal  to 
the  emergency,  and  the  regiments  of  Ariston  and  Cleander  whirl 
to  the  front.  Persia  has  numbers;  Greece  has  discipline  and 
skill.  For  a  brief  half  hour,  while  the  first  line  sturdily  moves 
unbroken — while  Darius,  paralyzed  with  chagrin,  holds  in  im- 
potent halt  his  entire  centre  and  right — the  battle  of  Arbela  is 
a  cavalry  combat  on  the  side  of  the  Tigris,  and  the  serried 
squadrons  of  Greece,  animating,  supporting,  relieving  one  an- 
other, are  hewing  through  ten  times  their  number  of  better 
armed  horsemen,  and  presently  their  disciplined  array  sends  the 
whole  force  of  Persian  cavalry  of  the  left  wing  reeling  and 
broken  from  the  field. 

But  the  oblique  is  checked,  and  now  for  once  at  least  display- 
ing some  degree  of  soldierly  vim  and  dash,  Darius  hurls  forward 
his  impatient  charioteers.  With  one  simultaneous  rush,  with  hue 
and  cry,  the  thunder  of  hoofs,  the  rattle  of  harness,  the  roar  of 
wheels,  tossing  skywards  huge  billows  of  dust  in  their  wake,  the 
two  hundred  armed  chariots  sweep  down  upon  the  undismayed 
phalanx.  Those  in  front  of  the  Persian  left  drive  straight  to  the 
front;  those  from  the  centre  find  their  objective  point  directly 
opposite ;  but  those  from  the  right  centre  and  right  wing  have  to 
wheel  over  to  the  left,  converging  on  the  spears  of  Macedon. 
For  an  instant  the  uproar  is  terrific.  Nothing  can  be  seen  from 
the  Persian  centre  through  that  dense  cloud  of  dust ;  but  the 
shouts  of  defiance,  the  horrible  din  of  hammered  shields,  then 
shrieks  and  cries  of  wounded  men  and  the  neigh  of  terror  of 
many  a  stricken  horse,  come  floating  back  to  the  eager  listeners, 
where,  bending  forward  in  their  saddles,  fresh  bodies  of  cavalry 
impatiently  await  the  result  and  the  signal  to  charge.  The  roar 
of  the  wheels,  the  thunder  of  hoofs,  is  subsiding;  then  back 
through  the  dust-cloud  come  maimed  and  limping  horses ;  back 
come  empty  chariots,  and,  as  the  cloud  settles  to  earth,  yon 
stands  the  phalanx  impregnable  as  ever,  while  the  ground  in 
front  is  "  heaped  with  bleeding  steeds,"  dismantled  cars  and  dead 


THE    PERSIAN    CHARGE.  87 

or  dying  charioteers.  Far  to  the  rear  of  the  phalanx  some  eight 
or  ten  have  managed  to  push  through  long  lanes  made  for  them 
by  the  nimble  soldiery;  but  there  their  drivers  are  hewn  to 
earth  and  the  war-horses  are  easy  prey.  More  than  three-fourths 
of  their  number  never  get  within  reach  of  the  spears.  The 
light-footed,  daring  archers  and  dart-men  pick  off  drivers  and 
horses  as  they  advance,  or,  racing  beside  them,  cut  the  traces  or 
rip  open  the  bodies  of  the  steeds.  King  Darius  marks  with  rage 
and  dismay  that  the  arm  on  which  he  had  placed  his  main  re- 
liance is  as  impotent,  as  harmless  as  the  summer  breeze.  He 
had  ordered  a  wary  advance,  calculating  on  finding  confusion 
and  dismay  in  the  ranks  before  him ;  but,  as  the  remnants  of  his 
chariot  chargers  come  drifting  back,  he  sees  with  utter  conster- 
nation the  unbroken  lines  of  Macedon,  silent,  unmoved,  impas- 
sive as  ever.  Now  comes  the  vital  moment.  He  must  meet 
those  spearmen  after  all. 

And  now,  with  all  its  Oriental  splendor  of  costume,  all  its 
half-barbaric  pomp,  the  great  line  of  Darius  surges  forward  in 
obedience  to  the  orders  given  as  the  chariots  rushed  in.  Far 
over  to  the  right  Mazaeus,  impatient  of  delay,  swings  out  a  great 
body  of  horse  from  his  flank  and  sends  them  charging  home  upon 
the  exposed  left  and  lightly  defended  rear  of  the  Macedonian 
line,  while  he  himself,  with  a  vastly  superior  force,  pushes  to  the 
front  and  vigorously  attacks  the  Thessalian  horse  of  Phillipus, 
and  crowds  in  upon  the  Locrian  and  Phocian  and  Peloponnesian 
cavalry  nearer  the  centre.  This,  indeed,  is  a  spirited  attack,  and 
one  well  calculated  to  overthrow  all  before  it.  But  Parmenio, 
cool,  steady  as  a  rock,  calls  up  his  second  line,  and  with  ringing 
shout  the  Thracian  horsemen  charge  to  the  rescue.  Bold  riders 
are  they  and  experts  with  pike  and  short  sword ;  nevertheless 
they  are  but  few  compared  to  the  mighty  host  into  which  they 
dash  so  recklessly.  They  halt,  and  even  hurl  them  back,  but 
weight  of  numbers  is  telling  sorely  against  them.  For  the  next 
half  hour  the  left  is  locked  in  dubious  strife,  a  rattling  hand-to- 
hand  combat.  Meantime,  what  of  the  right  ? 

Up  to  the  moment  when  the  dust-cloud  settled  over  the  wreck 
of  that  mad  chariot  charge  not  a  sound  had  been  heard  from 


gg  ARBELA. 

the  main  body,  the  phalanx  of  Macedon,  or  from  the  heavy  cav- 
alry on  their  right.  Now,  as  the  Persian  array  sweeps  forward 
and  its  eastern  flank  swings  round  to  envelop  his  left,  the  stern- 
set  features  of  the  young  king  light  suddenly  with  an  eager  joy. 
He  points  to  the  front.  There,  directly  on  the  west  flank  of  the 
Greek  mercenaries  of  Darius,  a  great  gap  appears  in  the  line. 
Before  the  chariot  dash,  a  division  of  Baktrian  cavalry  was  there 
massed  in  close  column,  but  now  they  have  been  moved  around 
in  support  of  the  thwarted  attack  on  Alexander's  right,  and  as 
yet  they  have  not  been  replaced  from  the  second  line.  It  is  a 
magnificent  chance.  Quick  as  ringing  words  can  shout  the 
order,  the  silence  of  Macedon  is  broken ;  with  one  mad,  terrific 
shout  the  body-guards,  the  devoted  "  companions,"  the  cuiras- 
siers of  Greece  spring  forward  at  the  heels  of  their  daring  chief. 
The  cavalry  of  Macedon  plunges  into  that  fatal  gap,  hewing 
and  rending  right  and  left,  while  the  grand  phalanx,  shouting 
its  war-cry,  bears  down  in  solid,  resistless  onslaught  upon  the 
Persian  centre.  Before  them  the  Greek  hoplites,  hirelings  of 
Darius,  go  down  like  reeds  before  the  blast.  They  are  ashamed 
of  their  part  in  the  contest.  They  cannot  fight  manfully  against 
kith  and  kin  for  a  king  whom  they  despise  and  only  serve  for 
gold.  They  make  but  faint  resistance:  they  upon  whom  Darius 
dared  base  his  hope  of  firmness.  And  now — his  chariots  gone, 
his  Greeks  going — he  looks  in  dismay  about  him.  He  cannot 
see  how  superbly  on  the  distant  right  his  cavalry  have  engulfed 
the  reeling  wing  of  Parmenio ;  he  cannot  see  that  there  are  yet 
myriads  of  his  troops  unemployed,  only  waiting  the  order  of 
some  inspired  chief  to  send  them  in  to  check  and  overthrow 
these  daring  foemen ;  he  will  not  see  that  still  between  him  and 
the  advancing  forest  of  spears  there  stand  the  guards  of  his  realm 
— the  heroic  and  devoted  knighthood  of  Persia;  the  enthusiastic 
soldiery  of  Karia ;  the  Sakae ;  the  men  of  the  valleys  of  Eu- 
phrates and  Tigris,  who  now  are  fighting  for  their  homes. 
Brave  as  lions  they,  far  outnumbering  the  phalangites,  whose 
six  charging  brigades  are  surrounded  by  their  dense  throngs. 
He  forgets  that  an  army  of  lions  led  by  a  lamb  is  of  no  avail 
against  an  army  led  by  a  lion.  He  sees  before  him  the  invincible 


DARIUS'    COWARDLY   FLIGHT.  89 

spearmen  who  routed  him  in  panic  at  the  Issus.  Worst  of  all, 
over  there  to  the  left  front,  he  sees  a  sight  that  freezes  the  craven 
blood  in  his  veins — a  stalwart,  herculean,  centaur-like  warrior, 
clad  in  burnished  mail,  hewing  his  way  with  frightful  force  through 
men-at-arms,  archers,  horsemen,  all ;  he  sees  him  pointing  to- 
wards the  very  spot  on  which  he  is  standing  quivering  in  grow- 
ing terror ;  he  hears  his  voice  ringing  above  the  roar  of  conflict, 
urging  on  his  invincible  guards :  "  Strike  home ;  cut  through. 
Get  him,  dead  or  alive — get  him — Darius.  There  he  stands. 
Follow  me  !  "  and  Darius  can  stand  no  more.  Shame,  dishonor, 
disgrace,  a  craven  death  are  before  him  as  he  turns ;  but  before 
his  guard  can  realize  it,  long  before  his  nobles  will  believe  it,  he 
has  turned  his  back  upon  them  ;  again,  as  at  Issus,  basely,  foully, 
contemptibly  deserted  them,  and  while  they  are  dying  by  scores 
in  supposed  defence  of  his  royal  body,  he,  the  dastard  and  pol- 
troon, is  spurring  from  the  field.  With  victory  in  his  grasp,  he 
is  sneaking  to  the  mountains. 

Soon  the  news  of  his  shameful  flight  is  passed  from  mouth 
to  mouth  along  the  panting,  bleeding  cohorts.  Band  after  band, 
group  after  group,  the  faint-hearted  ones  are  falling  away;  then 
whole  squadrons,  whole  battalions,  begin  recoiling  upon  the 
lines  in  rear ;  and  they  in  turn  are  hearing  the  tidings,  "  Darius 
•has  fled.  The  king  has  gone  !  "  and  so,  little  by  little,  as  the 
cavalry  of  Macedon  hew  their  way  in  after  their  glorious  leader 
and  those  terrible  spear-heads  at  the  front  thrust  deeper  into  the 
yielding  mass  before  them,  the  weight  of  numbers  that  so  long 
has  borne  against  their  advance  loses  its  power,  and,  sudden  as 
the  burst  of  mountain  torrent  through  yielding  gorge  of  ice,  the 
men  of  Macedon  hurl  aside  the  last  remnants  of  the  Persian 
centre,  and  now  all  is  mad  carnage  and  pursuit. 

Away,  stretching  out  across  the  plain  to  the  southeast,  the 
fugitives,  broken,  disordered,  making  no  pretence  of  stand  any- 
where, are  fleeing  for  the  bridge  across  the  swollen  Zab.  The 
centre  gone,  the  best  troops  slaughtered  or  scurrying  after 
their  king,  the  Persian  left  lost  heart,  and  here  the  worn  but 
gallant  cavalry  of  Menidas  and  the  Paeonian  horsemen  of  Aretus 
overthrew,  after  long  and  desperate  battle,  five  times  their  weight 


90  ARBELA. 

of  foes.  The  Baktrian  horse  tore  away  in  the  wake  of  Darius, 
and  all  that  was  left  of  the  crushed  line  lay  dead  or  dying  on  the 
field,  or  gasping  in  the  dense  cloud  of  dust  that  obscured  their 
path. 

Eagerly  Alexander  pushes  in  chase.  Above  all  things,  he 
must  secure  the  person  of  Darius.  Great,  indescribable  as  is  his 
triumph,  it  is  incomplete  without  the  capture  of  the  Persian  king. 
It  is  with  bitter  disappointment,  therefore,  that  he  receives  the 
message  from  Parmenio :  "  Come  back  to  us  or  we  are  lost." 
The  left  wing  of  Macedon  was  utterly  surrounded  and  cut  off. 

We  left  Parmenio  struggling  in  dire  earnest  with  ten  times 
his  force,  while  the  cuirassiers  and  the  phalangites  of  Macedon 
charged  and  broke  the  Persian  centre.  Even  before  that  grand 
advance  the  chiefs  of  the  two  left  brigades  of  the  phalanx,  those 
of  Simmais  and  Craterus,  were  apprehensive  as  to  the  safety  of 
the  light  troops  of  the  left  wing.  So  much  so  that,  though 
taking  part  in  the  general  rush  to  the  front  and  attack  on  the 
Persian  centre,  they  stopped  short  when  it  came  to  pursuit,  leav- 
ing the  other  brigades  to  complete  the  rout  while  they  promptly 
faced  about  and  returned  to  the  aid  of  Parmenio,  now  desperately 
in  need.  Even  as  they  retired  for  this  purpose  a  large  force  of 
Indian  and  Persian  cavalry,  led  by  some  adventurous  and  gallant 
spirit  who  had  determined  not  to  join  the  retreat  until  he  had 
made  his  mark  upon  the  foe,  dashed  through  the  gap  between 
the  two  separating  bodies  of  the  phalanx,  and  driving  way  to  the 
rear  without  meeting  much  opposition  (the  second  line  being 
almost  entirely  absorbed  in  the  combats  on  the  flanks),  succeeded 
in  surprising  and  capturing  the  guards  of  the  camp,  liberating 
Persian  prisoners  and  playing  havoc  among  the  supplies  of 
Alexander.  Engaged  in  plunder,  they  took  no  note  of  the 
rapid  rally  of  a  portion  of  the  troops  of  the  second  line  who  now 
came  tearing  to  the  rescue  of  the  camp,  and  in  the  struggle  that 
followed  a  large  number  of  the  hostile  cavalry  were  killed,  the 
rest  driven  off  southward  and  eastward  again,  not  even  stop- 
ping to  assist  their  fellows  in  the  desperate  struggle  going  on 
between  Mazaeus  and  Parmenio. 

And   now,  although   no  succor  had  yet  reached  him  from 


DESPERATE  VALOR.  91 

Alexander,  that  sturdy  old  soldier  had  taken  heart  again  on 
seeing  the  ruin  and  dismay  of  the  Persian  centre  and  left.  The 
horsemen  of  Mazaeus  were,  on  the  other  hand,  as  profoundly 
depressed,  and  the  result  was  that,  unsupported,  the  firm  Thes- 
salian  and  allied  Greek  horse  and  light  troops  succeeded,  after 
a  mighty  effort,  in  bursting  through  the  myriad  soldiery  encom- 
passing them,  and,  sturdily  charging  ahead,  drove  them  from 
the  field.  The  whole  army  of  Darius,  led  by  the  king  in  person, 
was  now  in  ignominious  flight. 

Returning  from  pursuit  with  his  heavy  cavalry  and  horse- 
guards,  Alexander  encountered  several  fine  brigades  of  Persian 
horse  seeking  to  retire  from  the  field  in  dignified  and  soldierly 
manner.  Cut  off  from  retreat  by  his  dispositions,  they  had  no 
alternative  but  surrender  or  force  their  passage  through,  and 
chose  the  latter  like  men.  Accustomed  as  they  were  mainly  to 
missile-fighting,  they  were  no  match  for  the  mail-clad  pike  and 
swordsmen  of  Macedon,  and  here  again  the  losses  of  the 
Asiatics  were  very  severe.  They  fought  with  desperate  valor, 
killing  no  less  than  sixty  of  the  Macedonian  horse  and  wound- 
ing a  much  greater  number,  among  them  the  generals  Hephaes- 
tion,  Ccenus  and  Menidos,  who  had  fought  gallantly  on  the 
right  earlier  in  the  day.  With  the  departure  of  those  who  suc- 
ceeded in  cutting  through,  the  last  fighting  foeman  had  left  the 
field.  The  glorious  battle  of  Arbela,  the  greatest  and  most  de- 
cisive of  his  career,  of  his  time,  was  won,  and  Alexander  of 
Macedon  had  virtually  conquered  Asia. 

Accompanied  now  by  Parmenio,  he  presses  forward  in  vigor- 
ous pursuit.  No  time,  no  place  must  be  given  that  routed  army 
to  make  a  stand.  A  vast  portion  of  the  Persian  force  had  not 
been  engaged  at  all,  but  stood  huddled  together  in  helpless  con- 
fusion, and  when  the  rout  began  only,  as  at  Issus,  swelled  the 
panic.  Large  numbers  were  taken  or  hunted  down  and  slain, 
especially  at  the  bridge  across  the  Zab,  where  for  a  time  the 
chase  was  arrested,  as  both  horses  and  men  were  greatly  fatigued ; 
but  early  on  the  morning  of  the  following  day  Alexander  again 
pushed  on,  entered  Arbela  only  to  find  Darius  gone,  and  the 
city,  with  immense  treasure,  with  arms  and  equipage,  together 


92  ARBELA. 

with  the  great  camp,  its  supplies,  its  camels  and  elephants,  all  fell 
into  the  hands  of  the  conqueror. 

Of  the  losses  in  this  momentous  conflict  we  have  to  decide  be- 
tween accounts  which  vary  widely.  Arrian  puts  the  Macedonian 
killed  at  only  one  hundred,  and  that  of  the  Persians  at  three 
hundred  thousand,  which  is  incredible — on  both  sides.  It  is 
probable,  however,  that  the  loss  of  Alexander,  in  killed,  did  not 
exceed  three  or  four  hundred,  though  his  wounded  were  far 
more  numerous.  As  for  the  Persians,  whatever  may  have  been 
the  actual  loss  in  slain— and  it  must  have  been  immense — the 
moral  effect  of  the  battle  was  as  great  as  though  the  entire  force 
had  been  put  to  the  sword.  The  prodigious  army  was  utterly 
ruined.  It  never  rallied,  it  never  could  be  reassembled.  Arbela 
was  the  grave  of  the  Persian  empire.  Babylon  and  Susa  sur- 
rendered forthwith,  and  the  conquerors  marched  in  to  the  enjoy- 
ment of  a  spoil  exceeding  their  wildest  anticipations.  Even  the 
soldiery  were  enriched  by  the  lavish  distribution  of  captured  gold. 

The  causes  of  this  great  defeat  may  be  briefly  ascribed  to  the 
dastardly  cowardice  of  Darius  and  the  stolid  uselessness  of  much 
of  his  force.  It  is  estimated  that  not  more  than  one-fourth  of 
his  army  took  any  part  in  the  affray,  except  as  spectators,  and 
when  Darius  did  give  any  order,  it  was  almost  sure  to  be  un- 
fortunate ;  the  detachment  of  his  Baktrian  division  from  the  left 
centre,  front  line,  for  instance,  was  an  incredible  blunder.  He 
had  dozens  of  regiments  of  cavalry,  equally  reliable,  in  his  re- 
serve line ;  but  he  must  needs  open  this  fatal  gap  in  his  very 
centre,  and  the  genius  of  Alexander  drove  therein  the  entering 
wedge  that  rent  the  army  in  twain.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
skill,  the  promptitude,  the  masterly  generalship  of  him  of  Mace- 
don  shone  forth  in  every  combination  and  move,  and  the  superb 
dash  and  bravery  which  prompted  him  to  fight  ever  among  the 
foremost  troopers  was  in  vehement  contrast  with  the  wretched 
break-down  of  the  Persian  monarch,  the  first  to  take  refuge  in 
cowardly  flight.  Treacherous  as  was  the  conduct  of  his  satrap 
Bessus,  in  the  near  future,  one  can  almost  forgive  him  the  cold- 
blooded slaughter  of  such  an  arrant  dastard  and  poltroon  as 
Oarius. 


EARLY   DEATH   OF   ALEXANDER. 


93 


Two  hundred  years  before,  Persia  was  mistress  of  the  Eastern 
world.  Attempting  to  sweep  over  Europe,  she  was  checked  at 
Marathon,  overthrown  and  driven  back  at  Plataea  and  Salamis; 
then,  little  by  little,  sapped  of  her  once  prodigious  strength. 
Three  hundred  and  thirty-five  years  before  Christ  the  little  king- 
dom of  Macedon  marched  eastward  its  armies  to  turn  the  tables 
on  the  would-be  conquerors.  At  the  Granicus  its  young  king 
overrode  a  more  numerous  army  than  his  own ;  at  Issus  he  ad- 
ministered an  overwhelming  defeat ;  at  Arbela  he  became  master 
of  Asia.  Had  he  lived  he  might  have  been  monarch  of  the 
world;  but,  dying  at  Babylon  in  the  midst  of  his  triumphs,  his 
great  empire  was  divided  up  among  his  generals,  and  within  less 
than  a  century  in  strife  among  their  descendants  the  fruits  of  his 
conquests  were  consumed,  and  Macedonian  sway  in  Asia  died 
out  forever. 


BATTLE-FIELD    OF   ARBELA. 


CANNAE. 

216  B.  C. 

EANTIME,  while  Greece  was  occupied  with 
her  internal  dissensions,  two  new  powers  were 
rising  into  prominence  to  the  westward ;  and 
north  and  south  of  the  Mediterranean  those 
great  nations  that  soon  were  to  contend  for 
the  control  of  western  Europe,  as  Macedon 
and  Persia  had  fought  for  the  dominion  of 
the  East,  Rome  and  Carthage,  were,  year  by 
year,  developing  into  sturdy  and  dominant 
states.  Three  centuries  before  Christ,  while 
the  great  generals  of  Alexander  were  dividing  among  themselves 
the  provinces  won  by  their  heroic  chieftain,  now  lying  in  his 
grave,  Sicily  had  risen  to  be  a  power  on  the  Mediterranean. 
Syracuse,  her  great  seaport,  rivalled  Tyre  before  its  sack  by  Alex- 
ander, and  Agathocles,  tyrant  of  Syracuse,  had  waged  war  for 
years  against  the  shores  of  northern  Africa,  and,  invading  Car- 
thage, had  brought  about  great  havoc  and  distress.  But  Car- 
thage rallied  from  the  blow,  and  finally  expelled  her  foeman, 
rebuilt  her  ships  and  shrines,  and  two  hundred  and  seventy 
years  before  Christ  had  determined  on  a  counter-stroke.  Doubt- 
less she  would  have  been  successful  in  her  projected  assault,  but 
the  rival  power  that  had  now  at  last  succeeded  in  mastering  the 
whole  Italian  peninsula,  from  the  Rubicon  to  the  Straits  of  Mes- 
sina, claimed  a  prior  right  to  the  fertile  and  populous  island  at 
its  foot,  and  Rome  clashed  with  Carthage  in  a  battle  of  the 
giants. 

Like  Carthage,  Rome,  too,  had  risen  from  late  humiliation 
and  defeat.     Samnium  had  driven  her  under  the  yoke  after  a 
capitulation  that  shamed  the  whole  nation ;  but  in  the  indomit- 
(94) 


I.    PORTRAITS   OF   GREAT  WARRIORS   OF  ANClWr  klSTORY. 
(Famous  and  Decisive  Battles.) 


THE   YOUNG   COMMANDER.  95 

able  will  and  patient,  steadfast  effort  and  endurance  of  the  people, 
Rome  had  gone  firmly  onward  and  upward.  Samnium  was 
finally  conquered,.  Etruria  brought  to  terms,  and  the  savage 
Gauls  of  the  north  defeated  again  and  again.  And  now,  to  es- 
tablish her  claim  to  Sicily,  she  found  it  necessary  to  war  with 
Carthage,  and  in  264  B.  c.  the  first  Punic  war,  the  first  of  those 
historical  campaigns  that  are  studded  with  names  so  brilliant  in 
military-  history,  broke  forth  upon  the  Mediterranean.  Partly 
by  sea,  partly  by  land,  for  twenty-four  years  the  fight  went  on, 
and  then  Carthage  sued  for  peace.  Sicily  became  a  province  of 
Rome. 

'  Then  Carthage  suffered  at  home  from  a  new  cause.  The  mer- 
cenaries she  had  brought  back  across  the  sea  from  Sicily  re- 
volted and  nearly  destroyed  her,  and,  profiting  by  those  domestic 
troubles,  Rome  wrested  from  her  prostrate  rival  the  rich  island 
of  Sardinia.  This  intensified  the  bitterness  of  feeling  already 
existing,  and  Hamilcar  Barca,  the  valiant  leader  of  Carthage,  re- 
solved upon  invading  and  conquering  Spain,  and  from  there  re- 
newing at  some  future  time  the  struggle  with  Rome.  The  revolt 
being  crushed  at  home,  he  speedily  put  this  project  into  execu- 
tion, taking  with  him  a  beloved  son,  a  mere  boy  at  the  time ;  and 
thus  in  Spain,  Hannibal,  the  one  soldier  of  those  years  whose 
achievements  vie  with  those  of  Alexander,  learned  his  early  les- 
sons in  the  art  of  war ;  and,  like  Alexander,  when  in  the  first  flush 
of  manhood,  only  twenty-six  years  of  age,  he  found  himself  chief- 
in-command  of  the  armies  of  his  nation,  221  years  before  Christ 
— one  century  after  the  conqueror  of  the  East  had  met  his  fate 
at  Babylon. 

Hannibal's  first  martial  achievement  was  the  attack  and  cap- 
ture of  Saguntum  on  the  Ebro,  an  ally  of  Rome;  and,  quick  to 
take  offence,  Rome  declared  and  opened  the  second  Punic  war. 
At  this  time  it  was  in  the  power  of  Rome  to  put  into  the  field 
a  force  of  seven  hundred  thousand  foot  and  seventy  thousand 
horse.  She  had  for  five  or  cix  years  been  waging  spirited  war 
with  the  Cisalpine  Gauls  and  had  conquered  their  country  along 
the  Po,  forming  the  colonies  of  Cremona  and  Placentia,  which 
were  soon  to  play  so  important  a  part  in  the  grand  struggle  now 


96  CANNAE. 

fairly  entered  upon.  Against  her  Carthage  could  muster  nowhere 
near  so  large  a  disciplined  force,  but  her  ranks  were  filled  with 
soldiers  admirably  equipped  for  war,  and  her  Spanish  infantry 
and  her  own  footmen  were  as  reliable  as  those  of  Rome.  The 
general  appearance  of  a  Carthaginian  army  must  have  been 
motley  in  the  last  degree ;  for  the  most  opposite  nations,  from  re- 
gions the  most  remote  from  one  another,  were  crowded  into  her 
service.  Mobs  of  half-naked  Gauls  marched  side  by  side  with 
disciplined  Iberians,  clothed  in  their  scarlet-trimmed  coats  of 
glistening  white  linen.  Carthaginians,  native,  and  Africans 
from  all  along  the  northern  coasts,  were  mustered  with  the 
savage  allies  from  Liguria.  Stone-slingers  from  the  Balearic' 
isles  covered  their  advancing  front,  and  while,  under  the  vehe- 
ment administration  of  Hamilcar  and  his  brother,  and  the  great 
son  who  succeeded  hi  A?,  the  cavalry  of  Carthage  rose  to  rank  as 
the  most  powerful  and  efficient  the  world  had  yet  seen,  there 
rode  on  their  flanks,  ready  for  any  emergency,  wild  bands  of 
light  horsemen  on  the  fleetest  chargers.  These  were  the  savage 
warriors  of  the  Numidinn  deserts,  men  who  rode  like  centaurs, 
scorning  saddle  or  bridle.  Of  these  undisciplined  but  invaluable 
light  troops  Carthage  had  myriads,  and  in  strange  contrast  with 
their  agile  dash  and  scurry  were  the  ponderous  movements  of 
the  great  war-elephants  driven  by  skilled  negroes.  The  Spanish 
infantry  were  protected  by  massive  shield  and  helmet,  and  bore 
as  weapons  only  the  short,  sharp,  two-edged,  weighty  sword, 
with  which  they  did  terrible  execution  at  close  quarters  and 
which  weapon  Rome  had  before  this  learned  to  respect,  to  adopt 
and  to  use.  The  African  linesmen  bore  at  first  only  a  light 
shield  and  long  spear.  The  Gauls  carried  long  javelins  and 
huge  broadswords,  and  there  were  scores  of  allies  who  served  as 
archers  and  dartmen.  Deficient  as  Hasdrubal  had  been  in  the 
numbers  of  his  cavalry,  Hannibal  had  too  great  respect  for  the 
arm  to  move  without  a  strong  force  of  horsemen,  and  of  these 
we  shall  hear  later. 

Once  assured  of  the  capture  of  Saguntum  by  Hannibal,  Rome 
sent  envoys  to  Carthage  demanding  that  he  and  his  principal 
generals  be  surrendered  to  their  nation  for  this  attack  upon  her 


THE   GIANT   OF    HIS   CENTURY.  97 

ally.  A  war  of  words  ensued,  and  a  dramatic  scene  in  council, 
where  Fabius,  the  Roman  envoy,  swung  loose  his  toga  in  the 
face  of  the  dignitaries  of  Carthage,  exclaiming :  "  Then  here  we 
give  you  war!  "  and  news  of  the  declaration  was  speedily  con- 
veyed to  Hannibal  in  Spain.  He  was  thirsting  for  it.  He  had 
vowed  eternal  vengeance  against  Rome.  Already  he  was  the 
master  spirit  of  Carthage,  as  he  speedily  became  the  great  cen- 
tral figure  of  his  time.  With  Rome,  consul  after  consul  might 
fall  in  defeat;  legion  after  legion  suffer  annihilation,  but  still  the 
people  and  their  indomitable  senate  rose  superior  to  all  disaster. 
No  one  man  could  represent  Rome.  Even  Scipio,  he  who  car- 
ried the  war  into  Africa  in  after  days,  was  but  a  son  of  Rome : 
a  servant  of  her  senate,  the  elect  of  her  people ;  but  Hannibal  was 
the  giant  of  his  century.  Hannibal  was  Carthage,  and  for  a  time 
we  shall  see  how  the  almost  superhuman  energy  and  will  of 
this  one  great  soldier  ruled  one  nation  and  well-nigh  ruined 
another. 

His  great  opportunity  lay  now  before  him.  Quickly  he  sum- 
mons from  Africa,  under  his  own  brother,  Hasdrubal,  all  the 
native  troops  left  in  Carthage;  sends  to  replace  them  sturdy  gar- 
risons from  Spain,  and  then  at  New  Carthage  marshals  his  army,, 
announces  to  them  his  long-cherished  purpose,  the  invasion  of 
Italy,  and  with  90,000  foot,  12,000  horse  and  a  number  of  war- 
elephants,  he  marches  northward.  The  reduction  of  the  tribes 
between  the  Iberus  and  the  Pyrenees  detains  him  less  time  than 
Rome  had  expected,  but  costs  him  many  men,  whom  he  is 
forced  to  leave  behind  as  garrisons  or  lost  in  action.  He  bursts 
through  into  France  with  but  50,000  foot  and  9,000  horse,  but 
the  celerity  of  his  move  is  such  that  Rome,  springing  forward 
with  her  fleet  to  the  mouth  of  the  Rhone  and  disembarking  Scipio 
(P.  Cornelius)  with  his  army  to  meet  the  invader,  finds  to  her 
dismay  that  Hannibal  has  already  gone  on  his  way  up  that  broad 
valley.  No  use  to  follow.  The  tribes  are  hostile,  the  country 
unknown.  Hannibal  has  a  commanding  lead  and  probably 
cannot  be  overtaken.  Scipio  hurries  back  to  Italy  to  organize 
a  force  to  meet  him  as  he  issues  from  the  defiles  of  the  Alps, 
but,  by  a  master-stroke  of  genius,  sends  his  army  on  to  Spain, 
7 


98  CANNyE. 

there  to  hamper  and  break  up  the  power  of  Carthage ;  to  destroy 
her  influence,  and  eventually  to  rob  Carthage  of  the  Spanish 
forces  that  might  have  made  her  invincible  when  herself  invaded. 
Publius  Cornelius  Scipio  was  laying  the  foundation  for  his  son's 
superb  victory  at  Zama. 

Meantime,  through  the  dry  heat  of  September,  Hannibal  was 
striding  up  the  valley  into  the  heart  of  France.  The  crossing  of 
the  Rhone  was  difficult,  dangerous,  contested  by  hostile  tribes 
on  the  eastern  shore,  but  science  had  carried  him  over,  even  his 
unwieldy  elephants ;  and  now  he  begins  that  marvellous  passage 
of  the  Alps  that  has  won  the  admiration  of  all  soldiers  to  this 
day.  Only  a  narrow,  tortuous,  treacherous  mountain  trail  leads 
across  the  great  barrier,  and  swarms  of  savage  natives  hang  over 
the  precipices  with  rock  and  boulder  to  dash  upon  the  climbing 
column  below.  It  is  the  slow  work  of  weeks.  He  ascends  the 
valley  of  the  Isere  and  finds  himself  under  the  Little  St.  Bernard, 
with  Mont  Blanc  towering  off  to  the  left,  on  the  ninth  day  after 
leaving  the  plains  of  France.  It  is  the  end  of  October  now  ; 
snow  is  deep  on  those  lofty  summits ;  great  suffering  and  hard- 
ships have  been  endured  by  all.  His  starving  elephants  are  well- 
nigh  exhausted,  and  he  had  only  thirty-seven  on  crossing  the 
Rhone.  Hundreds  of  his  Numidian  cavalry,  accustomed  only 
to  the  sands  of  the  desert,  have  perished  from  cold ;  hundreds 
have  been  hurled  down  the  yawning  gulfs  below  or  crushed  by 
the  rocks  tumbled  from  above.  All  are  weakened  and  wavering 
— all  but  Hannibal.  His  energy,  spirit,  ardor  never  desert  him. 
He  calls  them  together,  worn  and  haggard  as  they  are,  and 
strives  to  inspire  them  with  his  own  buoyant  hope.  He  points 
eagerly  to  the  valley  far  below  to  the  southeast.  "  That  valley 
is  Italy,"  he  says,  "  and  there,  but  a  few  days'  march  away,  shall 
we  find  corn  and  wine  and  oil.  Beyond  it,  rested,  strengthened, 
reinforced  by  the  Gauls  already  eager  to  join  with  us  against 
their  hated  foe,  we  shall  find  the  road  to  Rome."  Two  days 
of  rest  and  then  the  descent  begins.  It  is  even  more  difficult 
than  the  climb  from  France.  In  many  places  the  road  is  gone 
entirely,  but  he  urges  on  his  army,  and  at  last  in  triumph  leads 
them  forth  upon  the  level  watered  by  the  Doria  Baltea,  and 


THE    FIRST   ENCOUNTERS.  99 

out  upon  the  bright,  broad  valley  of  the  Po.  But  in  that  adven- 
turous march  from  the  Pyrenees  to  the  Po  he  has  lost  33,000 
men.  He  has  but  20,000  infantry  and  6,000  cavalry  left  him, 
and  men,  horses  and  the  remaining  elephants  are  well-nigh 
exhausted.  Yet  with  this  little  force  he  dares  continue. 

Meantime  Scipio  had  crossed  the  Apennines,  assumed  com- 
mand of  the  Roman  forces,  and  moved  rapidly  forward  by  way 
of  Placentia.  Both  generals  were  eager  for  action.  The  armies 
met  near  the  Ticino,  and  in  a  sharp  and  decisive  conflict  the 
Numidians  and  heavy  cavalry  of  Carthage  overthrew  the  horse- 
men of  Rome  and  scored  a  victory  for  Hannibal.  Scipio  fell 
back,  amazed  and  discomfited,  and  took  refuge  under  the  walls 
of  Placentia.  Hannibal  followed,  passing  by,  and,  throwing  his 
army  across  the  Roman  line  of  communication  with  Ariminum, 
strove  to  taunt  him  to  another  battle.  Meantime  heavy  rein- 
forcements were  hurrying  forward  to  Placentia  under  the  other 
consul,  Sempronius.  They  joined  Scipio  on  the  Trebia,  a  little 
stream  flowing  from  the  southward  into  the  Po,  west  of  Placentia, 
and  here,  with  40,000  men,  Sempronius  (who  found  himself  in 
command  owing  to  the  severity  of  the  wound  received  by  his 
colleague  at  the  Ticino)  conceived  himself  strong  enough  to 
attack  Hannibal  in  camp.  It  was  midwinter;  the  stream  was 
full  to  the  banks ;  snow,  sleet  and  hail  were  threatening,  but 
Sempronius  led  his  men,  cold  and  without  breakfast,  through 
the  icy  stream  and  deployed  his  lines  in  front  of  the  Cartha- 
ginians, who,  with  calm  deliberation,  had  eaten  their  morning 
meal,  oiled  their  bodies  and  donned  their  armor  around  the  blaz- 
ing fires,  and  then  marched  out  to  meet  the  Romans.  Near  the 
Trebia  lay  secreted  a  small  body  of  picked  men,  mainly  cavalry, 
in  a  depression  that  had  escaped  the  vigilance  of  the  Romans  as 
they  advanced  in  the  dim  light  of  early  morning.  Mago,  a 
younger  brother  of  Hannibal,  commanded.  The  Roman  light 
troops  had  early  opened  with  dart  and  arrow  on  the  opposing 
lines,  and  been  received  by  the  slingers  of  the  Balearic  isles ;  but 
when  the  massive  infantry  of  the  legion  swept  fonvard  to  the 
assault  of  the  outnumbered  centre  the  day  looked  dark  for  Car- 
thage, until,  with  furious  rush  and  shout,  the  horsemen  of  Maze's 


100  CANNAE. 

ambuscade  burst  forth  and  hewed  down  the  Roman  rear.  Then 
Hannibal  drove  his  elephants  in  on  the  flanks,  followed  up  vig- 
orously with  the  light  infantry  and  ubiquitous  Numidians ;  the 
Roman  light  troops  broke  and  scattered  in  confusion,  rushing 
back  towards  the  Trebia,  while  the  legions  in  the  centre,  finding 
themselves  vehemently  charged  in  rear,  forced  through  the  lines 
in  their  front  and  marched  off  with  little  opposition  to  Placentia. 
The  consular  army  was  cut  in  two.  Those  who  went  eastward 
escaped,  but  those  who  ran  back  toward  the  Trebia  were  slaugh- 
tered without  mercy.  Despite  his  own  losses  in  action  and  from 
cold  (the  last-named  cause  having  robbed  him  of  most  of  his 
elephants),  Hannibal  had  won  a  great  victory,  the  battle  of  the 
Trebia. 

The  consular  armies  of  Rome  despaired  of  holding  the  valley 
of  the  Po.  Scipio  fell  back  with  what  he  had  left  to  Ariminum 
on  the  Adriatic.  Sempronius  crossed  his  army  through  the 
Apennines  into  Etruria,  and  all  Cisalpine  Gaul  was  in  the  hands 
of  "  the  dire  African."  Thus  ended  his  first  campaign  in  Italy. 

The  consuls  having  failed  them,  the  Roman  people  chose 
Flaminius  and  Servilius  in  their  stead.  New  levies  of  troops 
were  made  at  once.  Scipio  went  to  Spain  as  pro-consul  to  take 
charge  of  matters  there ;  large  reinforcements  being  sent  with 
him,  as  well  as  to  Sardinia,  Sicily,  Tarentum  and  the  armies  of 
the  new  consuls  in  the  north.  Humiliated  and  saddened  by  de- 
feat the  great  heart  of  Rome  was  constant  in  its  faith  in  ultimate 
success. 

Early  in  the  spring  Hannibal  astonished  the  outposts  of 
Flaminius  by  appearing  through  an  unused  pass  of  the  Apen- 
nines, and  plundering  the  valley  of  the  Arno.  Having  devastated 
the  Arno  country,  Hannibal  pushed  southward,  passed  by  Fla- 
minius without  paying  him  any  attention,  and  went  on  his  leisurely 
way,  plundering  everywhere,  and  the  cry  went  up  for  Flaminius 
to  act. 

Spurred  into  motion,  the  consul  came  on  after  the  Carthagin- 
ian, caught  him  close  by  Lake  Thrasymene,  and  there,  in  the 
dense  mist  and  obscurity  of  a  marshy  defile  and  an  early  morn- 
ing of  an  Italian  spring,  Hannibal  turned  fiercely,  savagely,  upon 


HEAVY  LOSS  OF  THE  ROMANS  1Q1 

his  rash  pursuer,  and  after  a  terrible  onslaught  arid*  a  resistance 
of  brief  duration,  caught  as  they  were  between  overhanging 
heights  and  the  shallow  waters  of  the  lake,  the  Romans  were 
almost  utterly  destroyed,  and  the  solemn  disaster  of  Thrasymene 
was  added  to  that  of  Trebia.  Only  six  thousand  of  the  soldiery 
of  Latium  escaped. 

Occurring,  as  this  noted  battle  did,  so  much  nearer  home,  the 
effect  upon  the  citizens  of  Rome  was  far  greater  than  that  of 
Trebia ;  indeed,  it  was  a  far  greater  catastrophe,  not  particularly 
because  of  the  death  of  Flaminius,  who  fell,  sword  in  hand,  since 
his  administration  of  affairs  in  Etruria  had  been  far  from  happy, 
but  rather  because  of  the  heavy  losses  sustained  at  so  desperate 
a  crisis.  It  is  asserted  with  good  reason  that  the  number  of  men 
lost  by  the  Romans  on  the  day  of  Thrasymene  and  during  the 
vigorous  pursuit  which  followed  was  fully  30,000,  while  Hannibal 
had  lost  but  1,500  all  told. 

Freeing  the  Italian  allies  of  Rome  who  had  fallen  into  his 
hands,  the  victor  gave  his  men  a  few  days'  needed  rest,  then 
crossed  the  Tiber  near  its  source,  and  marched  into  Umbria. 
And  then  venturing  no  farther  towards  Rome  itself  with  his 
small  force,  preferring  to  lay  waste  all  Italy,  all  that  might  be 
tributary  to  Rome  before  dealing  with  the  great  city  itself,  he 
turned  abruptly  eastward,  crossed  again  the  Apennines,  reached 
the  Adriatic  near  Ancona,  and  swept  down  the  coast.  Now,  in- 
deed, were  his  promises  to  the  soldiery  fully  realized.  It  was  a 
land  of  plenty  through  which  they  leisurely  marched,  camping 
in  pleasant  places,  pillaging,  plundering,  ravaging  everywhere. 
The  rough  linesmen  lived  on  the  fat  of  the  land,  faring  as  they 
never  did  before.  But,  everywhere  he  went,  rigorous  search  was 
made,  and  wherever  Romans  or  Latins  were  found,  capable  of 
bearing  arms,  they  were  ruthlessly  butchered. 

Yet  again  Rome  rallied.  The  Senate  for  day  after  day  sat  from 
sunrise  to  sunset,  devising  measures  for  the  relief  of  the  beloved 
fatherland.  No  one  spoke  of  peace.  No  soldier  was  to  be  re- 
called from  possible  victory  in  Spain,  Sicily  or  Sardinia,  but 
sterner  measures  were  resolved  on  at  home,  and  Fabius  Maximus 
was  made  dictator.  Two  new  legions  were  raised  in  the  city,  and 


JQ2  CANNAE. 

a  number  of  (he  home-guards  proper  were  ordered  for  other  ser. 
vice.  Even  the  navy  was  recruited  from  Rome,  for  now  the  Car- 
thaginian ships  were  scouring  the  Adriatic,  and,  on  the  west 
coast,  capturing  the  fleets  of  supply-vessels  sent  to  Spain  and 
Sardinia. 

All  the  ships  at  Ostia  and  from  the  Tiber  were  ordered  forth- 
with to  sea,  and  then  with  the  two  new  legions  and  the  consular 
army  of  Servilius  (which  had  fallen  back  from  Ariminum  after 
learning  of  Thrasymene),  with  powerful  horse  and  numbers  of 
allies — in  all  with  a  force  largely  outnumbering  Hannibal — the 
dictator  marched  southeastward  through  Campania  and  Sam- 
nium,  and  crossed  the  Apennines  in  search  of  the  African. 

And  now  for  a  time  the  advantage  lay  with  Rome.  The  Car- 
thaginians were  living  on  the  country,  compelled  to  scatter  and 
forage.  The  Romans  were  enabled  to  keep  together  in  mass,  as 
their  supplies  were  forwarded  direct  in  bulk,  and,  at  the  same 
time,  they  harassed  and  broke  up  the  detachments  of  the  Afri- 
cans scouring  the  neighborhood  for  provisions.  Hannibal  had 
well-nigh  exhausted  this  tract  of  Apulia  by  the  time  the  Roman 
army  marched  in  and  camped  near  him,  and  finding  that  the 
Apulians  would  not  join  him,  he  decided  to  again  cross  the 
mountains  and  sweep  down  into  the  hitherto  undisturbed  regions 
of  the  Caudinian  Samnites,  old  enemies  of  Rome.  But  Beneven- 
tum  shut  her  gates  against  him.  Thence  he  moved  up  the  river 
Vulturnus,  crossing  it  finally,  and  came  down  into  the  far-famed 
Falernian  plain  in  Campania. 

This  was  almost  more  than  even  Roman  discipline  could 
stand.  Fabius  the  dictator  had  kept  his  men  on  the  track  of 
Hannibal,  but  prohibiting  a  general  engagement.  He  planted 
strong  garrisons  in  all  the  roads  and  passes  around  the  plain, 
rightly  conjecturing  that  Hannibal  would  soon  exhaust  even  the 
wealth  of  store  in  that  productive  region,  and  then,  hemmed  in 
as  he  now  was,  unable  to  obtain  further  supplies  to  carry  him 
through  the  approaching  winter,  he  would  be  compelled  to  sue 
for  peace  or  strive  to  fight  his  way  through  the  chosen  positions 
of  the  Romans. 

But  Hannibal  had  no  thought  either  of  wintering  there  or 


HANNIBAL'S   STRANGE   ESCAPE.  103 

starving  elsewhere.  He  had  accumulated  great  supplies  of  food 
and  wine,  several  thousand  head  of  beef  cattle,  and  some  5,000 
prisoners  in  the  course  of  his  recent  wanderings,  and  he  proposed 
to  move  back  to  Apulia  and  take  all  his  supplies  with  him, 
despite  Roman  hindrance.  He  had  nowhere  near  enough  men 
to  fight  his  way  through,  and  guard  and  transport  the  provision 
train  and*  prisoners  at  one  and  the  same  time.  Hannibal  first  put 
his  5,000  prisoners  to  death,  and  then  set  about  clearing  the  way 
for  a  march  through  the  defiles  over  into  the  upper  valley  of  the 
Vulturnus.  Fabius,  with  his  main  army,  lay  along  the  lowef 
hills  between  the  defiles,  with  strong  outposts  in  the  passes 
themselves. 

Selecting  2,000  of  the  strongest  of  his  captured  cattle,  Hanni- 
bal caused  a  quantity  of  pine  light-wood  to  be  fastened  to  their 
horns ;  notified  his  army  to  be  ready  to  move  soon  as  darkness' 
set  in,  and  then,  despatching  his  light  infantry  with  the  drovers 
and  ordering  them  to  scale  the  heights  behind  and  overlooking 
the  passes,  he  started  the  cattle  for  the  hills,  and,  as  soon  as  they 
reached  the  slopes,  caused  the  tinder-wood  on  their  heads  to  be 
set  on  fire.  The  cattle  speedily  ran  wild  and  charged  up  the 
slopes  in  front,  the  light  infantry  followed,  and  presently  the 
range  of  hills  was  lighted  up  by  a  strange,  unearthly  glare  from 
the  darting  fires  on  these  hundreds  of  stampeding  cattle.  Be- 
wildered, unable  to  comprehend  its  meaning,  fearful  of  being  led 
out  into  some  trap  of  the  vile  African,  as  Flaminius  and  his 
thousands  had  been  trapped  at  Thrasymene,  Fabius  dare 
not  move  from  camp  till  morning  dawned.  Meantime,  the 
guards  of  the  passes,  convinced  that  the  whole  army  of  Hanni- 
bal was  scattering  over  the  hills  in  attempt  to  escape,  quitted 
their  assigned  positions  and  clambered  up  the  heights  to  head 
them  off,  and  were  aghast  to  find  only  wild  cattle  and  some  few 
skirmishers ;  but  when  they  attempted  to  return  to  their  posts, 
they  found  these  few  skirmishers  multiplied  by  hundreds,  who 
hemmed  them  in  and  prevented  their  retirement,  and  Hannibal, 
relying  on  the  success  of  the  trick,  hastened  forward,  seized  the 
defiles,  passed  his  heavy  infantry,  cavalry  and  baggage  and 
plunder  safely  through,  detailed  the  Spaniards  and  the  Gauls  tor 


104  CANNyE. 

cover  his  rear  and  assist  the  light  troops,  and,  when  daylight  ap^ 
peared,  to  the  shame  and  consternation  of  the  Roman  dictator, 
it  was  apparent  to  all  that  "  the  dire  African  "  had  again  out- 
witted him.  It  was  now  impossible  to  pen  him  in  again,  and  Han- 
nibal, after  visiting  and  plundering  portions  of  Samnium  to  the 
north,  leisurely,  as  before,  crossed  for  the  fourth  time  the  Ap- 
penines"  and  came  down  on  the  eastern  slope  into  the  rith  Pelig- 
nian  plain  near  Sulmo  (not  more  than  ninety  miles  on  a  "bee- 
line"  east  of  Rome),  and  towards  the  end  of  the  season  was 
comfortably  settled  again  near  his  old  quarters  in  Apulia. 

Seizing  the  little  town  of  Geronium,  he  established  his  maga- 
zines within  the  walls  and  camped  his  army  around  it.  Here, 
with  corn,  grass  and  water  in  abundance,  his  horses  and  cattle 
were  well  provided  for,  and  supplies  in  plenty  were  already 
gathered  and  stored  for  his  men.  Without  allies  he  could  not 
conquer  Rome,  but,  could  he  successfully  maintain  himself  on 
Roman  territory,  allies  would  be  sure  to  join  him  sooner  or  later. 

And  now  Rome  had  raised  a  clamor  against  its  dictator. 
Fabius  was  slow,  over-cautious,  timid.  The  Fabian  policy  had 
been  not  to  make  a  move  until  the  right  one  could  be  de- 
termined on  as  sure  of  success,  and  then  the  Fabian  execution 
had  been  the  wrong  one.  That  winter,  as  custom  required,  both 
dictator  and  "  master  of  the  horse  "  Minucius  resigned,  and  the 
army  was  placed  again  under  the  consuls — Servilius,  who  thus 
reappears,  and  Regulus  (M.  Atilius),  who  had  been  elected  vice 
Flaminius  killed  at  Thrasymene.  Then  came  the  spring  elec- 
tions, unusually  bitter  party  spirit  running  at  the  time,  and  the 
choice  of  the  people  for  first  consul  proved  to  be  a  veritable 
butcher-boy,  who  had  been  enabled  by  a  fortune  left  him  un- 
expectedly to  quit  the  shambles  and  go  into  politics,  and  Caius 
Terentius  Varro,  who  had  risen  step  by  step  from  small  offices, 
as  of  a  ward  politician  to  those  of  praetor,  now  by  voice  of 
Rome  became  her  general-in-chief.  As  his  colleague  reappears 
^milius  Paullus,  a  vehement  aristocrat,  who  but  a  short  time 
before  had  held  office  as  consul,  was  accused  of  peculation,  and 
was  as  detestable  to  the  general  public  as  Varro  was  popular. 
But  Paullus  had  proved  himself  a  good  soldier. 


"THE   DIRE   AFRICAN."  105 

For  a  time  Servilius  and  Regulus  retained  command  of  the 
"  armies  of  observation  "  in  Apulia,  where,  watching  the  move- 
ments of  Hannibal  like  wary  mastiffs,  but  keeping  out  of  reach 
of  his  claws,  they  established  a  large  magazine  of  supplies  at  the 
little  town  of  Cannae,  some  sixty  or  seventy  (Roman)  miles 
southeast  of  the  camp  of  Hannibal. 

One  bright  morning  in  early  summer,  as  the  corn  was  rapidly 
ripening  along  the  lowlands  and  the  Roman  army  was  still  doz- 
ing in  its  winter  camp,  "  the  dire  African  "  sprang  from  his  lair, 
leaped  over  or  around  the  stupefied  watchers,  and  possessed  him- 
self of  Cannae.  There  is  something  absolutely  electric  about 
this  superb  dash.  No  matter  where  one's  sympathies  may  lie, 
the  reader  can  hardly  refuse  his  admiration  of  such  brilliant, 
daring  and  successful  generalship.  His  own  provisions  were 
giving  out.  It  was  still  cold  and  raw  up  there  near  the  moun- 
tains. Down  by  the  sea  lay  sunny  Cannae  with  all  those  accu- 
mulations of  military  stores  piled  tier  on  tier ;  with  all  those 
countless  acres  of  corn  ready  for  the  harvest — and  for  him. 
Sudden  as  the  spring  of  the  lion  of  his  forests,  the  African  hero 
drops  upon  the  plain  below  him,  swings  round  the  flank  of  his 
lazy,  unsuspecting  watchers,  grasps  the  prey  they  were  supposed 
to  guard ;  then,  with  bristling  mane  and  flashing  eyes  and  teeth, 
confronts  them  as,  crouching  for  another  spring,  he  warns  them, 
"  Come  not  here."  Rome  is  checked  again. 

And  now,  speeding  with  new  legions  and  levies,  the  consuls 
haste  to  the  front.  "  Hold  him  there,"  are  the  orders  breath- 
lessly despatched  to  wretched  Regulus  and  his  colleague  ;  "  hold, 
but  risk  no  battle ;  wait  for  Varro."  And  now,  in  the  blithe  sum- 
mer weather,  under  the  soft  breezes  of  the  Adriatic,  two  hating, 
hostile  armies  are  drawn  up  across  the  plain  of  Apulia.  Those 
grim,  wiry,  half-savage  men  in  battered  armor  and  time-worn 
garb — those  daring,  reckless  fellows  on  the  keen  Spanish  and 
Arabian  steeds,  facing  north — are  the  soldiers  of  Carthage. 

Those  eight  brilliant  legions,  far  outnumbering  them,  glitter- 
ing in  all  the  glory  of  brazen  helmets,  breast-plate,  greaves  and 
shield,  their  martial  plumes  of  black  and  scarlet,  their  golden 
eagles,  their  blazoned  standards  flashing  in  the  sun — these,  facing 


106 

southward,  are  the  troops  of  Rome.  Only  slightly  reinforced 
by  accessions  from  the  Gauls,  Hannibal,  with  not  more  than 
50,000  men,  must  hold  his  own  against  90,000  or  die.  But 
other  odds  are  in  his  favor.  Throughout  his  armies — African, 
Spaniard,  savage  Gaul — all  have  learned  to  look  up  to  him  as 
invincible  ;  a  leader  under  whom  defe'at  or  disaster  would  be  impos- 
sible. His  command  is  absolute,  undivided.  On  the  other  hand, 
Rome  sends  two  leaders,  men  who,  like  the  generals  of  Athens 
in  the  days  of  Miltiades,  could  only  command  one  day  at  a 
time.  One  is  Varro,  the  hero  of  the  lower  classes,  a  political 
figure-head  of  the  masses,  a  demagogue  and  a  stump-speaker  of 
no  little  shrewdness  and  ability  in  his  peculiar  line,  but  unfit  to 
handle  an  army  in  the  field.  As  his  colleague  he  has  an  ad- 
mirable but  most  unpopular  soldier — an  aristocrat  throughout, 
and  an  experienced  campaigner.  The  two  were  violently  an- 
tagonistic from  the  start — in  character,  in  methods,  in  plans. 
They  were  harmonious  in  only  one  point,  an  undoubted  and 
unflinching  patriotism.  They  found  the  army  of  Hannibal 
placidly  occupied  in  gathering  in  the  rich  harvest  of  the  low 
country  along  the  sea,  the  main  body  posted  on  the  left  bank 
of  the  Aufidus,  not  more  than  eight  or  nine  miles  from  the 
Adriatic.  All  around  them  the  land  lay  level  and  open,  a  capital 
battle-field  for  armies  equally  matched.  Too  good  a  field  for 
Hannibal,  said  Paullus  ;  far  too  good  for  the  superb  cavalry  of 
Carthage,  whose  chief,  Maharbal,  was  the  most  skillful  and 
daring  cavalry  leader  in  the  annals  of  ancient  history ;  and  under 
him  were  such  young  generals  as  Mago,  own  brother  to  Han- 
nibal, he  who  led  the  furious  flank  attack  and  decided  the  day 
at  the  Trebia.  Well  indeed  might  Paullus  preach  caution  and 
urge  a  falling  back  to  the  foothills,  where  the  African  cavalry 
would  be  far  less  efficient  over  broken  and  hilly  ground,  but 
Varro  was  frantic  'for  instant  fight  and  would  listen  to  no  such 
counsel.  It  being  his  day  in  command,  he  marched  the  army 
rapidly  and  boldly  into  a  position  below  Hannibal  on  the  Aufidus, 
interposing  between  him  and  the  sea,  and  there  he  halted  and 
faced  to  the  southeast,  his  left  resting  on  the  river,  his  right  ex- 
tending over  to  the  town  of  Salapia.  Paullus  was  compelled  to 


HANNIBAL'S  PREPARATIONS.  107 

submit,  and  when,  on  the  following  day,  he  assumed  command 
he  found  it  impossible  to  extricate  the  army  from  the  trap  into 
which  Varro  had  led  it.  Hannibal  had  promptly  moved  down 
stream  (the  Aufidus  here  flows  northeast,  or,  to  be  more  ac- 
curate, east  of  north),  and,  with  his  right  resting  on  the  river 
bank,  took  position  confronting  the  army  of  Rome.  A  portion 
of  the  force  of  Paullus  was  immediately  thrown  across  the  stream 
and  encamped  on  the  right  bank  with  the  view  of  checking  the 
advance  of  Hannibal  in  that  direction,  should  he  attempt  such 
a  move,  and  of  driving  back  his  foraging  parties  gathering  the 
spoils  of  the  corn-fields  on  the  southern  plain. 

On  the  morning  of  the  next  day,  which  strictly  was  about 
the  middle  of  June,  Varro  again  came  into  command.  He  was 
feverishly  impatient  for  battle,  and  had  determined  to  bring 
matters  to  an  issue  at  once.  To  his  perplexity,  however,  he 
saw  that  Hannibal  had  made  no  move  to  meet  him.  The  Cartha- 
ginians hung  to  their  lines ;  busy  preparations  of  some  kind  were 
going  on  within  the  camp,  but  the  day  passed  by  without  a  re- 
sponsive move  on  the  part  of  Hannibal.  Varro  could  not  induce 
him  to  come  out  and  meet  him,  nor  did  he  dare  attack  him  in 
camp  itself. 

But  Hannibal  had  spent  the  day  in  quiet,  methodical  prepara- 
tions for  the  coming  conflict  and  in  a  close  study  of  the  opposing 
lines,  and  with  the  dawn,  of  the  next  day  (August  2d  of  the 
Roman  calendar)  he  marched  forth  upon  the  plain  ready  to  do 
battle  with  Rome.  And  now  Rome  held  back.  ^Emilius  Paul- 
lus was  chief  for  the  day  and  could  not  be  dragged  into  a  fight. 
He  held  that  if  the  armies  remained  a  few  days  longer  as  they 
stood  the  Carthaginians  would  be  compelled  to  fall  back  to- 
wards the  mountains  in  search  of  more  corn  and  supplies. 
Then  his  project  of  fighting  in  the  foothills  and  avoiding  con- 
flict with  the  terrible  African  cavalry  could  be  carried  out. 
Despite  the  eager,  impatient  murmurs  of  many  subordinates,  and 
the  taunts  of  Varro,  ^Emilius  remained  unmoved.  He  would 
not  risk  the  issue  on  such  ground  even  though  he  doubly  out- 
numbered Hannibal.  The  latter  waited  some  time,  then  seeing 
plainly  enough  that  he  had  a  very  different  man  to  deal  with, 


108  CANINE. 

sent  his  infantry  back  into  camp  and  despatched  Maharbal  with 
a  strong  force  of  cavalry  to  assail  the  Roman  troops  on  the  right 
bank.  The  Aufidus  is  shallow  in  June  and  easily  fordable,  and 
the  wild  Numidian  horse  swept  down  on  the  water  parties  of 
the  Romans,  penned  them  up  in  their  camp,  and  held  the  ground 
so  that  all  the  rest  of  the  day,  all  "the  long,  hot  night  that  fol- 
lowed, the  unfortunate  Romans  on  the  eastern  shore  thirsted 
for  water  and  could  not  get  a  drop.  But  on  the  morrow  Varro  once 
more  would  draw  his  sword,  and  then,  come  what  might,  there 
would  be  an  end  to  this  senseless  delay.  And  surely  enough 
at  dawn  the  red  ensign,  the  well-known  signal  for  battle,  was 
flung  to  the  breeze  from  the  tent  of  the  champion  of  the  de- 
mocracy. 

And  now  before  the  opposing  armies  meet  in  battle  let  us 
take  a  careful  look  at  the  ground  on  which  this  never-to-be-for- 
gotten scene  is  to  be  enacted.  By  the  Roman  calendar  it  was 
the  3d  day  of  August.  Actually,  however,  it  was  about  the  2Oth 
of  June,  the  sixth  month  of  the  modern  year.  The  corn  was 
ripe  in  all  the  fields  along  the  lowlands,  and  most  of  it  had  been 
gathered  in  by  the  foragers  of  Carthage.  The  shallow,  sluggish 
Aufidus  flows  placidly  along  between  the  level  fields,  lazily 
winding  toward  the  sea.  Far  off  to  the  eastward  the  blue  waves 
of  the  Adriatic  sparkle  and  flash  in  the  early  light,  and  white- 
caps  dot  the  billows  under  the  influence  of  the  strong  southerly 
breeze  that  springs  up  with  the  rising  sun.  Far  off  to  the  west 
the  spurs  of  the  Apennines  are  looking  down  upon  the  fertile 
plains  below.  Here  in  the  near  distance,  well  out  to  the  right 
bank  of  the  stream,  are  the  roofs  and  walls  of  Cannae.  Four  or 
five  miles  away  to  the  southwest,  also  east  of  the  Aufidus,  is  the 
walled  town  of  Canusium,  still  loyal  to  Rome;  and  far  away  north- 
ward, on  the  left  of  the  river,  the  early  sun  is  gilding  the  battle- 
ments of  Salapia. 

There  rests  the  right  flank  of  Rome.  Between  it  and  the 
Aufidus  the  legions  are  tramping  out  upon  the  plains  in  front  and 
forming  line  under  cover  of  the  clouds  of  light  troops  who  ad- 
vance before  them.  Over  on  the  right  bank  the  Numidian 
horsemen  of  Hannibal  are  still  hovering  between  the  water  and 


VARRO   IN   COMMAND.  109 

the  detached  camp  of  the  Roman  left,  and  the  main  army  of 
Carthage,  forming  with  the  calm  precision  of  veteran  soldiery, 
is  moving  forward  from  its  tents  so  as  to  deploy  upon  the  open 
plain.  Varro,  the  political  appointee,  with  90,000  valiant  men 
at  his  back,  is  to  try  conclusions  with  the  trained  soldier  Han- 
nibal, who  leads  but  50,000  all  told,  and  Varro  takes  the  initia- 
tive. Before  anything  can  be  done  those  men  of  his,  thirsting 
over  there  on  the  extreme  left,  must  be  relieved  and  their  assail- 
ants driven  off.  Detailing  a  strong  force  to  hold  his  camp  on 
the  west  bank,  Varro  orders  his  army  to  face  to  the  left,  cross 
the  Aufidus,  drive  off  the  Numidians,  supply  those  suffering 
kinsmen  in  the  beleaguered  camp  with  water,  then  face  to  the 
front  again  and  be  ready  for  Hannibal.  In  some  surprise,  the 
latter  notes  the  move.  To  fight  he  must  follow.  To  cross  in- 
volves the  placing  of  his  entire  army  on  an  open  plain,  thrusting 
his  right  well  out  "  in  the  air,"  as  it  is  termed,  with  no  defence, 
natural  or  improvised,  on  which  to  rest  it,  with  an  outnumbering 
army  on  his  front,  a  hostile  town  in  and  near  his  rear.  It  is  not 
a  safe  move,  but  he  looks  at  his  stern,  battle-seasoned  infantry, 
greatly  inferior  in  numbers  to  the  brilliant  legions  of  Rome ;  he 
carefully  studies  his  eager  cavalry — there  at  least  he  can  afford 
to  be  confident,  for  the  world  cannot  match  them,  and  the  plain 
on  the  right  bank  is  to  the  full  as  open,  as  favorable  as  on  the 
left.  East  or  west,  then,  it  is  all  the  same.  Hannibal  laughs 
with  hope  and  triumph  and  thrilling  confidence,  as  he  too  faces 
his  men  eastward,  fords  the  Aufidus  in  cheery  order,  marches 
well  out  on  the  eastern  plain,  then  halts  and  confronts  the  shout- 
ing, spear-brandishing,  shield-clanging  army  of  Rome.  At  last 
in  open  conflict,  in  fair  field,  where  neither  surprise,  nor  deep 
defile,  nor  treacherous  morass  can  aid  him,  he  means  to  meet, 
and  he  means  to  overthrow  the  surging  power  of  the  great  rival 
of  his  country. 

Each  army  is  formed  practically  o-n  the  same  general  plan. 
Infantry  in  the  centre ;  cavalry  on  the  flanks ;  but,  in  detail,  there 
is  this  important  difference :  Varro  has  so  formed  his  legions  that 
though  far  outnumbering  the  force  of  Hannibal  his  line  is  no 
greater  in  extent.  The  right  flank  of  the  Carthaginians  is  far 


out  there  on  the  open  plain,  and  with  his  great  superiority  in 
numbers  Varro  ought  by  every  principle  to  overlap  that  ex- 
posed flank,  but  it  does  not  seem  to  occur  to  him.  A  breach 
has  widened  between  himself  and  Paullus,  and,  if  the  latter  sug- 
gests that  such  a  disposition  should  be  made,  it  is  more  than 
probable  he  is  impatiently  rebuked  for  officious  interference. 
Whether  counselled  or  not,  Varro  utterly  fails  to  avail  himself 
of  the  advantage  thus  opened  to  him.  He  forms  his  lines  in 
what  would  now  be  termed  columns  of  masses ;  the  front  of 
each  subdivision  of  the  legion  is  less  than  its  depth.  It  would 
seem  as  though  he  had  resolved  on  a  formation  akin  to  that  of 
Epaminondas — a  deep  charging  column,  and  with  it  an  impetu- 
ous assault  on  the  Carthaginian  centre,  before  which  every- 
thing must  go  down.  But  it  never  seems  to  have  occurred 
to  him  that,  notwithstanding  his  vastly  inferior  force,  Hannibal 
would  take  the  initiative  and  himself  become  the  attacking 
general. 

With  much  pomp  and  martial  clangor  the  army  of  Rome  had 
dressed  its  lines.  On  the  extreme  right,  next  the  river,  were  the 
picked  cavalry  of  the  army,  the  knights  and  gentlemen  of  the 
city.  Few  in  number,  comparatively  speaking,  they  represented 
the  best  blood  of  the  republic  and  could  be  relied  upon  to  fight 
to  the  death.  Immediately  on  their  left  were  drawn  up  the 
grand  legions,  stretching  far  across  the  plain,  their  battalions 
formed  with  diminished  front  but  extending  to  a  great  depth  to 
the  rear.  In  the  full  panoply  of  Rome's  sturdiest  soldiery,  they 
presented  an  appearance  well  calculated  to  inspire  their  dema- 
gogue of  a  leader  with  confidence.  On  their  left  were  extended 
the  battalions  of  light  infantry  of  the  allies,  and  then  farthest  out 
of  all  were  the  cavalry  of  the  Italian  provinces,  notably  of  Latium. 
But  these  last  were  facing  the  most  accomplished  light  horse- 
men of  the  world,  the  Numidians.  Well  out  in  front  of  the 
entire  infantry  command  were  ranged  strong  lines  of  skirmishers 
from  the  velites,  and  between  these  and  the  Balearic  slingers  of 
Hannibal  the  battle  had  already  begun.  No  sooner  were  the 
men  of  Carthage  well  across  the  stream  than  the  impatient  Varro 
ordered  out  his  skirmishers ;  the  Balearic  slingers  sprang  forth 


^MILIUS   PAULLUS   WOUNDED. 

from  the  opposing  lines,  and,  under  cover  of  their  movements,  the 
army  of  Africa  takes  up  its  station. 

Far  out  on  the  Carthaginian  right  are  the  swarming  hosts  of 
Numidia.  They  are  at  least  equal  in  number  to  the  cavalry 
who  stand  opposed  to  them,  but  not  so  perfect  in  armor  or 
equipment.  Their  superiority  lies  in  their  steeds  and  their  horse- 
manship. Between  the  Numidians,  drawn  up  under  the  watchful 
eye  of  their  renowned  leader  Maharbal,  and  the  cavalry  of  the 
left  wing  the  infantry  forms  its  lines.  An  odd  disposition  it 
seems  at  first  glance.  The  centre  of  the  foot  force  is  occupied 
by  alternating  battalions  of  Spaniards  and  Gauls,  and  this  centre 
is  thrown  well  forward.  The  right  and  left  centres  are  filled  by 
the  African  infantry,  armed  precisely  like  that  of  Rome,  and  they 
are  withdrawn  slightly  so  that  the  front  of  Hannibal  is  convex 
toward  the  enemy,  and  on  its  extreme  left,  between  the  Africans 
and  the  river,  confronting  the  nobles  of  Rome,  the  squadrons 
of  Spanish  and  Gaulish  horse  are  formed  under  command  of 
Hasdrubal.  Throughout  the  entire  Carthaginian  line  there  is 
jesting  and  laughter  and  easy  confidence,  for  Hannibal  has  been 
laughingly  rallying  one  of  his  generals,  a  "croaker,"  who  shook 
his^head  dolefully  at  sight  of  the  overpowering  force  of  Rome. 

Already  the  skirmishers  have  begun.  There  is  something 
terrible  in  the  force  and  vim  and  accuracy  with  which  those 
Balearic  slingers  whirl  their  missiles  in  among  the  velites.  The 
latter  are  at  a  great  disadvantage ;  their  darts  are  no  answer  at 
all,  and  they  dare  not  risk  a  charge  for  fear  of  getting  too  far 
from  their  supports.  The  heavy  stones  come  crashing  in  from 
the  south  with  frightful  force  and  precision,  tumbling  them  over 
in  every  direction,  To  add  to  the  trouble  the  morning  breeze 
has  increased  to  a  stiff  gale,  and  is  blowing  clouds  of  dust  from 
the  Carthaginian  lines  into  the  faces  of  the  Romans.  They  are 
stung  and  blinded  with  the  dust;  bruised,  hammered,  felled  to 
earth  by  shooting  stones :  stones  that  penetrate  far  beyond  and 
rattle  like  ponderous  hail  upon  the  armor  of  the  main  line.  One 
of  the  first  to  fall,  stunned  and  severely  wounded,  is  the  consul 
/Emilius  himself,  and,  bad  augury  for  Rome,  the  soldier  of  the 
two  commanders  is  temporarily  borne  away  from  the  fight. 


112  CANNAE. 

Varro  is  left  to  his  own  devices.  Rome  cannot  long  stand  this 
long-range  fire  which  she  has  no  means  of  answering ;  but  be- 
fore Varro  can  decide  what  to  do,  with  terrific  rush  and  impetus, 
Hasdrubal  hurls  forward  the  horsemen  of  Spain  and  Gaul,  and 
in  an  instant  they  are  crashing  in  upon  the  valiant  knights  of 
Rome.  Doubtless  the  leader  of  the  latter  was  quick  to  move 
forward  to  meet  them,  to  gain  impetus  equal  to  their  own,  else 
he  was  no  cavalryman,  for  mounted  troops  must  never  receive  a 
charge  at  halt.  Certain  it  is  that  for  some  time  the  Roman 
right  sturdily  holds  its  own,  the  knights  doing  valiant  battle. 
But  they  have  no  defensive  armor;  their  spears  are  light  and  in- 
efficient; even  in  number  they  are  inferior  to  Hasdrubal,  and 
Varro  has  no  cavalry  on  that  flank  with  which  to  reinforce  them. 
Little  by  little,  they  are  borne  back ;  still  fighting  bravely,  are 
overpowered,  and,  presently,  fairly  driven  from  the  field  and 
sent  whirling  down  the  banks  of  the  Aufidus.  The  surviving 
knights  are  fleeing  for  their  lives,  and  all  the  serried  cavalry  of 
Spain  is  in  hot  pursuit.  The  right  of  the  Roman  line  is  swept 
away. 

Meantime,  far  over  to  the  other  flank,  the  Numidians  had  en- 
gaged the  cavalry  of  Latium  and  the  provinces,  and  here  stout 
resistance  is  encountered.  Maharbal,  having  only  lightly 
equipped  light  horsemen,  cannot  make  headway  against  the 
determined  ranks  of  Italy,  and  the  battle  there  is  by  no  means 
going  in  favor  of  the  Carthaginians,  when,  to  the  dismay  of  the 
Romans,  a  compact  and  admirably  handled  force  of  cavalry  is 
seen  riding  up  from  their  right  rear.  It  is  the  division  of  Has- 
drubal returning  from  victorious  pursuit,  and  about  to  plunge  in 
to  the  aid  of  Numidia.  These  latter  horsemen  redouble  the 
energy  of  their  wild  charge  as  they  see  the  approach  of  comrade 
cavalry ;  and,  caught  between  two  opposing  forces,  the  horse- 
men of  Latium  scatter  over  the  plain  in  headlong  flight  toward 
the  sea.  The  Roman  left  is  gone.  All  the  cavalry  of  Varro  is 
vanquished. 

But  here  still  is  his  infantry,  alone  sufficient  to  outnumber  the 
total  horse  and  foot  of  Hannibal.  Here  are  the  legions,  fresh, 
impatient,  valorous.  He  has  held  them  inactive  a  while,  watch- 


THE   ROMANS   DEMORALIZED. 

ing,  with  manifest  stupefaction,  the  discomfiture  of  his  horse- 
men. But  now  the  lines  of  Hannibal  advance.  The  centre  is 
fairly  bulging  out  far  to  the  front.  Varro  orders  the  legions 
directly  in  front  of  the  ranks  of  Spanish  and  Gaulish  infantry  to 
charge  squarely  forward,  while  those  to  the  right  and  left  in- 
cline inwards,  converging,  crushing  in  the  Carthaginian  centre. 
With  all  his  might  he  speeds  them  on,  and  with  mighty  shock 
the  legions  of  Rome  close  in  combat  with  a  disciplined  but  in- 
ferior foe,  and,  utterly  unable  to  make  a  stand  against  such 
immense  masses  as  those  charging  columns  of  Varro,  the  ranks 
of  Spain  and  Gaul,  confusedly  intermingled,  fall  slowly  back. 
The  great  wedge  of  the  legions  bursts  through  the  Carthaginian 
centre,  and  presently,  in  triumphant  rush,  the  plumed  helmets 
are  hewing  their  way,  a  black  and  scarlet  and  brazen  torrent, 
squarely  through  the  solid  ranks  and  back  upon  the  supports 
and  reserves.  Rome  wins  in  the  centre. 

But,  converging  as  are  the  legions  on  these  advanced  foot- 
men in  the  centre,  they  now  crowd,  jostle  and  hamper  one  an- 
other; the  free  fighting  space  of  the  soldier  is  filled  up;  the 
legions  on  the  flanks  of  the  charge  have  jammed  in  those  in  the 
interior.  Men  can  no  longer  hurl  the  pilum  or  brandish  the 
sword ;  their  shields  are  entangled,  they  trip  over  one  another, 
and  their  freedom  of  movement  is  utterly  gone.  Worse  than 
that :  they  have  rushed  together  to  pierce  the  projecting  centre 
of  Carthage  without  a  thought  of  the  troops  on  their  own  flanks,, 
and  now,  though  they  have  forced  their  victorious  way  through, 
and  well  to  the  rear  of  the  African  line,  just  what  happened  to- 
the  Sacae  and  Persians  at  Marathon  befalls  them.  They  are 
overlapped,  right  and  left,  by  the  African  infantry.  Their  front 
is  still  struggling  with  the  Spaniards,  but  their  flanks  are  open, 
and  now  these  sturdy  spearmen  of  Carthage  face  inwards,  and 
down  they  come.  The  legions  of  Rome  are  hemmed  in  on 
three  sides. 

And  now  from  south,  from  east  and  west  the  barbed  lines  of 
spearmen  close  with  fresh  vigor  upon  the  huddled  mass  of 
legionaries.  Brave,  devoted,  heroic  as  are  those  trained  war- 
riors, they  have  been  horribly  misled,  they  are  penned  like 
8 


114  CANNES. 

dumb  driven  cattle  where  only  those  on  the  outskirts  can  battle 
at  all.  Thousands  of  stalwart,  valiant  men  are  crushed  together 
in  a  struggling  mass,  unable  to  extricate  themselves,  unable  to 
fight,  unable  to  fall  back  and  reform  for  another  attack.  In  all 
the  din  and  uproar,  in  all  the  fearful  confusion  that  ensues,  the 
orders  of  officers  are  unheard  or  unheeded.  The  corn-fields  of 
Apulia  are  trodden  down  and  beaten  into  dust  by  the  dense 
mob  of  helpless  humanity,  rapidly  being  trodden  under  foot  in 
its  turn.  The  legions  of  Rome  are  being  ground  into  powder. 
Farther  and  farther  along  their  heaving  flanks  lap  the  lines  of 
Carthage.  Spanish  sword,  Gaulish  spear  drip  with  blood  from 
thousands  of  ghastly  wounds.  Only  one  chance  is  left.  Fall 
back,  fall  back  and  form,  is  the  cry.  And  partly  in  obedience  to 
the  summons,  partly  yielding  to  the  savage  pressure  on  front 
and  flank,  the  crested  torrent  begins  to  surge  back  towards 
Cannae.  Already  the  rearmost  men  are  turning  back  and  giving 
way,  but  all  too  late.  Exultant,  frenzied  from  their  triumphant 
pursuit,  back  come  the  squadrons  of  Hasdrubal,  Mago,  and  the 
wild  irregulars  of  Maharbal.  A  few  seconds  suffice  to  range 
their  disciplined  ranks ;  then,  in  headlong  charge,  with  deafening 
war-cry,  they  rush  in  upon  the  hitherto  unassailed  rear  of  the 
legions,  and  now,  vae  victis,  Rome  is  hemmed  in  on  every  side. 
All  is  lost,  but  honor. 

For  hours  the  dreadful  work  goes  on.  It  is  mere  slaughter, 
carnage  now.  Little  by  little  the  great  square  contracts,  the 
lines  of  Carthage  close  in,  the  brazen  armor  of  Rome  becomes 
the  pavement  of  the  lithe  Spaniard  or  swarthy  African.  The 
valor,  the  manhood,  the  brawn  and  sinew  of  Italy  is  sacrificed  to 
the  criminal  blundering  of  the  idol  of  the  populace,  and,  true  to 
the  teachings  of  his  youth,  the  hero  of  the  pavement  and  sham- 
bles has  butchered  the  army  of  his  countrymen.  In  almost  un- 
-paralleled  slaughter  the  eight  superb  legions  of  Rome  are  hewed 
and  hacked  to  death.  Consul,  pro-consul,  quaestor,  praetor, 
tribune,  senator  and  brave  heroes  of  the  infantry,  all  are  heaped 
among  the  slain,  ^imilius  Paullus  lies  there,  victim  of  the  mad 
blunder  he  strove  in  vain  to  avert.  Servilius,  the  gallant  pro- 
consul ;  Minucius,  valiant  chief  of  cavalry,  all  are  down,  and 


HANNIBAL'S   GREATEST   TRIUMPH. 


115 


with  them  one  hundred  of  the  highest  officers  in  the  Roman 
nation  ;  thousands  of  officers  of  the  line,  tens  of  thousands  of 
the  betrayed  and  butchered  soldiery. 

But  Varro  was  not  among  them.  The  idol  of  the  masses,  the 
self-taught,  self-sufficient  general  managed  to  slip  from  the 
meshes  of  the  net,  and,  leaving  his  betrayed  comrades  to  their 
fate,  to  spur  in  safety  from  the  field,  and  take  refuge  behind  the 
walls  of  Venusia. 

And  now,  with  eighty  thousand  Romans,  dead  or  dying  on 
the  field ;  with  two  great  camps,  and  all  their  munitions  of  war 
open  to  his  pillage ;  with  a  loss  of  only  six  thousand  of  his  own 
men,  Hannibal  is,  for  the  third  time,  victorious  over  Rome,  and 
the  final  victory  is  the  most  death-dealing  of  all.  It  is  the 
Carthaginian's  greatest  triumph.  It  is  Rome's  most  crushing 
defeat.  Any  other  nation  would  probably  have  sued  for  peace 
on  any  terms,  but  the  city,  Rome  itself,  still  stood  upon  its  seven 
hills ;  the  indomitable  Senate  was  still  there,  and  despite  Cannae, 
its  fearful  slaughter  and  awful  lesson,  Rome  was  still  steadfast. 
Nation  against  nation,  Rome  was  still  unconquered. 


DESTRUCTION   OF   THE    ROMAN     LEGION. 


ZAMA. 


202   B.  C. 

AD  Hannibal  been  promptly  reinforced  after 
his  great  victory  at  Cannse,  there  is  little 
question  as  to  what  would  have  been  the  fate 
of  Rome.  But  the  Carthaginians  were  not  a 
warlike  people.  Shrewd  merchants,  bold 
navigators  and  traders,  they  preferred  the 
arts  of  peace  to  any  glory  of  conquest.  They 
could  not  be  brought  to  realize  that  so  jeal- 
ous and  powerful  a  rival  as  Rome  must  be 
crippled  once  and  for  all,  or  she  would  never  rest  content  with  a 
divided  rule  over  the  Mediterranean  and  its  islands  and  sea- 
ports. It  was  their  love  for  commerce  and  trade,  their  natural 
indisposition  for  war  that  prompted  the  Carthaginians  to  sue  for 
peace,  after  successfully  battling  with  Rome  for  over  twenty 
years,  in  the  first  Punic  war.  It  was  this  same  trait  that  im- 
pelled them  now  to  withhold  from  Hannibal  the  men  and  means 
he  needed  to  crush  the  Roman  capital.  It  was  this  very  trait 
that  now  turned  the  tide  of  war  against  them,  brought  the  "  Sec- 
ond Punic"  to  a  close  with  the  terrible  and  decisive  battle  of 
Zama,  and  led,  in  the  next  century,  to  their  utter  annihilation. 
Penny-wise  and  pound-foolish,  Carthage  was  swept  from  the 
face  of  the  earth  when,  had  she  supported  Hannibal  in  answer 
to  his  call,  she  might  have  ruled  the  world. 

The  great  victory  of  Cannae  produced  no  great  enthusiasm  at 
home.  The  people  could  not  see  what  their  leaders  saw :  that 
Carthage  must  ruin  Rome  or  Rome  would  ruin  Carthage. 
Hannibal  had  been  away  five  years.  His  influence  was  not  felt 
in  the  home  councils.  The  Peace  party  had  the  upper  hand. 
(116) 


ACTIVITY   OF   THE   ROMANS.  117 

His  brothers,  Hasdrubal  and  Mago,  were  with  him  in  Italy. 
No  fit  representative  had  been  left  behind,  and  as  peace  reigned 
at  home  the  short-sighted  patriots  would  have  it  that  no  neces- 
sity existed  for  maintaining  the  army  abroad.  The  golden 
opportunity  was  frittered  away,  and  before  Carthage  could  real- 
ize it,  and  despite  the  appeals  and  efforts  of  Hannibal  and  Mago, 
Rome  had  sprung  from  her  stupor,  rallied  from  the  blow  of 
Cannae,  Scipio  Africanus  had  "  carried  the  war  into  Africa,"  and 
Rome  was  at  her  throat. 

Then  was  fought  the  battle  of  Zama.  A  brief  account  of  in- 
tervening events  is  necessary  to  an  understanding  of  the  loss  of 
the  immense  advantage  gained  by  Hannibal  at  Cannae. 

Rome  was  now  practically  alone.  She  had  not  more  than 
one  hundred  thousand  men,  and  all  Italy  had  deserted  her. 
Hannibal  ruled  supreme  in  Southern  Italy,  for  Samnium,  Cam- 
pania, Lucania  and  Bruttium  could  no  longer  stand  by  Rome. 
They  had  to  furnish  war  supplies,  and  even  soldiers  for  Hanni- 
bal's army,  or  be  sacked  for  disobedience.  Then,  too,  the  Gauls 
sent  him  large  reinforcements,  but  his  favorite  arm  was  the  cav- 
alry, and  this  he  could  not  strengthen  abroad.  He  needed 
horses  and  horsemen  from  Spain  and  Carthage,  and  Mago  was 
sent  thither  after  them. 

But  all  this  took  time,  and  meanwhile  Rome  was  straining 
every  nerve ;  the  valor,  the  grandeur  of  Roman  character,  was 
never  shown  to  better  advantage.  In  Spain,  thanks  to  the  army 
sent  thither  by  P.  Cornelius  Scipio,  she  had  been  steadily  gain- 
ing ground.  In  Italy  Hannibal  had  been  compelled  to  divide 
his  force  into  three  armies.  He  could  only  be  with  one  at  a 
time,  and  Rome  again  sent  out  her  legions  under  Fabius,  Grac- 
chus and  Marcellus,  avoiding  battle  where  they  had  to  meet  the 
cavalry  but  striking  incessantly  elsewhere,  at  the  communica- 
tions and  supply  depots  of  the  invaders.  Hannibal  failed  in  his 
attack  on  Tarentum.  Gracchus  fought  and  defeated  Hanno  at 
Beneventum,  well-nigh  destroying  his  army  of  1 7,000  men. 
And  though  Hannibal  subsequently  won  Tarentum  by  surprise, 
and  Hanno  partially  retrieved  his  losses,  enough  had  been  done 
by  Rome  to  revive  hope  and  confidence. 


118  ZAMA. 

•* 

Mago  returned  from  Carthage,  with  some  few  cavalry  and 
more  elephants,  at  last,  and  Hannibal  again  took  the  fiejd.  The 
brave  Roman  general,  Gracchus,  was  trapped  in  ambuscade  and 
killed  in  Lucania,  and  Hannibal  won  two  more  bloody  and  des- 
perate battles  in  Lucania  and  Apulia  over  the  forces  of  Cente- 
nius  and  Fulvius  Flaccus.  The  Roman  consuls  kept  up  vigor- 
ous siege  of  Capua,  however,  and  Hannibal  remained  in  the  extreme 
south  of  Italy,  well  away  from  Rome,  still  waiting  for  reinforce- 
ments. In  the  following  year,  it  is  true,  he  made  a  rapid  march 
against  the  capital,  but  found  the  garrison  ready  and  determined 
and  an  assault  hopeless.  Then  Rome  took  Capua  and  merci- 
lessly murdered  such  of  its  senators  as  had  not  poisoned  them- 
selves, and  though  unable  to  cope  with  Hannibal  in  the  field, 
her  garrisons  were  indomitable.  But  then  came  bad  news  from 
Spain.  Hasdrubal  had  been  sent  thither ;  had  successfully 
fought  the  Roman  legions  of  the  Scipios.  Both  Scipios  were 
killed,  and  Hasdrubal,  with  a  large  army,  was  coming  to  the 
support  of  his  brother,  Hannibal.  , 

In  the  year  208  B.  C,  eight  years  after  Cannae,  Hannibal  was 
still  master  of  Southern  Italy,  but  simply  holding  his  own.  A 
new,  a  young  Scipio  was  at  the  head  of  the  reorganized  Roman 
army  in  Spain,  and  among  the  praetors  of  the  year  appears  for 
the  first  time  a  name  that  will  live  forever  in  history  borne  by 
an  ancestor  of  him  who  made  it  famous  one  hundred  and  fifty 
years  later — the  name  of  Julius  Caesar. 

It  was  evident  to  all  that,  with  the  summer  of  the  following 
year,  Rome  would  be  attacked  from  all  sides  by  the  converging 
armies  of  the  sons  of  the  Thunderbolt,  as  Hamilcar  had  been 
named,  and  the  Romans  sought  among  themselves  for  leaders 
to  meet  and  drive  back  that  of  Hasdrubal..  Caius  Claudius 
Nero  and  Marcus  Livius  were  chosen  consuls  of  Rome.  The 
former  was  sent  to  hold  Hannibal  in  check,  while  to  Livius  was 
confided  the  battle  with  the  column  from  Spain.  Then  fortune 
favored  Rome.  Nero  intercepted  letters  from  Hasdrubal  to 
Hannibal  which  betrayed  to  him  the  whole  plan  of  the  cam- 
paign. With  admirable  energy  he  took  a  strong  detachment 
from  his  army,  marched  rapidly  north,  joined  Livius,  and  to- 


"SCIPIO  AFRICANUS." 

gether  they  attacked  and  terribly  defeated  the  northern  army  of 
Carthage,  killing  Hasdrubal  and  winning  for  Rome  the  decisive 
victory  of  the  campaign.  Less  than  a  week  later  the  ghastly 
head  of  Hasdrubal  was  flung  at  his  brother's  feet,  and  Hannibal 
groaned  aloud.  It  was  the  death-blow  to  Carthage. 

Meantime  young  Publius  Scipio,  son  of  him  who  had  been 
killed  in  action  there,  was  carrying  all  before  him  in  Spain.  As 
a  mere  boy  he  had  fought  at  Cannae,  and  when  only  twenty- 
seven  years  of  age  was  elected  pro-consul  for  the  Spanish  war. 
His  first  exploit  was  the  capture  of  New  Carthage ;  then  the 
news  of  the  great  victory  of  Nero  and  Livius  at  the  Metaurus 
spurred  him  into  further  effort ;  he  boldly  attacked  and  defeated 
a  large  Carthaginian  army  at  Elinga  or  Silpia,  drove  the  Afri- 
cans out  of  the  country,  returned  in  triumph  to  Rome,  and  was 
immediately  elected  consul. 

After  events  crowded  thick  and  fast.  Rome  was  elated.  Car- 
thage depressed  and  alarmed.  Scipio  carried  the  war  into  Africa. 
He  landed  near  Carthage,  laid  siege  to  Utica,  and,  during  the 
winter  that  followed,  by  dint  of  a  well-planned  surprise  and 
night  attack,  burned  and  destroyed  the  camp  of  the  Numidian 
and  Carthaginian  army,  then  commanded  by  Hasdrubal,  a  cou- 
sin of  Hannibal's,  utterly  dispersing  or  killing  60,000  Numidi- 
ans  and  30,000  Carthaginians.  This  terrible  blow  was  speedily 
followed  by  another,  and  then,  in  desperation,  Hannibal  and 
Mago  were  recalled.  Italy  was  freed  from  the  presence  of  the 
invaders,  and  Carthage  humbly  sued  for  peace  on  the  victor's 
own  terms.  These  were  hard  enough.  Carthage  pledged  herself 
to  abandon  Italy  and  Gaul ;  to  cede  Spain  and  all  the  islands  be- 
tween Italy  and  Africa ;  to  give  up  all  war  ships  but  twenty,  and 
to  pay  an  immense  sum  of  money.  This  was  early  in  202  B.  C. 

As  we  have  no  Carthaginian  historian  the  Roman  account 
has  to  be  accepted  for  all  that  followed.  All  the  blame  is 
thrown  on  Carthage,  and  "  Punica  Fides  "  became  a  sneering  by- 
word to  all  posterity.  Rome  alleged  that  within  a  few  months, 
emboldened  by  the  return  of  Hannibal,  Carthage  broke  the 
terms  of  the  treaty  and,  in  violation  of  the  law  of  nations,  strove 
to  seize  some  Roman  officers  sent  to  inquire  into  an  illegal 


120  ZAMA- 

detention  of  Roman  vessels  in  the  harbor  of  Carthage.  At  all 
events  the  war  broke  out  again.  Hannibal  had  landed  at  Lep- 
tis  and  gone  into  camp  at  Zama,  five  days'  journey  southwest  of 
Carthage,  and  there  Scipio  hastened  to  meet  him.  The  armies 
confronted  each  other  on  a  broad,  open  plain.  Of  the  exact 
numbers  of  each  there  is  no  authentic  account,  but  the  belief  of 
historians  appears  to  be  that  they  were  equally  matched,  except 
that  Hannibal  had  with  him  eighty  trained  war-elephants,  and 
this  fact  gave  him  a  decided  advantage.  On  the  other  hand,  he 
was  deficient  in  the  very  arm  on  which  he  had  hitherto  been  so 
accustomed  to  rely — his  light  cavalry.  Only  2,000  Numidian 
horsemen  remained  to  him  of  the  great  numbers  he  formerly 
controlled,  and,  to  his  great  annoyance,  he  found  them  con- 
fronted by  4,000  of  their  own  countrymen  under  Massinissa,  one 
of  their  own  chieftains  who,  for  a  long  time,  had  been  an  active 
ally  of  Carthage,  but  who  had  become  a  convert  to  Scipio's 
wonderful  influence  while  in  Spain.  He  was  now  passionately 
devoted  to  the  cause  of  Rome,  and  only  a  day  or  two  before  the 
battle  of  Zama  had  rejoined  his  great  leader,  whom  he  had  pre- 
viously served  so  well  at  the  destruction  of  the  Carthaginian 
camp  and  in  the  battle  which  followed  a  month  later.  Besides 
his  4,000  light  horsemen  Massinissa  brought  6,000  veteran 
infantry. 

Scipio  Africanus  was  a  soldier  of  the  very  first  order.  He 
had  fought  and  beaten  the  armies  of  Carthage  again  and  again, 
but  only  once  had  he  encountered  them  when  fighting  under 
the  great  Hannibal ;  that  was  at  Cannae ;  and  he  well  knew  that 
now  there  was  need  of  all  his  energies.  Those  war-elephants 
were  a  source  of  some  perplexity.  Their  charge  and  rush  upon 
the  ranks  of  the  legions  had  always  been  attended  with  disaster 
or,  at  least,  confusion,  and  he  determined  on  a  plan  to  neutralize 
their  power. 

Ordinarily  the  legions  were  drawn  up  in  what  might  be 
termed  loose  order,  though  moving  with  all  the  precision  of 
machinery.  Each  man  occupied  about  three  feet  "  fighting 
space  " — three  feet  to  his  right  and  left  hand  neighbor,  three 
feet  to  the  rank  in  rear ;  and  these  rear  ranks  covered  the  inter- 


DISPOSITIONS   FOR    BATTLE.  121 

val  between  the  men  in  front.  Scipio  resolved  on  another  sys- 
tem for  the  battle  about  to  be  fought.  The  men,  instead  of 
standing  in  this  "quincunx"  order,  "covered"  one 'another 
accurately.  Then  the  files  were  closed  in  towards  one  another, 
leaving,  at  regular  intervals  along  the  front,  lanes  or  avenues 
from  front  to  rear  through  the  legions,  each  lane  wide  enough 
for  an  elephant  to  rush  through  unimpeded.  These  lanes  were 
then  loosely  filled  with  light,  unarmored  troops,  who  were  in- 
structed to  break  away  before  the  rush  of  the  animals,  and  so 
entice  them  in  through  the  lanes,  so  on  out  to  the  rear  of  the 
legions,  where  they  could  be  easily-  surrounded  and  lanced  to 
death,  or,  at  least,  put  out  of  the  way  of  further  usefulness  for 
the  time  being.  By  posting  a  few  legionaries  at  the  head  of 
each  of  these  avenues,  so  that  the  front  of  the  line  might  look 
uniform,  these  traps  were  entirely  concealed  from  the  Cartha- 
ginians, who  placed  great  reliance  on  the  powers  of  their  ele- 
phants, and  who  confidently  expected  to  throw  the  beautiful 
array  of  the  glittering  legions  into  the  wildest  confusion. 

His  footmen  being  thus  disposed,  Scipio  posted  his  cavalry  on 
the  flanks;  Massinissa,  with  the  Numidians,  on  the  right;  Lae- 
lius,  with  the  Italians,  on  the  left;  and  serenely  awaited  the 
result. 

.And  now  Hannibal  moved  forward  with  his  army.  All  had 
gone  wrong  with  Carthage  of  late,  and  he  was  to  make  one 
supreme  effort  to  right  her.  His  veteran  soldiers  followed  him 
with  little  hope,  but  absolutely  without  fear.  They  were  sublime 
in  their  confidence  in  the  leader  who  had  never  yet  made  a  blun- 
der— never  yet  met  a  victor. 

First  came  the  eighty  elephants,  dispersed  at  regular  intervals, 
covering  his  entire  front.  Behind  them  marched  the  first  line 
of  his  infantry,  twelve  thousand  strong,  made  up  entirely  of  the 
foreign  troops  in  the  service  of  Carthage — Moors,  Gauls,  Ligu- 
rians  and  Balearic  islanders.  Behind  them,  and  probably  a  hun- 
dred yards  or  so  separated  from  them,  marched  a  second  line, 
composed  of  African  subjects  of  Carthage  and  of  Carthaginians 
themselves.  And  still  further  in  rear  came  the  fourth  line — the 
veterans  of  Italy,  the  flower  of  the  African  army,  the  soldiers 


122  ZAMA. 

who  had  marched,  fought  and  bled  with  him  all  over  southern 
Europe.  On  them  he  looked  with  reliance  that  nothing  could 
shake,  and  with  them  Hannibal  himself  took  his  station.  The 
two  thousand  Numidian  cavalry  marched  on  his  left  front,  so  as 
to  be  opposed  by  their  own  brethren  under  Massinissa;  while 
the  few  Carthaginian  horsemen  still*  left  to  him  were  posted  on 
his  right 

The  battle  opened  by  a  wild  scurry  and  dash  of  the  Numid- 
ians  on  both  sides.  Very  probably  nothing  was  expected  to 
come  of  it,  for  almost  immediately  Hannibal  gave  the  signal  to 
let  loose  the  elephants,  and  then  all  eyes  were  strained  to  see 
the  result  of  their  lumbering  but  tremendous  charge.  On  they 
come — huge,  rolling,  unwieldy  monsters  in  headlong  dash  across 
the  sandy  plain — but  not  a  sign  comes  from  the  army  of  Rome. 
The  legions  stand  like  burnished  statues;  the  hot  sun  of  Africa 
blazes  on  their  brazen  shields  and  crested  helmets;  the  solid 
earth  trembles  beneath  the  thunder  and  tramp  of  the  excited 
brutes  now  so  near.  Suddenly,  with  discordant  blast,  from  right 
to  left  every  trumpet  in  the  Roman  lines  bursts  into  wild  alarum 
— a  frightful,  ear-splitting  sound:  never  have  the  elephants  heard 
anything  to  equal  it,  and  they  are  scared  out  of  all  possibility 
of  use.  Some,  panic-stricken,  tear  off  to  the  right  and  left 
around  the  flanks;  others  turn  and  rush  back;  others  still, 
urged  on  by  their  maddened  drivers,  dash  onward  at  the  legions, 
and  eagerly  availing  themselves  of  the  friendly  lanes  so  suddenly 
opened  before  them,  pitch  headlong  in  and  are  decoyed  far  to 
the  rear;  few  do  any  damage  whatever.  Hannibal's  most 
dreaded  chargers  have  been  tricked  iuto  failure.  Rome  has 
outwitted  Carthage.  In  their  panic  several  elephants  on  each 
flank  have  dashed  back  among  the  cavalry  of  Carthage,  throwing 
them  into  disorder.  Quick  as  a  flash  Laelius  and  Massinissa 
note  it,  and  away  they  go  with  their  squadrons  to  complete  the 
rout.  Quicker  than  the  work  of  Hasdrubal  and  Mago  in  Italy, 
the  cavalry  of  Carthage  is  swept  away  in  hopeless  flight. 

And  then  the  lines  of  footmen  crashed  together.  But  the 
legions  had  now  resumed  their  old  formation.  The  foreign  mer- 
cenaries of  Carthage  could  not  stand  before  them.  They  broke, 


A    RUINED    ARMY    AND   A    RUINED    CAUSE.  123 

reeled  back  on  the  second  line,  and  hacked  and  hewed  their 
way  through  their  own  supports,  the  legions  close  behind, 
Attacked  thus  by  friend  and  foe,  the  Carthaginians  could  not 
long  hold  their  ground.  Thousands  fell  in  the  vain  attempt, 
and  at  last  the  whole  army  recoiled  upon  Hannibal  with  his  vet- 
eran reserve.  Scipio  restrained  his  victorious  men  a  few  moments 
to  extricate  them  from  the  swarms  of  dead  and  dying  and  pris- 
oners— then  hurled  them  forward  on  the  spears  of  the  veterans. 
Then  indeed  the  battle  became  hot.  On  both  sides  courage  and 
discipline  were  well-nigh  perfect.  The  men  fought  under  the 
eyes  of  the  two  finest  chieftains  of  their  century.  Neither  side 
would  yield  an  inch,  and  had  the  legions  of  Scipio  and  the  vete- 
rans of  Hannibal  been  left  to  fight  it  out,  there  is  no  telling  how 
it  would  have  ended.  For  over  an  hour,  hand  to  hand,  steel  to 
steel,  the  savage  work  went  on;  but  at  last  the  cavalry  of  Lselius 
and  Massinissa  came  back  from  pursuit,  and  with  exultant  shouts 
charged  home  on  the  rear  of  the  Carthaginian  reserves.  Then 
almost  to  a  man  the  veterans  of  Italy  died  in  their  tracks.  Sur- 
rounded, cut  off  from  all  chance  of  escape  on  the  level  plain,  they 
could  only  court  a  soldier's  death.  The  sun  went  down  on 
a  ruined  army  and  a  ruined  cause.  Zama  was  the  last  hope  of 
Hannibal. 

Twenty  thousand  soldiers  of  Carthage  were  there  slain;  twenty 
thousand  more  were  taken  prisoners.  Hannibal  himself  cut  his 
way  through  when  his  presence  could  no  longer  result  in  benefit, 
and  made  his  way  to  Carthage,  where  his  services  would  be 
needed  more  than  ever. 

This  splendid  victory  of  Scipio's  resulted  in  the  utter  subjec- 
tion of  Carthage.  She  acceded  to  the  harsh  terms  of  her  con- 
querors sadly  but  helplessly,  even  giving  one  hundred  of  her 
youth  as  hostages  for  future  observation  of  her  treaties.  She 
retained  only  ten  war-ships,  surrendered  all  prisoners,  deserters, 
even  her  elephants,  and  agreed  to  engage  in  no  war  even  in 
Africa  without  Roman  consent,  besides  paying  an  immense  fine. 
As  for  Rome,  as  the  result  of  Zama  and  the  end  of  the  second 
Punic  war,  she  now  became  the  ruler  of  Italy,  Sicily,  Corsica, 
Sardinia,  most  of  Spain  and  virtually  of  Northern  Africa  and  the 


124 


ZAMA. 


Mediterranean.  Hannibal  was  driven  from  his  native  country, 
and  wandered  about  from  kingdom  to  kingdom  striving  to  find 
a  command  in  any  service  that  might  be  at  war  with  hated 
Rome,  finally  dying  at  the  age  of  sixty-four  at  the  court  of 
Prusias,  in  Bithynia — probably  by  suicide  to  avoid  falling  into 
the  hands  of  the  Romans. 

Broken  as  she  was,  Carthage  still  retained  her  superb  city  and 
harbor,  with  her  seven  hundred  thousand  inhabitants,  and,  in 
her  jealousy,  Rome  oppressed  and  humbled  her  until  at  last 
again  she  was  goaded  into  resentment.  One  hundred  and  fifty 
years  before  Christ,  in  misery  and  desperation,  the  Carthaginians 
took  up  arms  for  the  third  Punic  war.  It  was  brief  enough. 
In  four  years  their  proud  city  was  razed  to  the  ground — not  one 
stone  was  left  upon  another.  Their  territory  became  a  Roman 
province,  and  they  themselves — those  who  were  wretched  enough 
to  survive — wanderers  upon  the  face  of  the  earth.  Carthage 
was  no  more. 


CHARGE  OF  HANNIBAL'S  ELEPHANTS. 


CYNOSCEPHAL.E. 

197  B.  C. 

NDER  Philip  of  Macedon,  pupil  of  Epamin- 
ondas  and  father  of  Alexander  the  Great, 
Macedon  rose  to  power  and  prominence,  and 
the  Macedonian  phalanx  became  the  most 
perfect  military  machine  of  the  old  days. 
Under  another  Philip  of  Macedon,  150  years 
afterwards,  both  phalanx  and  monarchy 
went  to  pieces  before  the  legions  of  Rome. 

Three  times  did  Macedon  become  in- 
volved with  the  great  nation  that  rose  to  the  west.  The  first 
war  was  indecisive  and  of  no  lasting  importance.  The  second 
was  the  outgrowth  of  the  first,  and  in  a  measure  brought  about 
by  the  active  sympathy  shown  by  King  Philip  to  Hannibal 
during  the  second  Punic  war.  No  sooner  was  Zama  won  and 
Rome  at  liberty  to  turn  from  Carthage  and  .settle  her  quarrel 
with  Philip  than,  in  200  B.  C.,  the  Senate  declared  war  against 
Macedon.  Six  new  legions  were  formed,  and  with  two  of  these 
the  consul  Galba  landed  at  Apollonia,  on  the  shore  of  Illyria. 
As  part  of  the  spoil  of  Carthage  he  had  with  him  also  several 
war-elephants  and  1,000  Numidian  cavalry. 

Up  to  this  time  the  Macedonian  phalanx  had  been  invincible. 
Its  arms  and  formation  have  been  described  under  the  head  of 
Arbela,  but  now  it  was  destined  to  meet  its  conqueror  in  the 
superb  legion  of  Rome,  and,  though  it  must  be  remembered 
that  for  over  a  century  the  Macedonians  and  Greeks  generally 
had  been  steadily  falling  off  from  the  high  standard  of  disci- 
pline and  physical  powers  for  which  they  had  been  renowned 

(125) 


126  CYNOSCEPHAL^E. 

under  Lycurgus,  Epaminondas  and  Alexander,  and  that  the 
Romans  had  as  steadily  been  arriving  at  an  almost  perfect  de- 
velopment of  military  strength  and  prowess,  it  is  impossible  to 
understand  how  the  hitherto  impenetrable  phalanx  was  ruined, 
as  it  was  in  the  second  and  third  Macedonian  wars,  without  a 
description  of  the  legion  itself.  At  Cynoscephalae  and  Pydna  the 
legion  laid  the  phalanx  at  its  feet,  and  it  is  here,  therefore,  that 
its  description  seems  most  appropriate. 

The  Roman  soldier  of  the  Caesars  was  the  result  of  nine  cen- 
turies of  experiment  in  actual  war.  At  the  end  of  the  second 
Punic,  200  years  before  Christ,  he  had  not  yet  reached  the  de- 
gree of  perfection  attained  two  centuries  later,  and  the  legion 
itself  differed  materially  from  that  which  maintained  the  standard 
of  the  emperors.  But  even  before  the  days  of  Cannae  and  Zama 
military  education  had  become  compulsory  throughout  the  Ro- 
man provinces,  and  military  duty  was  exacted  of  all  able-bodied 
citizens  when  the  need  of  the  republic  so  demanded. 

The  consular  legion  of  200  B.  C.  comprised  4,500  men,  divided 
as  follows:  1,200  hastati,  the  newest  and  least  experienced  of  the 
legionary  troops;  1,200  principcs,  well-trained  soldiers;  1,200 
velites,  light  troops  or  skirmishers;  600  triarii,  veterans  in  re- 
serve ;  300  cqidtes,  knights  and  gentlemen  of  families  of  rank, 
acting  as  cavalry.  The  legion  when  formed  in  order  of  battle 
or  for  martial  exercise  was  drawn  up  in  three  lines ;  the  hastati 
and  principes  being  divided  into  ten  maniples  or  companies  of 
120  men  each;  while  the  veteran  triarii,  who  formed  the  third 
line,  had  only  sixty  to  the  company.  Each  maniple  was  com- 
manded by  a  centurion,  or  captain,  and  for  other  officers  had  a 
second  centurion,  or  lieutenant,  and  two  sergeants,  with  a  dc- 
camis,  or  corporal,  to  every  ten  men.  Each  of  the  three  lines 
was  commanded  by  its  senior  captain;  no  such  offices  as  our 
modern  colonelcies,  majorities,  etc.,  being  adopted,  and  the  senior 
centurion  of  the  triarii  commanded  the  whole  legion  when  its 
general  was  absent.  He  was  called  the  primipilus.  The  staff 
of  the  legion  consisted  of  six  tribunes,  who  attended  to  all  the 
details  of  feeding,  clothing  and  paying  the  men,  and  who  com- 
manded the  legion  two  months  at  a  time  in  turn,  until,  during 


COMPARISON  OF  THE   FORCES.  127 

the  civil  wars,  a  Icgatus,  or  lieutenant-general,  corresponding  to 
our  modern  brigadier,  was  assigned  to  the  command. 

The  cavalry  of  the  consular  legion  was  divided  into  ten  turma, 
or  troops  of  thirty  horsemen  each,  and  as  these  little  troops 
were  composed  of  youths  of  noble  families  whose  services  in  war 
were  to  be  the  stepping-stones  to  prominence  in  public  life,  their 
officers  were  greater  in  number  than  those  of  the  foot  soldiery, 
there  being  three  decurions  to  each  turma,  the  senior  com- 
manding. 

The  velites  were  divided  equally  among  the  maniples  of  the 
lines  of  battle,  each  company  having  a  certain  number  of  these 
active  and  light-armed  troops  to  protect  its  front  and  flanks  from 
sudden  attack. 

Now  while  in  point  of  numbers  the  consular  legion  differed 
from  that  of  the  empire,  and  while  some  alterations  were  made 
in  the  order  of  battle,  the  armament  and  the  individual  instruc- 
tion of  the  soldier  remained  practically  the  same.  The  footmen 
of  the  line  of  the  legion  were  equipped  alike  with  two  barbed, 
iron-headed  javelins,  one  of  them,  the  pilum,  being  six"  feet  in 
length,  terminated  by  a  massive,  eighteen-inch  point,  and  this 
terrible  weapon  the  soldier  was  constantly  exercised  in  hurling 
with  a  sure,  steady  hand  and  muscular  arm.  The  other,  a  lighter 
spear,  was  generally  retained  as  defence  against  cavalry.  Be- 
sides his  spears  the  soldier  carried  on  the  right  hip  a  short,  heavy, 
two-edged  cut-and-thrust  sword,  a  Spanish  invention  that  Rome 
had  adopted  before  the  days  of  Hannibal's  invasion.  He  was 
taught  to  hurl  the  pilum  when  about  ten  or  twelve  paces  from 
the  enemy,  then  to  draw  his  short  sword  and  rush  in.  for  close 
combat;  and  here  the  Roman  soldier  was  a  foe  to  be  dreaded. 
His  defensive  armor  was  a  massive  helmet  of  brass,  surmounted 
by  tall  plumes  of  red  and  black  ;  a  breast-plate  or  coat  of  mail ; 
greaves,  or  metal-bound  boots,  worn  at  first  only  on  the  right  leg 
but  afterwards  on  both ;  while  on  his  left  arm  he  carried  a  pon- 
derous, oblong  shield,  four  feet  long,  two  and  a  half  wide,  made 
on  wooden  frame,  covered  with  bull's-hide,  but  banded  and 
plated  with  brass,  the  whole  being  semi-cylindrical  in  shape. 

Drawn  up  in  order  of  battle  the  legion  was  a  superb  sight. 


128  CYNOSCEPHAL/E. 

Its  armor  glistened  in  the  sunlight  and  its  plumes  waved  and 
nodded  in  the  breeze:  The  men  by  incessant  exercise  were  de- 
veloped to  great  physical  strength,  and  handled  their  massive 
"weapons  with  the  utmost  ease.  Modern  soldiers  could  not  begin 
to  stagger  along  under  the  weight  with  which  the  Roman  foot- 
man cheerily  trudged  his  twenty  mjles  in  six  marching  hours: 
for,  besides  his  shield  and  arms,  the  Roman  carried  about  him 
his  food,  his  cooking  kit,  portions  of  his  tent,  or  hut,  and  his 
intrenching  tools  ;  and  the  instant  the  legion  was  halted  or  called 
to  prepare  for  action  these  "  impedimenta "  were  thrown  aside 
and  the  soldier  stepped  forth  fresh  and  vigorous,  ready  for 
battle. 

Constant  practice,  constant  discipline  and  exercise  was  the 
secret  of  the  grand  series  of  successes  that  soon  attended  the 
Roman  arms ;  and  one  notable  thing  to  be  remembered  is  that 
the  arms,  with  which  their  daily  instruction  was  conducted,  were 
just  twice  the  weight  of  those  with  which  they  rushed  into  bat- 
tle. His  fighting  tools  felt  like  playthings  in  the  grasp  of  the 
stalwart  Roman,  and,  as  all  these  points  had  been  neglected 
more  and  more  among  the  nations  to  the  east,  it  is  easy  to  begin 
to  see  how  those  terrible  short  swords  were  soon  to  hew  their 
way  over  the  Hellespont  and  into  the  heart  of  Asia. 

But  now  comes  the  point  in  which,  most  radically  of  all,  the 
legion  differed  from  the  phalanx.  The  latter,  we  have  seen,  was 
one  compact  mass ;  the  syntagma  being  sixteen  front,  sixteen 
deep,  armed  with  the  long,  unwieldy  "  24-foot"  sarissa;  and  cov- 
ered by  locked  shields.  A  terrific  force  when  charging  down 
hill  or  on  level*  ground ;  a  terrible  foe  to  meet  spear  to  spear ; 
but  clumsy,  helpless  if  attacked  in  flank  or  rear,  and  easily 
broken  on  rough  ground.  The  formation  of  the  legion  was 
science  and  strength  combined.  It  was  far  more  soldierly. 

Each  man  had  three  feet  "  fighting  space"  to  begin  with,  three 
feet  from  shoulder  to  shoulder  in  the  ranks,  three  feet  from 
breast  to  back  in  the  files.  It  was  an  open  order.  More  than 
that :  instead  of  "  covering  "  each  other  in  file,  the  men  of  the 
even  numbered  ranks  stood  opposite  the  intervals  between  the 
men  of  the  odd  numbered,  in  what  is  called  quincunx  order. 


THE   ROMAN   LEGION.  129 

By  two  short  steps  to  the  front  the  even  numbered  rank  could 
come  into  line  with  the  odd,  forming  four  solid  ranks  (for  the 
legion  was  generally  drawn  up  eight  deep).  By  a  side  step  to 
the  right  the  even  numbered  ranks  could  place  themselves  in 
rear  of  the  men  of  the  odd  ranks,  forming  the  maniple  in  closed 
files  with  three  feet  interval  between  them.  A  great  advantage, 
for  a  wearied  or  exhausted  line  of  hastati  or  principes,  without 
falling  back  one  step,  could  instantly  be  replaced  by  a  fresh  line 
from  the  rear  which,  rushing  up  through  the  open  spaces,  could 
hurl  its  pita  in  the  faces  of  the  pressing  foe,  draw  its  swords,  and 
then,  as  the  wearied  line  fell  back,  the  new  men  sprang  into 
their  places  with  the  quickness  of  thought,  and  the  panting  foe- 
men  were  confronted  by  a  regiment  of  perfectly  fresh  antagonists. 

The  legion  could  face  to  the  right,  left  or  rear,  was  ready  to 
fight  at  any  instant,  in  any  direction.  The  phalanx  was  led- 
like  in  its  weight,  the  legion  steel-like  in  elasticity,  and  could  it 
once  hew  its  way  in  through  the  hedge  of  Macedonian  pikes,  or 
entrap  the  solid  mass  of  Macedonia's  hoplites  into  boggy  or 
broken  ground,  there  was  no  question  as  to  which  formation 
would  be  the  more  effective. 

Remembering  now  that  with  the  Romans  all  was  discipline,, 
skill  and  enthusiastic  faith  in  their  physical  prowess  ;  that  with 
the  Macedonians  there  had  been  no  such  soldiers  as  Alexander 
for  more  than  a  century,  and  all  martial  exercises  had  been 
neglected ;  the  reader  who  has  seen  the  phalanx  sweep  resist- 
lessly  through  an  hundred  times  its  weight  in  foemen,  will  be 
prepared  for  what  follows  :  its  utter  demolition  at  Cynoscephalae. 

The  present  Philip  of  Macedon  was  a  good  soldier,  a  man  of 
much  energy  and  intelligence,  but  of  no  principle.  He  had 
made  many  enemies  in  Greece,  and  his  kingdom  was  very  gen- 
erally assailed  when  the  Romans,  under  Galba,  landed  at  Apol- 
lonia.  Hastening  to  meet  them,  he  moved  with  an  army  of 
about  equal  size  into  Western  Macedonia,  a  wild  and  unsettled 
region.  He  was  somewhat  confounded  by  this  sudden  move  of 
Rome,  and  would  gladly  have  made  peace  could  he  have  done 
so  without  dishonor. 

Rome's  pretence  for  the  war  was  that  in  a  recent  invasion  of 
9 


130  CYNOSCEPHAL^:. 

Attica,  King  Philip  had  made  "  an  attack  on  a  state  in  alliance 
with  Rome,"  but  jealousy  and  fear  of  Macedonian  conquest  in 
Asia  and  her  power  over  the  Greeks  generally,  was  the  real 
cause. 

It  was  late  in  the  year  200  B.  C.  that  the  Romans  landed. 
In  the  following  spring  some  indecisive  encounters  took  place, 
and  yet  nothing  of  importance  occurred  until  the  ^Etolians, 
Dardani  and  Illyrians  joined  in  the  uprising  against  Macedon,  a 
Roman  fleet  appeared  off  the  eastern  coast,  and  Philip  had  to 
fall  back  pursued  by  Galba.  A  battle  was  fought  in  a  wooded 
mountain  pass,  and  the  Macedonian  spears  proved  clumsy  and 
useless  in  such  a  position,  and  Philip  had  to  retreat  still  farther. 
But  Galba  was  timid  and  went  back  to  the  coast,  and  as  between 
Rome  and  Macedon  nothing  further  happened  until  the  summer 
of  198  B.  C,  when  the  new  consul,  Titus  Quinctius  Flaminius, 
came  over,  heavily  reinforced  the  legions  already  in  Illyria,  and 
started  a  new  campaign.  Like  Rome's  most  successful  generals, 
Flaminius  was  a  young  man,  only  thirty,  skillful  as  a  soldier  and 
successful  as  a  diplomatist.  Philip  met  him  in  conference  and 
proposed  terms  of  peace,  but  the  Roman  demands  were  too  ex- 
acting, and  they  parted  to  settle  the  differences  in  battle. 
Treachery  of  some  Epirots  enabled  Flaminius  to  win  the  first 
-advantage  and  drive  Philip  from  his  camp.  Then  the  Achaeans 
allied  themselves  with  the  Romans,  and  the  affairs  of  Macedon 
became  desperate.  Philip  fell  back,  and  during  the  winter  en- 
deavored once  more  to  make  peace.  Two  months  armistice 
was  agreed  upon  while  envoys  were  sent  to  Rome.  They  came 
back  disappointed.  Nothing  would  satisfy  the  Senate  but  the 
total  surrender  by  Macedon  of  all  her  foreign  possessions,  and 
Philip  would  not  listen  to  such  a  proposition. 

Then  began  the  spring  campaign  of  197  B.  C.  Flaminius  had 
managed  to  possess  himself  of  Thebes  in  Bceotia,  and  by  this 
means  to  break  off  communication  between  the  Macedonians  to 
the  north  and  their  garrison  at  Corinth.  From  this  point  he 
marched  northward  into  Thessaly,  intending  to  assault  Philip, 
whom  he  expected  to  find  guarding  the  pass  of  Tempe. 

But  Philip  had  gained  confidence,  his  wrath  against  Rome  was 


PHILIP   HOPEFUL  AND   CONFIDENT. 

now  very  great,  and  in  his  eagerness  for  battle  he  determined 
not  to  await  the  coming  of  Flaminius,  but  to  march  southward 
to  meet  him,  and  so  it  happened  that  one  gloomy,  rainy  day  the 
Roman  vanguard  suddenly  and  unexpectedly  ran  into  the  ad- 
vance of  Macedonia. 

North  of  the  little  town  of  Scotussa  in  Pelasgiotis,  a  district 
of  Eastern  Thessaly  that  was  comparatively  level,  there  rises 
from  the  flat  plateau  of  the  Karadagh  a  rather  high  and  abruptly 
sloping  hill  then  called  Cynoscephalae — Dogs-head.  Some  dis- 
tance south  of  this  landmark  the  Roman  camp  had  been  estab- 
lished the  night  before,  and  though  in  total  ignorance  of  the 
nearness  of  any  enemy,  the  invariable  practice  of  the  Romans 
had  been  carried  out,  and  even  when  only  halting  for  the  night 
the  camp  was  carefully  intrenched.  Here  Flaminius  had  a  force 
of  26,000  men,  all  told,  mainly  Roman  legionaries,  though  sev- 
eral thousand  allies,  yEtolians,  Apolloniates  and  Cretans  had 
joined  him  on  the  march.  His  great  superiority  lay  in  cavalry, 
for  therein  he  had  the  best  blood  in  Rome :  young  soldiers  full 
of  intelligence,  zeal  and  ambition,  and  some  of  these  troopers  it 
was  who,  early  on  this  memorable  day,  rode  suddenly  over  the 
crest  before  them  and  found  themselves  in  the  midst  of  the 
Macedonian  light  troops. 

Philip's  army  was  about  equal  in  numbers,  but  only  16,000  were 
phalangites ;  the  remainder  being  made  up  of  vassals,  conscripts 
and  irregulars.  Even  old  men  and  young  boys,  too,  had  been 
drafted  in  to  fill  the  squares  of  his  hoplites,  for  Macedonia  was 
strained  to  the  utmost.  The  cavalry  of  Macedon,  once  the  fa- 
vorite arm  of  the  great  Alexander,  had  fallen  off  greatly,  both  in 
numbers  and  efficiency,  from  their  old  standard,  and  were  now 
not  to  be  compared  with  the  Roman  knights  on  their  fleet  and 
sturdy  Spanish  horses.  But  Philip  was  hopeful  and  confident. 
Flaminius  was  a  long  way  from  his  base  of  supplies,  and,  were 
they  to  meet  in  Thessaly,  where  the  ground  was  so  favorable  for 
his  phalanx,  the  chances  were,  he  thought,  heavily  in  his  favor. 
He,  too,  had  encamped  for  the  night  not  far  from  Cynoscephalae, 
but  facing  south,  and  it  is  hard  to  say  whether  he  knew  of  the 
proximity  of  the  Romans  or  not.  At  all  events  there  is  nothing 


132  CYNOSCEPIIAL^:. 

to  indicate  preparations  to  receive  them  on  that  ground,  and  per- 
haps one  side  was  no  more  astonished  than  the  other  when  the 
advanced  guards  stumbled  upon  one  another  at  the  crest. 

From  the  camp  Flaminius  could  see  scurry  and  commotion 
along  the  distant  slopes,  and  instantly  divined  that  his  light 
horsemen  had  met  the  enemy.  Next,  as  his  horsemen  and  the 
skirmishers,  well  out  to  the  front,  came  hurrying  in,  he  realized 
that  the  enemy  must  be  in  force ;  and,  while  the  ranks  of  the 
stately  legions  were  quickly  forming,  he  ordered  the  ^Etolian 
cavalry  and  the  velites  out  to  the  front  to  support  the  Roman 
knights.  Charging  impetuously  they  in  turn  outnumbered  the 
Macedonian  advanced  guard,  drove  them  up  the  slope,  over  the 
ridge  and  then,  rashly  pursuing,  went  thundering  down  the 
northern  side  and  ran  squarely  into  the  whole  Macedonian  army, 
now  rapidly  advancing  in  line  of  battle.  All  the  northern  cav- 
alry, all  the  irregulars,  archers  and  dartmen  swarmed  in  upon 
the  Romans,  whose  own  velites  had  been  unable  to  keep  up  with 
them;  and,  with  very  great  loss  in  killed,  they  were  forced  to 
turn  and  spur  back  again,  closely  pursued  and  well-nigh  sur- 
rounded by  the  enemy's  horsemen.  This  time  there  seemed  to 
be  no  hope  of  reforming.  In  the  ardor  of  their  pursuit  the 
knights  of  the  Roman  horse  had  utterly  broken  their  ranks,  the 
turmce  were  confusedly  mixed,  officers  scattered  here  and  there, 
some  with  no  officers  at  all ;  they  had  simply  raced  the  Macedo- 
nian vanguard  back  over  the  hill  towards  the  north,  had  left  the 
thousand  horsemen  of  ^Etolia  far  behind  them,  and  were  practi- 
cally alone  when  they  found  themselves  halted  by  running  into 
the  line  of  battle.  This  last  was  a  fortunate  accident,  for,  having 
kept  their  ranks,  the  ^Etolians  were  ready  once  more  to  come  to 
the  rescue,  and  by  a  well-timed  charge  succeeded  in  checking 
the  Macedonian  horse  and  giving  the  tur.mce  time  to  rally  and 
once  again  straighten  out  their  lines. 

But  all  this  was  mere  preliminary  to  what  was  to  come.  Both 
generals  had  been  compelled  to  hurry  their  armies  into  ranks 
and  to  move  forward  in  support  of  their  advance.  Roman  disci- 
pline and  steadiness  had  enabled  Flaminius,  in  a  few  minutes,  to 
deploy  his  beautiful  legions,  and,  with  steady  step  and  fronts 


ROME   AT   A   DISADVANTAGE.  133 

perfectly  aligned,  to  move  them  forward  along  the  plateau.  The 
importance  of  seizing  and  holding  that  intervening  height  seems 
to  have  flashed  upon  him  and  upon  King  Philip  at  the  same 
instant.  Rome  had  farther  to  go,  and  the  front  of  the  line  was 
still  encumbered  by  the  fighting  groups  of  horsemen.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  instant  the  soldiers  of  the  phalanx  had  seen  the 
Roman  knights  and  horsemen  turn  and  spur  back  up  the  slope, 
followed  by  the  whole  force  of  Macedon's  cavalry,  they  de- 
manded to  be  led  at  once  against  the  enemy,  and  impetuously 
started  forward.  Philip,  with  the  right  wing,  could  not  resist 
the  impulse  ;  and  so,  calling  to  the  left  wing  to  follow  speedily  as 
it  could  form,  and  leaving  it  to  the  charge  of  Nicanor,  he  pushed 
up  the  slope,  reaching  the  crest  and  forming  in  order  of  battle 
just  as  his  cavalry  and  light  troops  came  tearing  back,  before 
the  advance  of  the  legions  of  Rome. 

Through  eddying  mist  and  plashing  rain  he  could  see  their 
long  brazen  ranks  just  breasting  the  slopes.  Looking  back  he 
could  see  that  the  left  wing  of  the  great  phalanx  was  now 
moving  up  to  his  support.  Eager  to  close  at  once,  realizing  the 
vast  advantage  mass  and  velocity  would  give  him  could  he 
charge  at  once  down-hill  upon  the  perfect  order  of  the  Roman 
lines,  he  could  wait  no  longer.  "Forward"  was  the  order; 
down  crashed  the  long  sarissa  to  the  charge,  and  with  confident, 
exulting  hearts,  the  men  of  the  Macedonian  right  were  launched 
in  upon  the  lines  of  Rome.  Sixteen  deep,  mail-clad,  massive — 
what  could  withstand  them  ?  In  vain,  as  they  came  within 
range,  the  pila  were  hurled  upon  them,  and  the  ready  short- 
swords  leaped  into  air.  In  vain  Roman  valor  strove  to  check 
that  terrible  advance.  Just  as  at  Leuctra,  thundering  down  that 
smooth,  graded  slope,  the  phalanx  was  like  one  vast  engine  of 
war  sweeping  all  before  it.  Rome's  javelins,  swords  and  brawny 
arms  were  all  impotent  against  it.  The  Roman  left  was  over- 
turned and  brushed  out  of  its  path,  and  crashing  through  the 
lines  of  the  hastati  and  principes  the  spears  of  the  phalanx  were 
buried  deep  in  the  disordered  swarms  of  legionaries  now  flock- 
ing about  the  flanks.  Trampled  under  foot  as  were  some  few 
of  the  Romans,  their  light  and  elastic  formation  enabled  them  to 


134  CYNOSCEPHAL^:. 

bend  before  the  shock.  The  limb  of  the  stout  oak  is  torn  off  by 
the  tempest,  while  the  slender  willow  bows  and  bends  before,  yet 
triumphs  over  the  blast.  An  opposing  phalanx  unable  to  give 
way  would  have  suffered  terrible  loss.  Rome's  nimble  legions, 
seeing  the  impossibility  of  stopping  this  iron  avalanche,  jumped 
to  one  side  and  let  it  through — then  fastened  on  its  flank  and 
rear.  The  Roman  left  was  broken,  not  beaten. 

Meantime  Nicanor,  with  the  left  wing  of  the  phalanx  in  very 
loose  array,  had  hurried  up  to  the  crest,  arriving  just  as  King 
Philip*  dashed  forward  in  charge  with  the  right.  He  was  not 
ready  to  attack.  The  syntagmata  were  not  completely  formed, 
but  believing  it  to  be  his  duty  to  lose  no  time  in  supporting  his 
king's  assault,  he  never  stopped  to  take  breath  or  straighten  out 
his  lines,  but  impulsively  kept  on.  It  was  a  fatal  error. 

In  front  of  King  Philip  the  slope  was  smooth  and  regular.  In 
front  of  Nicanor  it  was  broken  and  cut  up  by  ravines.  In  front 
of  Philip  was  the  unsupported  line  of  the  Roman  legion.  In 
front  of  Nicanor,  in  the  Roman  right  wing,  there  came  a  dozen 
huge  war-elephants.  It  was  too  late  now.  As  best  they  could, 
the  spearmen  of  the  Macedonian  left  were  struggling  through  the 
broken  ground  in  their  dash  down  the  hillside,  but  the  order  of 
the  phalanx  was  broken,  and  all  of  a  sudden,  long  before  they 
could  close  with  the  Romans,  the  elephants  came  thundering 
among  them,  scattering  spearmen  in  every  direction,  spreading 
confusion  everywhere ;  in  helpless  wonderment  they  were  left  to 
deal  with  these  novel  enemies  against  whom  their  unwieldy 
spears  were  of  such  little  account,  and  then  before  anything 
could  be  devised  to  rid  them  of  their  torment,  with  fierce  shout 
and  blare  of  trumpet,  with  the  terrible  javelins  of  the  Romans 
hurtling  through  the  air  upon  their  now  unguarded  bodies,  they 
were  set  upon  by  the  stalwart  infantry  of  the  legions.  The 
Roman  right  wing  was  upon  them. 

Even  while  this  disaster  had  befallen  the  Macedonian  left  wing, 
the  legions  of  the  Roman  left  had  reformed  and  closed  in  upon 
the  flanks  and  rear  of  the  phalanx  under  Philip.  Once  started 
it  had  proved  hard  to  stop,  had  burst  through  towards  the 
Roman  camp,  and  was  now  hopelessly  separated  from  its  com 


MACEDONIA  PROSTRATE.  135 

panion  under  Nicanor.  With  nothing  to  rely  on  but  the  now 
useless  sarissa  the  Macedonian  right  found  itself  suddenly 
assailed  on  both  flanks  and  rear  by  the  vigorous  swordsmen  of 
Italy.  Consternation  seized  them.  Already  terrible  slaughter 
was  going  on,  for  the  Romans  were  hewing  their  way  in  almost 
unopposed.  They  had  only  to  thrust  vigorously  with  that 
deadly  sword,  and  down  would  go  the  opponent  in  a  torrent 
of  his  own  blood.  In  dis'may  and  terror  the  Macedonians  of 
both  wings  now  raised  their  spears,  their  signal  for  surrender, 
but  the  Romans  had  never  seen  it  before,  knew  not  its  meaning, 
and  the  ghastly  butchery  went  on.  The  two  phalanxes  were 
utterly  destroyed,  and  while  the  Roman  loss  had  been  compara- 
tively slight,  over  ten  thousand  Macedonians  lay  weltering  in 
their  blood.  The  legion  had  triumphed  over  the  invincible 
phalanx,  and  Macedon  was  prostrate  at  the  feet  of  Rome. 

Flaminius  proved  a  generous  victor.  His  ^Etolian  allies 
demanded  the  annihilation  of  Macedon,  but  they  had  disgusted 
him  by  their  boastings  after  the  battle  and  by  styling  themselves 
the  "  victors  of  Cynoscephalae,"  and  he  rebuked  them  for  their 
arrogance,  treated  Philip  with  all  courtesy  and  respect,  and 
finally  secured  to  him  the  terms  granted  to  Carthage.  Macedon 
lost  all  her  foreign  possessions;  all  her  war  ships  but  five; 
agreed  to  maintain  no  larger  army  than  five  thousand  men ;  to 
engage  in  no  war  without  consent  of  Rome,  and  to  furnish  troops 
as  allies  for  Rome  against  Asiatic  powers  when  required. 
These  conditions  complied  with  and  a  fine  of  one  thousand 
talents  (nearly  $1,220,000)  paid  over  to  Rome,  Philip  was  allowed 
to  go  in  peace,  and  Macedon  was  reduced  to  a  mere  impover- 
ished state.  Her  political  importance  was  gone  forever.  Rome 
was  now  undisputed  ruler  of  Southern  Europe  and  Northern 
Africa.  Her  next  move  was  upon  Asia. 


MAGNESIA. 

190  B.  C. 

T  will  be  remembered  that  after  the  death  of 
Alexander  the  Great  at  Babylon  in  323  B.  C. 
his  great  conquests  in  Asia  and  Africa  were 
divided  among  his  prominent  generals.  Anti- 
gonus,  Ptolemy,  Lysimachus  and  Seleucus  were 
the  four  chiefs.  Antigonus  was  killed  in  battle 
301  B.  C.,  and  twenty  years  afterwards  Seleucus 
was  assassinated,  but  not  until  his  title  of  king 
had  been  firmly  established  and  his  monarchy 
extended  over  all  the  country  between  the  Indus  and  Phrygia. 

Under  his  descendants,  the  Seleucidae,  this  great  empire 
dwindled  gradually  away,  but  even  at  the  time  of  the  second 
Macedonian  war  with  Rome  it  comprised  Syria,  Palestine  and 
much  of  Asia  Minor,  and  now  in  197  B.  C.  Antiochus  the  Great, 
as  he  called  himself,  a  great-great-grandson  of  Seleucus,  was 
on  the  throne. 

Of  Macedonian  descent,  his  sympathies  had  been  with  King 
Philip  during  the  war  just  brought  to  a  close  by  the  disaster  of 
Cynoscephalae ;  but  this  sympathy  was  due  more  to  a  jealousy 
of  the  rising  power  of  Rome  than  to  any  especial  sentiment  of 
friendship  for  Macedon.  He  had  hoped  to  conquer  Egypt  by 
the  aid  of  Philip,  in  which  case  he  would  have  been  compelled 
to  divide  the  spoil,  but  now  that  Philip  was  humbled  and  power- 
less he  set  about  winning  it  without  him,  and  presently  his  in- 
terests clashed  with  those  of  Rome.  Marked  successes  with 
which  he  had  met  in  the  Egyptian  provinces  made  him  over- 
confident, and  his  next  move  was  to  risk  a  war  with  Rome  by 
(136) 


THERMOPYLAE   AGAIN.  137 

crossing  the  Hellespont  and  invading  the  Thracian  Chersonese. 
Then  Rome's  old  enemy,  Hannibal,  came  to  visit  Antiochus  at 
Ephesus,  and  was  received  with  such  distinction  that  Rome  was 
justified  in  looking  upon  the  king  as  an  avowed  enemy  and 
should  have  prepared  to  meet  him. 

But,  by  some  strange  error,  Flaminius  withdrew  at  this  mo- 
ment all  the  Roman  garrisons  from  Greece,  and,  doubly  en- 
couraged, Antiochus  became  more  openly  hostile.  The  JEtol- 
ians  now  broke  out  against  Rome,  and  were  so  warmly  supported 
by  Antiochus  that  there  could  be  no  further  delay.  In  the  spring 
of  193  B.C.  Rome  demanded  that  Antiochus  "should  either 
evacuate  Europe  and  dispose  of  Asia  at  his  pleasure,  or  retain 
Thrace  and  submit  to  Roman  protectorate  over  Smyrna,'  Lamp- 
sacus  and  Alexandria  Troas."  Antiochus  would  do  neither, 
and  war  was  declared  in  the  spring  of  192. 

And  now,  though  the  fight  was  between  Rome  and  Asia, 
Greece  became  the  battle-ground,  as  she  lay  midway  between 
them.  Antiochus,  with  a  small  army  of  about  10,000  men, 
landed  at  Pteleum  on  the  Pagasaean  Gulf,  in  southeastern  Thes- 
saly,  and  a  Roman  army  of  25,000  at  the  same  time  disembarked 
at  their  accustomed  place  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  peninsula 
— Apollonia,  in  southwestern  Illyria. 

The  first  advantage  was  gained  by  the  Asiatics,  who  captured 
Chalcis,  the  principal  city  of  the  island  of  Euboea,  established 
head-quarters  there  and  annihilated  a  Roman  division  at  Delium, 
on  the  opposite  shore  of  the  straits.  Then  came  a  winter  with 
no  decisive  actions  on  either  side,  but  in  the  spring  of  191  heavy 
reinforcements  arrived  from  Rome,  and  Antiochus,  who  had 
taken  up  a  strong  position  at  time-honored  Thermopylae,  and 
had  intrusted  to  the  ^Etolians  the  defence  of  the  mountain  path- 
way by  which  Xerxes  had  "  turned  "  Leonidas,  was  totally  sur- 
prised and  had  his  army  cut  to  pieces  before  his  eyes.  He  him- 
self escaped  with  only  500  men  to  Chalcis,  and,  abandoning 
everything,  hurried  back  to  Ephesus.  His  European  scheme  of 
conquest  was  ruined.  He  had  lost  everything  but  some  trivial 
possessions  in  Thrace. 

All  the  winter  that  followed  was  filled  up  with  important  naval 


138 


MAGNESIA. 


movements,  the  fleets  of  Antiochus  and  of  Rome  constantly 
meeting  everywhere  from  the  Hellespont  to  the  Mediterranean, 
and  finally  in  August,  190,  a  great  sea-fight  took  place  at  the 
promontory  of  Myonesus,  where  the  Romans  took  or  sank 
forty-two  ships  and  totally  defeated  the  Asiatics.  After  that 
there  was  no  farther  attempt  on  the  part  of  Antiochus  either  to 
meet  the  Romans  at  sea  or  to  check  the  crossing  of  the  army 
at  the  Hellespont.  In  fact,  he  was  so  panic-stricken  by  this 
unlooked-for  disaster  to  his  fleet  that  he  hastily  ordered  the 
abandonment  of  a  strong  position  still  held  by  his  troops  at 
Lysimachia,  near  the  Thracian  Chersonese,  and  left  otjier  garri- 
sons at  yEnus  and  Maronea  to  their  fate. 

And' now  the  hero  of  Spain  and  Africa,  the  conqueror  of  Han- 
nibal, Scipio  Africanus,  was  called  upon  by  his  fellow-citizens  to 
carry  the  war  into  Asia.  The  Roman  reserve  in  Italy  was  sent 
forward  into  Greece,  and  the  army  in  Greece  under  Glabrio  was 
destined  for  the  advance  into  Asia  under  the  gallant  young  sol- 
dier who  had  triumphed  over  Rome's  most  powerful  enemy. 
Such  was  the  enthusiasm  of  the  army  when  it  was  announced 
that  Scipio  was  again  to  take  the  field  that  5,000  of  his  old  com- 
rades, veterans  of  Spain  and  Africa,  volunteered  for  the  hazard- 
ous campaign  on  new  and  untried  fields.  They  were  to  serve 
under  him  whom  they  regarded  as  invincible,  and  that  was 
sufficient. 

Scipio  joined  the  army  in  March  ;  found  the  ^tolians  hostile 
and  troublesome,  and  was  compelled  to  waste  valuable  time  in 
a  mountain  warfare  with  those  rather  unprincipled,  characters. 
Finally  he  arranged  a  six  months'  armistice,  and  then  set  forth 
upon  his  march  to  the  Hellespont.  It  was  a  long,  tedious,  un- 
eventful journey  along  the  shores  of  Thrace  and  Macedon,  King 
Philip  obediently  supplying  rations  and  securing  them  from  in- 
terruption, and  the  army  reached  the  Chersonese  in  August,  and, 
utterly  unopposed,  as  opposed  they  should  have  been,  crossed 
the  Hellespont  and  were  fairly  in  Asia  Minor.  Rome  had 
invaded  Asia. 

Thoroughly  alarmed,  Antiochus  now  begged  for  peace ;  offered 
to  pay  half  the  expenses  of  the  war  and  to  cede  the  Chersonese 


SCIPIO   ILL.  139 

and  certain  Greek  cities  in  Asia  Minor.  Scipio,  however,  de- 
manded the  whole  cost  of  the  war  and  the  surrender  to  Rome 
of  all  Asia  Minor.  Having  come  that  far,  and  feeling  sure  of 
his  ground,  it  is' probable  that  Scipio  determined  on  complete 
conquest  or  a  pitched  battle.  His  manner  therefore  was  inten- 
tionally arrogant  and  haughty.  Antiochus  was  enraged  by  it, 
and  instead  of  falling  back  into  the  interior,  drawing  the  Ro- 
mans after  him  and  then  breaking  up  their  sources  of  supply, 
he  was  goaded  into  desire  for  battle,  and  battle  there  was 
forthwith. 

Just  north  of  where  Smyrna  now  lies,  on  the  extreme  eastern 
end  of  the  gulf  of  the  same  name,  there  rises  a  tall  eminence, 
Mount  Siphylus  by  name,  and  around  its  northern  base  there 
flows  from  east  to  west  a  placid  stream,  the  river  then  called 
Hermus,  now  the  Sarabat.  On  the  left  or  southern  bank  of  the 
river,  at  the  foot  of  Mount  Siphylus,  lay  a  little  town  called 
Magnesia.  There  was  still  another  Magnesia  close  by  Ephesus, 
farther  to  the  south,  but  it  is  this  little  town  in  the  valley  of  the 
Hermus  that  is  memorable  as  the  scene  of  the  one  land  conflict 
which  gave  to  Rome  her  ascendency  in  the  East. 

Here,  late  in  the  autumn,  while  marching  southward  on  the 
capital  of  Antiochus,  the  Roman  army  encountered  the  Asiatic 
forces,  and  the  battle  began  without  further  ceremony.  Scipio 
had  been  taken  ill  and  was  left  behind  at  Elaea,  but,  with  perfect 
confidence  in  the  result,  had  pushed  his  army  ahead  under  the 
cpmmand  of  Gnaeus  Domitius.  It  was  a  small  force  to  venture 
in  through  a  hostile  country,  but  the  line  of  march  was  near  the 
coast  and  aid  could  be  relied  on  from  the  Roman  fleet  should 
disaster  befall  them.  But  Scipio  feared  no  disaster.  His  men 
were  in  perfect  discipline  and  condition,  and,  though  he  had  not 
more  than  35,000,  all  told,  he  entertained  no  fear  as  to  the 
result. 

Against  them  Antiochus  formed  in  battle  order  no  less  than 
80,000  men,  12,000  of  whom  were  cavalry.  The  battle-ground 
was  hemmed  in  by  heights  and  so  narrow  that  he  was  compelled 
to  mass  his  forces,  in  order  to  get  them  into  position  at  all.  His 
was  an  unwieldy  and  very  heterogeneous  army.  All  manner  of 


140  MAGNESIA. 

soldiery  served  therein,  so  that  the  variety  was  almost  as  great 
as  in  the  days  of  Xerxes.  He  formed  them  in  two  lines.  In 
the  first  were  posted  the  light  troops,  archers,  stone-slingers 
and  peltaslce ;  the  mounted  archers  of  the  Dahae  and  Mysians ; 
Arabs  on  dromedaries,  and  the  dreaded  war-chariots  with  their 
cruel  scythes  and  spear-tipped  poles.  In  the  second  line  on 
both  flanks  were  posted  the  heavy  cavalry  who,  being  armed 
with  breastplate  and  helmet  for  defence  against  javelin  and 
arrow,  were  an  innovation  on  all  former  ideas  of  Asiatic  horse- 
men, and  were  copied  probably  from  the  Macedonians,  as  was 
the  massive  phalanx,  16,000  strong,  which  was  posted  in  the 
centre  of  the  second  line,  and  was  regarded  as  the  very  flower 
of  the  whole  army.  The  confined  space  made  it  necessary  to 
draw  up  the  phalanx  in  double  deep  order,  thirty-two  instead  of 
sixteen  files,  and  there  it  stood,  armed  and  equipped  in  all  re- 
spects as  was  the  phalanx  of  Alexander,  a  dangerous  foe  to 
withstand  should  it  come  to  the  charge,  but  a  bulky  and  un- 
wieldy mass  in  a  crowded  or  broken  ground.  Between  the 
compact  battalions  of  the  phalanx  and  the  catapliracta  or  heavy 
cavalry  were  the  light  infantry,  Gallic  and  Cappadocian,  recruited 
from  Eastern  Asia  Minor;  and,  finally,  between  the  two  divi- 
sions or  lines  were  placed  fifty-four  elephants,  trained,  as  were 
those  of  Hannibal,  to  charge  and  break  up  the  ranks  of  the 
enemy.  All  the  strength  and  solidity,  all  the  real  force  of  the 
mixed  array  of  Antiochus  seejned  to  be  in  the  second  line.  All 
in  front  was  of  light  or  irregular  order. 

And  against  this  motley  army  the  soldiers  of  Rome,  in  disci- 
plined silence,  took  up  their  position. 

On  their  left  flank,  securing  it  from  assault  by  cavalry,  flowed 
the  river  Hermus.  Here,  therefore,  only  a  small  command  of 
horsemen  was  placed  instead  of  the  equal  clivision  usually  noted 
on  each  flank.  The  main  body  of  the  Roman  horse  was  out  on 
the  extreme  right  of  their  line,  3,000  in  number,  all  under  the 
leadership  of  Eumenes.  Under  him  also  were  the  light  troops 
and  the  allies,  some  5,000  in  number,  Achaeans,  Pergamenes  and 
Macedonians.  But  in  the  centre  and  left-centre  were  drawn  up 
the  glittering  legions,  and  herein  lay  the  strength  and  confidence 


THE   BATTLE   BEGINS. 

of  Rome.  Back  of  the  line,  some  little  distance,  stood  the 
Roman  camp,  guarded  by  only  a  handful  of  picked  men,  for 
Domitius  never  doubted  the  result  and  never  dreamed  that  a 
possibility  existed  of  attack  on  the  camp  itself. 

Eumenes  opened  the  ball.  The  archers  and  slingers  were 
launched  out  to  the  front  and,  in  compliance  with  their  orders, 
opened  fire,  not  on  the  opposing  soldiery  but  on  the  teams  of 
the  chariots  and  on  the  camels.  Wounded,  stung  and  fright- 
ened, teams  and  camels  were  almost  instantly  thrown  into  dis- 
order, became  unmanageable,  and  many  turned  and  dashed  off 
to  the  rear.  This  being  just  what  Eumenes  expected,  he  had 
his  fine  body  of  cavalry  in  readiness,  and  the  instant  the  lines  of 
chariots  and  camels  began  to  break  up  and  turn  about  in  panicky 
Confusion  he  signalled  the  advance,  led  in  at  full  gallop,  and  the 
camels  and  team-horses  hearing  the  uproar  behind  them  could 
not  be  controlled,  and,  worse  still,  dashed  headlong  into  the 
midst  of  the  heavy  cavalry  of  the  second  line  just  as  their  gen- 
eral was  essaying  to  lead  them  out  to  meet  the  advancing 
Romans.  The  cataphractae  of  the  Asiatic  left  were  thrown  into 
confusion  and  their  efforts  to  advance  rendered  powerless,  and 
at  this  instant  the  Roman  horsemen  rushed  in  at  the  charge, 
directing  their  main  attack  upon  the  light  infantry  on  the  left  of^ 
the  phalanx,  who  made  no  stand  whatever  against  such  impetu- 
ous assault,  but  while  some  ran  for  their  lives  to  the  rear,  others, 
the  greater  portion  of  them,  huddled  in  under  the  spears  of  the 
phalanx  where  alone  they  were  safe,  but  where  they  utterly  im- 
peded its  movements  and  threw  it  in  turn  upon  the  defensive 
just  at  the  very  moment  when  Antiochus  expected  and  ordered 
it  to  advance  upon  the  legions. 

Never  doubting  that  his  grand  phalanx  was.  moving  in  sup- 
port, he  now  threw  forward  his  entire  right  wing,  leading  it  in 
person,  and  easily  overthrew  the  few  Roman  cavalry  between 
the  legions  and  the  river;  and,  followed  by  swarms  of  his 
men  who  were  glad  enough  to  sweep  through  the  opening 
thus  afforded  without  having  to  come  within  range  of  the  jave- 
lins and  swords  of  the  Roman  infantry,  he  rushed  ahead,  leaving 
the  battle  behind  him,  and  fiercely  attacked  the  Roman  camp. 


142  MAGNESIA. 

Several  thousand  of  his  soldiers  having  followed  him,  this  proved 
a  far  more  attractive  undertaking  against  the  little  garrison  than 
facing  those  dreaded  horsemen  out  on  the  open  plain,  and  yet 
the  Roman  guard  made  so  vigorous  and  determined  a  defence 
that  even  their  overwhelming  force  was  repulsed,  and  while 
forming  anew  for  another  attack,  Antiochus  learned,  to  his  dis- 
may, that  all  had  gone  against  him  in  the  battle  itself.  The 
phalanx  was  in  full  retreat.  This  was  stunning  news,  but  only 
too  true.  When  he,  with  his  right  wing,  advanced  to  the  attack 
of  the  Roman  left,  he  had  ordered  the  whole  phalanx  to  charge 
and  overturn  the  legions  in  front  of  them.  But  the  phalanx  was 
blocked ;  first,  by  the  swarms  of  its  own  allies  huddling  about  it 
for  protection ;  then,  as  these  were  let  in  through  the  intervals, 
the  Roman  cavalry  vehemently  assailed  them  on  both  flanks, 
compelling  them  to  face  outward  and  "  couch  "  their  spears.  Then, 
as  the  horsemen  by  preconcerted  signal  drew  back,  the  whole 
5,000  irregulars,  archers,  slingers,  dart-throwers,  came  swarming 
lightly  around  them,  just  out  of  reach  of  the  long  spears,  but 
rattling  in  upon  them  an  incessant  hail  of  barbed  missiles  or 
heavy  stones,  every  one  of  which  found  its  mark  on  some  one 
in  the  jammed  and  goaded  ranks.  The  one  thing  for  the  pha- 
lanx to  do  was  instantly  to  advance  in  concerted  movement, 
sweep,  as  it  easily  could  sweep,  all  before  it  and  bear  down  on 
the  legions ;  but,  whether  because  no  orders  could  be  heard  in 
the  din  and  confusion,  whether  because  their  leaders  were 
already  down,  or  the  battalions  of  the  phalanx  were  cut  off  from 
one  another  in  the  melee,  it  seems  that  after  some  time  helplessly 
and  irresolutely,  standing  their  ground,  the  16,000  massively 
armed  hoplites  began  slowly,  and  with  very  fair  order,  to  fall 
back  before  a  far  less  number  of  foemen.  Then  the  elephants, 
who  all  this  time  should  have  been  employed  in  tearing  to  and 
fro  through  the  legions,  being  stung  by  darts,  rocks  and  javelins, 
and  frightened  by  the  uproar  around  them,  became  new  elements 
of  mischief,  turning  about  and  trampling  through  the  retreating 
masses  of  the  phalanx  itself,  tearing  huge  lanes  among  the  spear- 
men, and  utterly  destroying  their  organization.  This  was  the 
very  thing  for  which  Eumenes  was  praying. 


ANTIOCHUS   VANQUISHED.  143 

Once  more  he  launched  in  the  cavalry,  front,  flank  and  rear, 
and  now  the  Roman  horsemen  were  able  to  dash  in  among  uplifted 
spears  and  hew  their  way  into  the  heart  of  the  mail-clad  squares. 
Another  moment  and  with  despairing  cries  the  phalanx  utterly 
broke,  and,  turning  backs  to  the  foe,  took  refuge  in  wild  and  dis- 
orderly flight.  It  was  aH  over  with  Antiochus.  At  the  camp  a 
rally  was  attempted,  but  only  added  to  the  carnage.  The  heavy 
cavalry  had  long  since  disappeared  in  cowardly  retreat,  the  foot- 
men were  left  to  find  what  shelter  they  might,  and,  hunted  down, 
pursued,  relentlessly  butchered,  as  was  the  savage  fashion  of  the 
day,  the  army  of  Asia  was  utterly  cut  to  pieces  and  destroyed. 
Incredible  as  it  may  seem,  fifty  thousand  of  the  soldiers  of  Antio- 
chus were  either  killed,  desperately  wounded  or  prisoners,  and 
this  magnificent  victory  had  been  won  without  even  calling  upon 
the  legions.  They  had  not  hurled  a  single  javelin.  The  triumph 
of  Magnesia,  that  gave  to  Rome  a  third  continent,  cost  her  just 
twenty-four  troopers  and  three  hundred  footmen. 

And  now  Antiochus  sued  for  peace.  His  army  gone,  his  navy 
blockaded,  what  there  was  left  of  it;  he  had  no  alternative. 
Asia  Minor  was  surrendered  to  Rome,  even  Ephesus  going  with 
the  grand  total  of  cities  and  provinces,  and,  the  kingdom  of  the 
Seleucidse  having  gone  to  pieces  under  the  fifth  ruler  of  the  race, 
there  remained  to  Asia  no  monarchy  or  combination  of  powers 
to  resist  Roman  invasion.  Winning  Magnesia  she  had  practi- 
cally won  everything.  If  not  absolutely  the  ruler,  she  was 
beyond  question  "  the  arbitress  of  the  world  from  the  Atlantic 
to  the  Euphrates."  Three  great  nations  had  successively  gone 
down  before  her.  Three  great  states  had  become  virtually 
merged  in  Rome,  since  they  had  no  independent  existence :  the 
fourth,  Egypt,  was  already  under  her  protection.  All  others 
were  prompt  to  call  themselves  allies  of  Rome,  and  she  stood 
without  a  rival,  leader  of  the  known  world. 


PYDNA. 

1 68  B.  C. 

179  B.  C.  a  new  ruler  appeared  in  Macedon. 
Philip  died  in  his  fifty-ninth  year,  broken- 
hearted and  disappointed,  leaving  to  his  son 
Perseus  the  consummation  of  a  project  he  had 
long  been  brooding  over — revenge  on  Rome. 

The  last  years  of  his  life  had  been  bitter. 
All  Greece  seemed  to  turn  against  him.  Rome 
listened  to  every  complaint  from  the  lips  of  his 
neighbors  and  would  believe  nothing  in  extenu- 
ation. One  humiliation  succeeded  another,  and 
nothing  saved  him  from  punishment  in  183  but  the  intercession 
of  his  younger  son  Demetrius,  who  had  lived  years  in  Rome  as 
hostage  for  his  father's  conduct,  and  who  had  there  become  very 
popular  with  the  people  and  an  avowed  Roman  in  sentiment. 
This  last  cost  him  his  life.  Visiting  Macedon  on  a  mission  for 
the  Senate,  he  was  accused  by  his  elder  brother  Perseus  of 
treachery  to  his  country's  cause;  a  letter  from  Flaminius  was 
urged  as  evidence  against  him,  and  the  blinded  and  embittered 
old  king  ordered  him  put  to  death  at  once.  All  too  late  he 
learned  that  it  was  but  a  vile  plot  gotten  up  by  Perseus  to  rid 
himself  of  a  dangerous  rival.  He  died  in  misery,  leaving  to 
the  murderer  of  an  innocent  brother  the  throne  of  a  well-nigh 
ruined  kingdom. 

Perseus,  black  at  heart  as  he  was,  and  dastard  and  poltroon  as 
he  turned  out  to  be,  was  a  man  of  great  executive  ability.  Just 
thirty-one  when  he  ascended  the  throne,  he  brought  to  aid  him 
a  fine  physique,  dignified  and  martial  carriage,  a  habit  of  com- 
mand and  great  energy  and  perseverance.  With  unlimited  faith 
(144) 


CHARACTER   OF   PERSEUS.  145 

in  his  ability  sooner  or  later  to  throw  off  and  keep  off  the  Roman 
yoke,  he  set  vigorously  to  work  at  the  reorganization  of  his 
kingdom  and  his  armies. 

For  twenty-six  years  there  had  been  no  invasion  of  Mace- 
donian territory  by  hostile  armies  except  the  raids  of  the  few 
wild  races  to  the  north.  A  new  generation  of  vigorous  young 
men  had  sprung  up  since  Cynoscephalae.  The  peace  provision 
which  after  that  disaster  limited  the  standing  army  to  five 
thousand  men  was  ignored  or  in  some  way  set  aside,  and 
Perseus  had  speedily  at  his  command  thirty  thousand  native 
Macedonians,  without  taking  mercenaries  into  account,  and 
these  soldiers,  young,  hardy,  vigorous,  were  drafted  into  the 
phalanx  and  constantly  trained  and  exercised  in  all  martial 
and  athletic  pursuits.  Perseus  and  his  people  still  believed 
that,  properly  handled,  the  phalanx  would  prove  invincible  even 
against  the  legions.  Of  course  all  these  preparations  could  not 
escape  the  jealous  eye  of  Rome,  but  it  was  some  time  before 
matters  came  to  a  clash,  and  war  was  declared.  By  that  time 
the  power  of  Macedon  was  double  what  it  had  been  under 
Philip,  and  Perseus,  if  he  had  half  the  military  ability  of  his 
father,  could  prove  a  most  dangerous  foe. 

In  197  the  treaty  of  peace  between  Rome  and  Macedon  pro- 
vided that  the  latter  was  "  to  conclude  no  foreign  alliance  with- 
out the  previous  knowledge  of  Rome,"  but  Perseus  saw  fit  to 
make  alliances  with  Byzantium,  with  cities  of  Bceotia,  and  with 
those  inveterate  mischief-makers,  the  ^Etolians.  On  one  side  or 
other  they  had  been  mixed  up  in  every  quarrel  that  had  taken 
place  in  Northern  Greece  for  years  past,  and,  basing  her  action 
on  these  forbidden  alliances  and  on  the  expulsion  by  Perseus  of 
a  Thracian  chief  who  was  in  alliance  with  Rome,  the  now 
mistress  of  the  world  for  the  third  time  declared  war  against 
Macedon. 

In  the  spring  of  171  B.  C.  the  Romans  landed  on  the  west 
coast  as  usual,  having  previously  sent  a  large  fleet  around  into 
the  ^Egean.  Perseus,  without  allies  or  ships,  stood  on  the 
defensive  in  his  own  kingdom.  He  had  an  army  of  43,000  men, 
2 1, ooo  being  phalangites,  and  4,000  native  cavalry.  The  rest 
10 


146  PYDNA. 

were  mercenaries  and  of  little  value  except  as  light  troops  and 
skirmishers.  The  Roman  forces  amounted  to  over  30,000 
regular  troops  and  some  10,000  in  allies.  In  addition  to  the 
land  forces  a  powerful  fleet  of  forty  vessels  of  the  largest  class, 
with  io,OOO  soldiers  destined  to  take  part  in  sieges  should  they 
be  required,  had  been  placed  under  the  orders  of  the  admiral 
Gaius  Lucretius,  who  was  to  act  in  conjunction  with  the  consul 
Publius  Licinius  Crassus. 

Pushing  forward  into  Thessaly,  the  advance-guard  of  the 
Romans  met  the  outposts  of  Macedon  near  Larissa,  and  the 
former  were  defeated  with  a  very  heavy  loss  in  proportion  to 
numbers  engaged :  2,000  foot  and  200  horsemen  were  killed  and 
600  made  prisoners.  It  was  a  bad  day  for  Crassus,  who  seems 
to  have  shown  no  soldierly  spirit  whatever,  and  to  have  allowed 
himself  to  be  easily  beaten.  Perseus,  knowing  well  that  a  vast 
power  lay  behind  the  small  army  advancing  upon  him,  now 
offered  terms  of  peace,  hoping  that  his  success  might  prompt  the 
Romans  to  come  to  his  terms.  But  Rome  never  made  peace 
when  defeated,  and  Perseus,  who  had  made"  preparations  for  a 
defensive  war,  was  so  poor  a  general  that  now,  with  every  ad- 
vantage, he  could  not  or  dare  not  take  the  offensive,  and  both 
armies  fell  back. 

Meantime  the  admiral  had  been  doing  little  better  than  the 
consul.  Rome  recalled  them  both  in  disgust,  and  Lucius  Hor- 
tensius  took  command  of  the  fleet,  and  the  new  consul,  Aulus 
Hostilius,  of  the  army.  They  proved  as  worthless  as  their  pre- 
decessors. The  discipline  of  the  fleet  fell  to  pieces,  and  that  of 
the  army  seemed  utterly  gone.  On  shore,  in  Western  Macedo- 
nia, on  the  borders  of  Illyria,  a  division  under  Appius  Claudius 
was  beaten  time  and  again,  and  the  new  consul,  while  vainly 
striving  in  a  feeble  and  groping  manner  to  restore  discipline  in 
his  command,  made  two  efforts  to  penetrate  the  mountain  passes 
between  Thessaly  and  Macedon,  was  easily  repulsed  each  time 
and,  had  Philip  instead  of  Perseus  been  in  command  in  Macedon, 
it  is  probable  that  the  Romans  would  have  been  driven  out  of 
Greece  before  reinforcements  could  reach  them.  But  Perseus 
met  every  Roman  blunder  with  one  as  great,  and  a  third  general 


^EMILIUS   PAULLUS   IN   COMMAND. 

came  out  and  took  command,  relieving  Hostilius.  Quintus 
Marcius  Philippus  arrived  in  169;  managed  by  supreme  good 
luck  to  cross  the  mountains  and  frighten  Perseus  into  retreating 
on  Pydna,  burning  what  ships  he  had  and  sinking  his  treasure. 
But  the  Roman  provisions  gave  out,  and  their  flight  would  have 
been  a  sorry  one  had  not  Philippus  also  had  the  good  luck  to 
secure  the  surrender  of  the  garrison  at  Tempe,  with  all  their 
stores  and  supplies,  before  Perseus  could  regain  his  senses  and 
the  possession  of  the  pass. 

And  here  Philippus  seemed  to  be  chained  all  through  a  long 
summer  and  winter.  The  Macedonians  had  strongly  fortified 
their  line  along  a  little  stream  that  flows  into  the  Thermaic  Gulf. 
The  road  to  the  north  ran  along  a  narrow  strip  of  country  be- 
tween a  range  of  mountains  and  the  sea.  He  had  forced  his 
way  through  the  pass  itself,  but  could  not  push  ahead  without 
having  a  pitched  battle  on  untried  ground,  with  a  force  as  strong, 
if  not  stronger,  than  his  own.  The  one  thing  he  could  and 
should  have  done  was  to  call  upon  his  fleet  to  sail  up  the  gulf 
to  the  rear  of  the  Macedonian  position,  and  so  attack  it  simul- 
taneously front  and  rear.  But  nothing  of  the  sort  was  thought 
of,  or,  at  least,  carried  out,  and  Rome  at  last  picked  out  the 
right  man,  recalled  Philippus,  and  sent  thither  Lucius  ^milius 
Paullus,  son  of  the  consul  who  died  at  Cannae  while  striving  to 
retrieve  the  blunder  of  his  colleague,  Varro.  For  the  second 
time  had  this  noble  son  of  a  noble  father  been  elected  consul — 
both  times  on  his  merits — and  now,  in  his  sixtieth  year,  but  still 
hale,  vigorous  and  hearty,  this  tried  and  trusted  old  disciplina- 
rian and  soldier  came  to  the  front  and  assumed  command.  The 
Roman  army  knew  well  it  had  found  its  master  then  and  there. 
His  mere  presence  restored  order  and  discipline. 

For  three  years  had  Perseus  been  holding  Rome  at  bay.  It 
was  about  the  /th  of  June,  168  B.  C,  that  the  new  consul 
arrived.  Fifteen  days  after,  on  June  22d  (Julian  calendar), 
Pydna  was  won,  and  the  war  was  over. 

The  first  thing  he  did  was  enough  to  show  that  he  was  master 
of  the  situation.  The  Roman  army  was  intrenched  in  front  of 
Tempe.  Behind  them  lay  the  pass  ;  to  their  right  the  dancing 


148  PYDNA. 

waters  of  the  Thermaic  Gulf;  to  their  left  the  range  of  Mount 
Olympus,  nearly  parallel  with  the  coast ;  to  their  front  the  nar- 
row strip  between  the  mountains  and  the  sea,  along  which  lay 
the  road  to  Pydna  and  the  heart  of  Macedon.  Some  distance 
up  the  coast  the  little  river  Elpius  emptied  its  waters  into  the 
sea,  crossing  the  path  from  west  to  east.  Here  were  fortified  the 
lines  of  Perseus,  stretching  nearly  from  the  mountains  to  the 
gulf.  Behind  him,  to  his  right  rear,  a  narrow  pathway  led  over 
the  mountains  into  the  valley  of  the  Eurotas.  The  consul  sent 
Publius  Nasica  with  a  strong  division  up  that  valley,  with  orders 
to  surprise,  if  possible,  but  to  seize  at  all  hazards  that  important 
pass,  while  he  himself  pushed  forward  with  the  cavalry  and  light 
troops  and  kept  the  enemy  busy  in  front.  The  plan  worked  to 
a  charm.  The  pass  was  seized  and  held ;  the  position  of  Per- 
seus, which  he  had  so  laboriously  fortified,  was  "  turned,"  and 
he  was  compelled  to  fall  back.  Pydna,  some  twenty  miles  up 
the  coast,  was  his  first  stopping-place,  and  there,  in  front  of  his 
magazines  and  stores,  with  fair  open  ground  for  his  phalanx,  he 
proposed  to  fight  and  overthrow  the  Romans. 

Deliberately  as  ever  the  army  of  yEmilius  marched  to  within 
convenient  distance  of  the  halted  enemy.  Camp  was  pitched, 
duly  fortified,  and  the  outposts  and  vanguard  were  thrown  well 
to  the  front.  It  is  probable  that  the  total  force  of  the  Romans 
did  not  exceed  35,000  men,  though  accessions  of  the  allies  may 
have  brought  it  up  to  40,000.  The  Macedonians  had  full  as 
many  and  the  choice  of  ground.  But  ^Emilius  had  been  careful 
to  pitch  his  camp  upon  high  ground,  with  abrupt  slopes  towards 
the  north  as  protection  against  possible  attack  of  that  formidable 
phalanx,  and  the  precaution  was  a  wise  one.  It  turned  the  fate 
of  battle. 

There  was  an  eclipse  of  the  moon  early  on  the  morning  of  the 
22d,  a  fact  duly  foretold  by  a  Roman  officer,  and  announced  to 
the  whole  army,  that  no  superstitious  fears  might  be  excited-, 
and  along  about  noon  the  cavalry  videttes  and  outposts  of  the 
two  armies  got  into  an  indiscriminate  fight  among  themselves 
while  watering  horses  at  a  little  stream.  From  an  insignificant 
skirmish  among  a  few  score  of  troopers  the  affair  began  to  grow 


A  GREAT  BATTLE  BEGINS.  149 

serious.  First  from  one  side,  then  the  other,  knots  of  horsemen 
would  gallop  'out  to  the  assistance  of  their  comrades,  and  the 
linesmen  of  the  phalanx  and  the  legions,  who  stood  for  some 
time  amused  and  interested  spectators  of  this  unpremeditated 
cavalry  combat,  began  to  pick  up  their  spears  and  shields  and 
look  around  for  orders  to  "fall  in."  Neither  general  had  in- 
tended, to  fight  a  battle  on  that  day.  Each  had  determined  on 
giving  his  army  a  good  night's  rest,  but  the  men  had  been  facing 
one  another  for  over  a  year  without  any  satisfactory  encounter, 
were  restlessly  eager  for  fight,  and  as  squadron  after  squadron 
mounted  and  trotted  out  to  the  front  to  take  a  hand  in  the  fray, 
and  the  light  infantry  and  irregulars  became  involved,  both 
camps  seemed  by  simultaneous  impulse  to  spring  to  arms ;  both 
commanders  decided  that  the  battle  would  have  to  be  fought 
then  and  there. 

Hastily,  but  in  thorough  order  and  with  something  of  their 
old  steadiness  and  discipline,  the  lines  of  the  legions  moved  for- 
ward from  their  camp,  down  the  rugged  slopes  to  the  plain  be- 
low, and  there  deployed  in  order  of  battle.  By  this  time  all  the 
light  troops,  all  the  cavalry,  were  heavily  engaged  out  at  the 
front;  no  special  manoeuvre  or  tactical  evolution  being  attempted, 
but  each  corps,  under  its  own  officers,  attacking  or  defending  as 
the  case  might  be,  fighting  without  any  general  directing  hand, 
but  fighting  stubbornly  and  savagely  for  all  that. 

Beginning  in  a  mere  quarrel  between  the  outposts  soon  after 
noon,  swelling  in  the  course  of  an  hour  to  a  general  engagement 
between  the  cavalry  and  light  troops  of  both  armies,  the  battle 
of  Pydna  now  became  of  fierce  intensity,  for  the  old  consul  had 
barely  had  time,  riding  to  and  fro  bare-headed  and  unarmored 
among  his  legions,  to  straighten  his  lines  and  get  each  division 
in  its  appropriate  place,  when  the  hoarse  uproar  and  clangor  at 
the  front  gave  place  to  shouts  of  warning — to  a  new,  concerted 
battle-cry,  and  the  irregulars  and  skirmishers  could  be  seen 
scattering  in  every  direction.  The  Macedonian  cavalry,  a  splen- 
did body  of  horse,  drew  promptly  off  to  one  side,  and  then, 
through  the  dust  and  din  of  battle,  extending  across  the  field  in 
solid,  massive  ranks ;  bristling  with  its  long,  deadly  spears,  in 


150  PYDNA. 

one  huge,  human  wave,  the  grand  phalanx  of  Macedon  came 
sweeping  over  the  plain,  brushing  away  everything  before  it  like 
chaff  and  bearing  down  steadily  upon  the  silent  splendor  of  the 
legions.  In  vain  the  Roman  cavalry  dashed  at  its  flanks  and 
strove  to  goad  them  in  to  turning  upon  them.  In  vain  running 
slingers  and  archers  showered  missiles  of  every  kind  upon  them. 
Nothing  could  check  their  resistless  advance.  No  wonder  the 
stout  old  consul  trembled  for  his  legions.  Hastily  sending  orders 
to  his  cavalry  and  the  light  troops  to  hang  upon  their  flanks  and 
rear — above  all,  to  keep  off  the  Macedonian  cavalry,  yEmilius 
quickly  decides  on  his  next  move.  There  on  level  ground  his 
legions  will  be  powerless  against  that  solid,  machine-like  attack. 
"  Face  to  the  rear,"  he  orders,  "  and  retire." 

Steadily  the  legions  obey.  In  perfect  discipline  they  move 
southward  across  the  plain,  reaching  presently  the  broken  and 
irregular  ground  in  front  of  camp.  Meantime  the  phalanx, 
balked  of  its  expected  prey  and  hoarsely  shouting  its  challenge, 
has  quickened  its  gait.  Already  it  has  come  a  mile  or  more  at 
charging  pace  over  a  field  heaped  with  dead  or  dying  steeds  and 
riders.  Already  much  disorder  is  apparent  in  the  ranks,  for 
many  have  stumbled  and  fallen,  and  the  impenetrable  front  is 
broken  in  many  places.  Now,  in  their  eagerness  to  overtake 
and  bring  the  legions  to  battle  before  they  can  reach  the  protec- 
tion of  their  camp,  the  men  of  the  phalanx  break  into  a  run — 
some  officers,  knowing  disorder  to  be  fatal,  strive  to  restrain 
their  commands;  others  impetuously  lead  them  on;  the  confusion 
becomes  worse.  Now  the  broken,  ground  is  reached,  and  here 
the  breaks  and  gaps  grow  wider  in  the  lines.  Then  come  the 
slopes  up  which  the  legions  are  composedly  marching.  With 
taunts  and  jeers,  but  breathless  now  and  with  all  semblance  of 
their  massive  order  destroyed,  the  phalangites  rush  after  and  toil 
up  the  incline ;  and  then,  as  old  ^Emilius  watches  eagerly  with 
shrewd  and  practised  eye,  he  sees  his  opportunity.  Instantly 
the  command  rings  from  his  lips ;  the  trumpeters  sound  the 
signal  along  the  brazen  lines ;  the  plumed  helmets  face  about ; 
the  sun  that  flashed  but  an  instant  before  on  glittering  shields 
now  shines  on  long  ranks  of  brawny  backs.  The  air  is  black 


THE   PHALANX    ANNIHILATED.  151 

one  instant  with  the  hurtling  flight  of  javelins,  then  the  short 
swords  gleam  on  high,  and,  down  the  hill,  rushing  into  every 
gap  and  opening,  easily  avoiding  the  long,  unwieldy  spears, 
down  leap  the  stalwart  men  of  the  legions. 

Their  way  checked,  their  inertia  lost,  their  formation  broken, 
their  great  spears  now  only  in  their  way,  the  men  of  Mac'edon 
seem  to  know  that  all  is  over  with  them.  Tricked  and  deluded 
into  disorderly  pursuit,  badly  handled  by  their  commanders,  the 
phalangites  have  but  one  hope  of  rescue :  a  charge  to  their  re- 
lief by  the  entire  cavalry  of  Macedon,  now  with  Perseus,  silent 
and  distant  spectators  of  the  scene ;  but  their  king  is  craven  and 
panic-stricken.  He  sees  well  enough  the  trap  into  which  his 
grand  phalanx  has  been  decoyed.  He  dare  not  let  his  horse- 
men go  to  their  rescue.  In  miserable  irresolution  he  stands  a 
few  brief  moments  watching  the  slow  recoil  of  his  shattered 
spearmen,  listening  to  the  hoarse  chorus  of  triumphant  shouts 
or  despairing  cries  growing  each  moment  nearer  and  nearer, 
and  then  he  turns  and  flees  to  Pydna,  and  the  cavalry  follows 
him.  Surrounded,  hemmed  in  by  merciless  foes  on  every  side, 
the  once  invincible  phalanx  of  Macedon  was  left  to  its  fate.  One 
brief  half  hour  had  decided  the  outcome  of  the  battle,  but  for 
long  hours  the  work  of  death  went  on ;  the  spearmen  died  in 
their  tracks.  It  was  the  last  appearance  of  that  world-renowned 
organization  on  any  battle-field  of  fame,  and,  as  though  not  car- 
ing to  survive  its  defeat,  the  soldiers  of  the  select  phalanx,  3,000 
in  number,  were  cut  down  to  a  man ;  20,000  dead  were  left  upon 
the  field ;  ii,ooowere  taken  prisoners.  It  was  the  death-blow 
of  Macedon. 

In  fifteen  days,  as  has  been  said,  yEmilius  Paullus  fought  and 
won  that  brilliant  campaign.  In  two  days  more  the  whole  state 
had  submitted.  The  king  himself,  with  something  like  seven 
millions  of  dollars  in  treasure,  succeeded  in  escaping  temporarily, 
but  only  to  find  himself  in  a  few  days  deserted  by  his  last  asso- 
ciates. Then,  without  a  friend,  without  a  harbor  of  refuge  or  an 
asylum  left  him,  he  surrendered,  cringing  and  weeping,  to  his 
contemptuous  conquerors.  He  soon  died,  a  prisoner ;  his  son 
earned  an  humble  living  in  an  Italian  country  town  as  a  clerk, 


/52 


PYDNA. 


and  such  was  the  mournful  end  of  the  once  superb  empire  of 
Alexander  the  Great.  Macedon  was  broken  up  into  four  pitiful 
and  impoverished  states,  and  from  the  date  of  Pydna  "  the  uni- 
versal empire  of  Rome  "  was  fully  established. 


LAST    FIGHT  OF  THE   PHALANX. 


PHARSALIA. 


49  B.  C. 

HE  century  that  followed  Pydna  was  one  of 
incessant  warfare  for  Rome.  Ruling  the 
world  of  civilization  with  a  firm  and  often 
heavy  hand,  she  had  enemies  in  every  direc- 
tion. Carthage  was  maddened  by  her  oppres- 
sion and  goaded  into  the  war  that  ended  her 
existence  in  the  year  146  B.  C.  Then  came 
a  long  and  bitter  war  in  Spain,  closing  with 
the  destruction  of  Numantia  in  133.  Then 
followed  "  the  revolutionary  century "  in 
Rome — one  hundred  .years  of  ceaseless  civil  strife,  beginning 
with  the  attempted  reformation  of  the  Gracchi,  and  ending  only 
with  the  great  naval  battle  of  Actium,  which  made  Octavianus 
Caesar  ruler  of  the  Roman  world ;  and  all  through  these  hundred 
years  Rome  was  maintaining  large  armies  abroad,  fighting  every- 
where, and  adding  large  conquests  to  her  possessions.  First 
came  the  Jugurthine  war  in  Africa  (i  1 8-1 06),  and  even  while 
this  was  going  on  there  broke  out  the  bloody  and  terrible  strug- 
gle with  the  Cimbri  and  Teutones,  in  which  army  after  army  of 
Romans  was  defeated  and  sometimes  massacred  by  these  savage 
northern  nations,  who  finally  became  so  elated  by  their  victories 
over  the  legions  as  to  resolve  to  invade  Italy  itself.  But  here 
they  met  a  general  who  proved  too  skillful,  and  the  consul 
Marius  terribly  punished  the  Teutones  at  the  battle  of  Aquae 
Sextiae,  near  where  Marseilles  now  stands,  and  then  joining  the 
armies  of  Rome  retreating  before  the  Cimbri,  who  had  already 
forced  their  way  into  the  valley  of  the  Po,  he  turned  fiercely 
upon  the  invaders  at  Campi  Randii,  and  there  utterly  annihilated 

(153) 


154  THARSALIA. 

their  great  force.  The  historian  Livy  states  that  in  these  two 
battles  Marius  killed  or  captured  450,000  men. 

The  next  great  war  was  with  Mithridates,  King  of  Pontus,  who 
was  strong  and  daring  enough  to  overrun  the  Roman  provinces 
in  Asia  and  even  to  invade  Greece.  Sylla  drove  him  back  with 
heavy  loss,  but  in  74  B.  C.  he  again  collided  with  Rome,  and  but 
for  his  death  by  poison  would  have  invaded  Italy  from  the  north- 
east, bringing  all  the  warlike  nations  along  the  Danube  with 
him.  At  this  time  the  Asiatic  conquests  of  the  Romans  were 
immense,  and  extended  almost  to  the  shores  of  the  Caspian  and 
well  down  the  valley  of  the  Tigris. 

But  in  54  B.  C.  an  unlucky  name  in  Roman  military  history, 
that  of  Crassus,  is  again  prominent.  A  century  before  the  con- 
sul of  the  same  name  had  brought  disaster  to  the  national  arms 
in  the  Macedonian  war,  and  now  Marcus  Crassus,  at  the  head 
of  the  grand  army  of  the  Euphrates,  fought  and  lost  a  desperate 
battle  with  the  Parthians  at  Carrhse  in  Mesopotamia,  and,  like 
his  grand-uncle  of  the  Macedonian  campaign,  chose  a  voluntary 
death  rather  than  survive  disgrace.  As  a  disaster  to  Rome  Car- 
rhae  is  ranked  with  those  of  Allia  River,  where  in  390  B.  C. 
the  Gauls  overwhelmed  her  soldiery  and  then  pushed  on  and 
burned  the  capital,  and  with  Cannae,  where  the  legions  of  Varro 
were  slaughtered  by  Hannibal. 

But  at  the  same  time  that  this  ill-fated  name  was  dying  out, 
no  more  to.be  linked  with  disaster,  another  name,  associated 
ever  with  valor  and  victory,  was  on  every  Roman  tongue. 
Julius  Caesar,  he  who  for  eight  years  had  been  winning  distinc- 
tion and  triumph  at  the  head  of  Roman  legions  in  the  west — he 
who  alone  had  been  able  to  bring  to  terms  the  savage  Gauls 
and  to  subdue  the  country  west  of  the  Rhine  and  north  of  the 
Pyrenees — he  who  had  even  invaded  Britain — Julius  Caesar,  the 
idol  of  the  Roman  soldiery,  was  now  at  the  head  of  a  large  and 
devoted  army,  and  a  bitter  feud  had  sprung  up  between  him 
and  his  colleague  Pompey.  Civil  war  was  threatened,  and  as 
the  only  means  of  averting  such  a  calamity,  it  was  proposed  that 
both  Caesar  and  Pompey  should  resign  their  commands  and 
retire  from  public  life.  This  was  in  5 1  B.  C.  Pompey  flatly 
refused,  and  this  determined  the  action  of  Caesar. 


C/ESAR   AND    POMPEY.  155 

To  a  man  who.had  rendered  infinite  service  to  the  state,  and 
possessed  of  the  ambition  of  Caesar,  such  a  proposition  was 
unbearable.  He  had  learned  to  look  upon  himself — and  friends 
and  flatterers  had  encouraged  him  so  to  do — as  the  one  head  of 
the  Roman  people.  He  would  not  resign.  But  Pompey  was  at 
the  capitol,  Caesar  in  the  field ;  and  the  Senate  decided  against 
the  absent  one.  Caesar  was  commanded  to  disband  his  army  or 
be  considered  a  public  enemy,  and  Pompey  was  named  com- 
mander-in-chief  of  the  Roman  army. 

Caesar  was  at  Ravenna,  on  the  Adriatic,  just  north  of  the 
Roman  frontier,  marked  by  the  little  river  Rubicon.  He  refused 
to  disband  his  army ;  the  Senate  declared  war,  and,  prompt  to 
accept  the  issue,  Caesar  crossed  the  Rubicon,  invaded  his  native 
land,  and  in  sixty  days  was  master  of  all  Italy,  Pompey  and  his 
leading  men  having  fled  before  him  and  taken  refuge  in  Greece. 
The  recognition  of  Caesar  as  leader  of  the  Roman  people 
seems  to  have  been  immediate.  He  took  possession  of  the 
rich  treasury  at  the  capital,  raised  and  equipped  a  great  army, 
conquered  the  adherents  of  Pompey  in  Spain,  was  named  dic- 
tator, but  resigned  the  office  for  that  of  consul,  and  then  pre- 
pared to  advance  upon  Pompey  himself,  who  with  a  large  and 
formidable  army,  backed  by  the  knights  and  nobility  of  Rome, 
who  hated  Caesar,  was  eagerly  awaiting  his  coming  in  Greece. 

At  this  moment  Caesar's  available  force  was  greatly  scattered. 
His  great  rival  had  established  his  camp  in  Macedonia,  and 
thither  flocked  hundreds  of  the  nobility,  hundreds  of  the  officers 
who  had  escaped  from  Spain  and  Italy.  They  brought  with 
them  all  the  habits  of  effeminacy  and  luxury  that  had  marked 
their  life  at  the  capital.  The  camp  was  no  longer  the  scene  of 
martial  preparation  and  soldierly  exercise.  The  grandees 
turned  their  tents  into  decorated  bowers,  and  the  simple  cam- 
paign fare  into  luxurious  banquets.  Wine  flowed  day  and 
night,  and  the  soldiers  who  at  first  looked  on  in  wonderment, 
soon  fell  into  the  ways  of  their  lords  and  eagerly  imitated  them 
to  the  extent  of  their  means.  Discipline  was  at  low  ebb  in  the 
camp  of  Pompey.  Worse  still,  he  himself  had  been  for  years 
past  losing  ground  in  public  confidence  fast  as  Caesar  Jiad  been 


156  PHARSALIA. 

gaining  it.  Formerly  Pompey  it  was  who  had  been  looked 
upon  as  the  general,  Caesar  only  as  a  subordinate.  Now,  every- 
where the  mistake  was  recognized ;  even  those  who  envied  and 
hated  him  confessed  his  superior  ability,  but — among  the  nobles 
and  aristocracy — no  one  could  be  named  as  fit  to  supersede 
even  so  poor  a  commander  as  Pompey  in  his  decline  had' 
grown  to  be,  while  Caesar,  the  hero  of  the  people,  had  dozens  at 
his  beck  and  call  who  were  fit  to  handle  armies  in  the  field.  In 
his  camp  all  was  Spartan  simplicity.  Food  was  coarse,  but 
nourishing ;  drink  was  unknown  ;  discipline  was  perfect.  Never 
at  any  time,  under  any  other  commander,  were  the  trained  sol- 
diers of  Rome  so  prompt  to  move,  so  rapid  and  tireless  in  their 
march.  Courage,  obedience  and  endurance  were  cardinal  vir- 
tues cultivated  and  rewarded  with  the  utmost  care,  and  in  every- 
thing that  pertained  to  the  character  and  the  bearing  of  the 
accomplished  soldier  Caesar  was  at  once  their  instructor  and 
their  example.  Nothing  but  vast  superiority  in  numbers  could 
warrant  Pompey  in  hoping  for  success  against  troops  at  once 
so  disciplined  and  so  devoted. 

To  confront  Caesar  he  had  gathered  a  large  but  rather  a 
mixed  array.  From  Italy  he  had  brought  with  him,  in  his 
flight  from  Brundusium,  some  15,000  Roman  soldiers.  These, 
with  the  Romans  then  living  in  Greece  and  some  Illyrian  pris- 
oners of  war,  were  organized  into  five  legions.  From  Asia 
Minor  he  succeeded  in  drafting  three  more — two  being  formed 
from  what  was  left  of  the  once  grand  army  of  the  Euphrates,  so 
recently  shattered  at  Carrhae ;  the  third  from  the  troops  that  had 
been  stationed  along  the  southern  shore  in  Cilicia.  Two  more 
legions  were  raised  from  the  Romans  in  Asia  Minor,  and  one 
from  veterans  living  in  Macedonia  and  northern  Greece  or  the 
neighboring  isles ;  making  in  all  eleven  legions,  only  five  of 
which,  however,  were  at  the  time  skilled  and  exercised  in  the 
duties  of  the  Roman  soldier.  Some  2,000  volunteers  were 
added  from  the  old  Spanish  army ;  and  the  natives  were  called 
upon  to  furnish  contingents  to  guard  and  garrison  the  coast.  In 
addition  to  the  disciplined  velites  of  the  legions,  Pompey  had 
3,000  archers  and  about  half  that  number  of  slingers  who  served 
as  irregulars. 


THE   OPPOSING   FORCES.  157 

For  cavalry  he  was  well  provided — not  with  native  Romans, 
to  be  sure,  except  a  small  but  disorderly  noble  guard,  formed  by 
the  young  knights  and  nobles  who  had  swarmed  to  his  camp, 
but  with  well-mounted  and  well-equipped  Celts,  Thracians  and 
Cappadocians,  and  mounted  archers  from  Asia,  in  all  some 
7,000  horse. 

In  addition  to  his  land  force,  Pompey  had  a  fine  fleet  of  500 
vessels,  and  almost  unlimited  supplies  of  money,  for  he  was  sup- 
ported by  the  wealth  and  by  the  nobles  of  the  vast  empire  of 
Rome.  Prompt  and  regular  payment  of  the  soldiery  secured 
their  good  will ;  the  veteran  battalions  were  accorded  certain  dis- 
tinctions and  privileges  which  promoted  their  spirit  and  alle- 
giance to  their  general ;  so  that,  altogether,  the  army  of  Pompey 
was  in  excellent  temper,  despite  the  lack  of  instruction  and  dis- 
cipline observable  in  at  least  two-thirds  of  its  number. 

In  anticipation  of  the  coming  of  Caesar,  the  fleet  was  stationed 
along  the  coast  of  Epirus  and  Southern  Illyria ;  the  local  troops 
were  strengthened  at  the  important  harbors  and  possible  landing- 
places,  and  the  army  of  Pompey  was  put  in  march  from  its  camp 
in  Southern  Macedonia  across  the  peninsula  to  the  western 
shore.  To  reach  them  Caesar  had  one  of  two  courses  open  to 
him :  to  embark  his  troops  at  Brundusium  and  sail  across  the 
Adriatic,  or  to  follow  the  land  route  around  the  head  of  that 
gulf  and  down  through  the  wild  regions  of  Illyria.  There  were 
grave  objections  to  both.  In  the  first  place  he  had  no  navy  at 
all  that  was  worthy  the  name ;  his  transports  were  very  few  in 
number,  and  the  new  war-vessels  he  had  promptly  ordered  built 
were  nowhere  near  ready.  He  had  only  ships  enough  to  carry 
his  army  over  in  detachments,  and  to  attempt  this  in  the  face  of 
the  great  fleet  of  Pompey  was  foolhardy.  Even  were  he  to  suc- 
ceed in  slipping  through  their  blockading  squadrons  and  landing 
upon  the  coast  of  Epirus,  he  was  then  in  imminent  danger  of 
being  pounced  upon  by  vastly  superior  forces  and  beaten  in 
detail.  On  the  other  hand,  the  march  around  the  shores  of  the 
Adriatic  was  really  the  shorter  route  for  his  tried  legions  now 
returning  from  Spain ;  but  besides  the  difficulties  and  hardships 
to  be  expected  in  that  half-savage  and  almost  unknown  eastern 


158  PHARSALIA. 

shore,  there  was  the  grave  military  objection  that  in  taking  this 
route  he  "  uncovered  "  Rome. 

If  his  army  were  to  march  way  around  by  land,  what  was  to 
prevent  Pompey's  embarking  his  entire  force  on  his  500  vessels 
and  simply  ferrying  them  across  the  narrow  Adriatic,  and  land- 
ing in  Southern  Italy  ?  The  question  was  a  grave  one,  and  was 
solved  in  his  characteristic  way.  Pompey  was  slow,  heavy  > 
methodical ;  Caesar  was  quick  as  a  spring.  The  army  of  the 
former  was,  by  slow  marches,  making  its  plodding  way  across 
from  Thessalonica  and  the  camp  at  Berroea.  Some  of  the 
legions  were  even  yet  east  of  the  Hellespont,  trudging  in  from 
Cilicia.  The  fleet  was  there  along  the  shore,  and  to  them  in 
serene  confidence  Pompey  had  confided  the  care  of  the  coast;- 
but  Pompey  had  allowed  his  personal  jealousy  of  Cato  to 
prompt  the  terrible  blunder  of  relieving  him  from  supreme  com- 
mand in  the  navy,  and  placing  in  his  stead  a  most  incompetent 
man,  Marcus  Bibulus. 

One  day  early  in  November,  49  B.  C.  (or,  by  the  Roman  cak 
endar,  early  in  January,  48),  the  lookouts  at  the  headquarters  of 
the  Pompeian  fleet,  on  the  northern  end  of  the  island  of  Corcyra, 
dimly  made  out,  far  to  the  north,  a  large  number  of  sail  head- 
ing in  for  the  coast  of  Epirus.  Bibulus  was  duly  notified,  but 
for  some  utterly  incomprehensible  reason  was  not  ready  to  put 
to  sea.  He  had  a  small  fleet  of  eighteen  vessels  in  the  bay  of 
Oricum,  very  near  the  point  towards  which  the  strange  flotilla 
was  heading.  They  saw  what  was  coming  plainly  enough,  and 
very  discreetly  kept  out  of  the  way.  Julius  Caesar,  with  only 
six  legions,  reduced  by  toil  and  hard  marching  and  fighting  to 
only  about  half  their  proper  strength,  with  only  six  hundred 
horsemen,  had  seized  every  ship  on  which  he  could  lay  hand, 
and  daringly,  almost  desperately,  set  sail  into  the  very  fastness 
of  the  opposing  fleet.  Nothing  but  absolute  contempt  for  an 
enemy's  ability  could  justify  so  foolhardy  a  risk ;  but  Caesar 
seems  to  have  known  his  man.  Delay  would  simply  complicate 
matters,  and — success  always  succeeds.  The  audacity  of  his 
course  paralyzed  Bibulus.  The  landing  was  accomplished  in 
safety ;  the  ships  went  back  for  more  troops,  and  then,  sudden  as 


MARK   ANTONY  TO  THE    RESCUE.  159 

the  swoop  of  falcon,  Caesar  dashed  upon  the  seaports  of  Oricum 
and  Apollonia,  and  threatened  the  great  arsenals  and  depots  of 
Dyrrhachium  farther  up  the  coast.  The  first  blow  of  the  cam- 
paign which  was  to  determine  the  mastery  of  Rome  was  struck 
— and  it  was  a  thunderbolt  to  Pompey. 

Now,  indeed,  he  rallied  every  energy.  Even  Bibulus  seemed 
to  wake  up.  Dyrrhachium  was  rescued  just  in  time,  Pompey 
himself  rushing  forward  with  the  leading  legions  and  seizing  the 
citadel.  Bibulus  and  his  fleet  gave  chase  to  the  returning  ships 
of  Caesar,  captured  and  burned  thirty  of  them,  crews  and  all ; 
then  blockaded  Brundusium  and  the  Italian  coast,  and  now,  in- 
deed, Caesar  was  in  a  critical  position.  No  reinforcements  could 
reach  him.  Supplies  would  soon  be  exhausted,  and  he  had 
barely  20,000  men  with  which  to  defend  himself  against  twice 
that  many. 

But  Pompey  dare  not  attack.  Intrenching  his  army  between 
Apollonia  and  Dyrrhachium,  he  preferred  waiting  t;ill  the  legions 
from  the  east  could  reach  him,  relying  upon  his  fleet  to  prevent 
reinforcements  from  reaching  Caesar.  Once  again,  however,  his 
fleet  failed  him,  and  Caesar's  devoted  friend,  Marcus  Antonius, 
with  four  legions  and  800  cavalry,  aided  by  a  strong  wind, 
slipped  across  the  Adriatic,  though  chased  every  inch  of  the  way, 
landed  above  Pompey 's  position  and,  with  supreme  energy  and 
good  luck,  succeeded  in  marching  around  him  and  joining 
Caesar. 

And  now  followed  a  series  of  sharp  and  serious  encounters 
and  manoeuvres  in  which,  at  last,  Caesar  was  decidedly  crippled, 
while  Pompey  still  retained  possession  of  his  depots  of  supply 
and  all  lines  of  communication.  Caesar's  fleet  had  disappeared 
from  the  waters,  and  his  condition  was  desperate.  He  could 
not  get  back  to  Italy.  He  could  not  shake  the  position  of 
Pompey,  who  coolly  fought  on  the  defensive,  relying  on  the 
prospect  of  speedily  wearing  out  his  antagonist.  There  was  but 
one  course  for  the  indomitable  conqueror  of  Gaul.  He  left  his 
wounded  and  inefTectives  at  Apollonia  and  boldly  plunged  east- 
ward into  Thessaly,  dashing  upon  city  after  city,  seizing  all  the 
supplies  he  needed,  richly  repaying  his  army  for  the  hardships 
they  had  undergone,  and  daring  Pompey  to  follow  him. 


J60  PHARSALIA. 

By  every  law  of  strategy  the  latter  should  now  have  crossed 
at  once  to  Italy  and  made  himself  master  at  home,  as  he  could 
readily  have  done.  But  he  and  his  nobles  were  by  this  time  in- 
flamed with  such  hatred  against  Caesar,  that  nothing  but  his  de- 
struction would  satisfy  them,  and  Pompey  turned  eastward  in 
pursuit. 

Out  on  the  broad  Thessalian  plain,  not  more  than  ten  miles 
straight  away  from  the  ridge  of  Cynoscephalae,  lay  the  little  town 
of  Pharsalus  or  Pharsalia,  now  called  Fersala.  It  is  perhaps 
twenty-one  miles  a  little  west  of  south  from  the  site  of  old 
Larissa.  From  the  mountain  range  of  Othrys  there  flowed,  in 
those  days  and  still  flows,  northward  towards  Cynoscephalae,  a 
shallow,  placid  stream,  almost  dry  in  midsummer,  only  two  feet 
deep  at  other  times,  and  never  rapid  or  dangerous.  It  was 
called  the  Enipeus,  and  about  two  or  three  miles  northeast  of 
Pharsalia  it  joined  the  broader  waters  of  the  Apidanus,  and  with 
them  swept  around  Pharsalia  at  a  distance  still  of  three  miles, 
and  rolled  away  northwestward  to  join  the  river  of  the  broad 
valley — the  Peneius.  Just  north  of  Pharsalia  the  united  waters 
were  too  broad  and  deep,  the  banks  too  steep  for  easy  crossing, 
but,  by  going  around  above  their  point  of  confluence,  both  the 
Enipeus  and  the  Apidanus  could  be  bridged  or  even  forded  with 
comparative  ease. 

The  entire  army  of  Pompey  had  united  at  Larissa,  made  an 
easy  day's  march  down  past  Cynoscephalae,  and  camped  on  the 
northern  or  right  bank  of  the  Apidanus,  along  the  slopes  up 
towards  Scotussa  and  the  famous  battle-field  of  Flaminius  and 
Philip,  a  century  and  a  half  before.  A  far  more  decisive  and 
desperate  battle  was  now  to  be  fought  in  the  same  neighborhood, 
for  here,  on  the  plain  of  Thessaly,  on  a  hot,  dry  summer's  day, 
far  away  from  Italy,  the  mastership  of  the  Roman  empire  was  to 
be  settled.  Two  old  allies,  father  and  son-in-law  in  bygone 
days,  but  now  powerful  and  bitter  enemies,  were  to  grapple  for 
the  dominion  of  the  world. 

The  army  of  Pompey  comprised  eleven  legions  (47,000  in- 
fantry) and  7,000  horse.  Caesar  had  but  eight  legions,  so  re- 
duced by  hard  service  that,  all  told,  he  could  muster  but  22,000 


C^SAR   ON   THE   DEFENSIVE.  161 

men,  and  of  these  only  1,000  were  cavalry.  The  soldiers  of 
Pompey  were  well  fed,  well  supplied ;  those  of  Caesar  were  gaunt 
and  hungry.  In  every  way  the  chances  of  war  were  with 
the  former,  and  the  recent  revival  of  his  once  trusted  military 
genius  (as  shown  in  the  struggle  in  Epirus  which  had  so  baffled 
Caesar)  had  restored  to  him  the  confidence  of  his  troops. 

Knowing  that  he  had  everything  at  stake  and  the  odds  against 
him,  -Caesar  hoped  to  fight  on  the  defensive  and  force  Pompey  to 
attack  him  on  his  own  ground,  southwest  of  the  Enipeus ;  but 
for  some  time  Pompey  delayed.  At  last,  however,  on  the  Qth 
of  August,  48  B.  C.,  his  army  was  seen  marching  out  of  camp, 
crossing  the  Apidanus,  some  four  miles  away  from  Pharsalia, 
then  turning  towards  the  shallow  Enipeus ;  and  Caesar,  facing 
eastward,  with  Pharsalia  at  his  back,  his  left  wing  in  the  broken, 
hilly  ground  south  of  the  Apidanus,  his  right  wing  well  out  on 
the  plain,  stood  ready  to  meet  him. 

Facing  west  and  deploying  along  the  Enipeus,  Pompey  slowly 
and  cautiously  crossed  that  little  stream  and  moved  out  upon 
the  plain,  resting  his  right  wing  upon  the  Apidanus.  Caesar's 
poverty  in  cavalry  had  suggested  to  him  the  capital  plan  of 
keeping  back  his  infantry,  but  of  making  a  grand  dash  with  his 
overwhelming  force  of  horsemen  and  scattering  the  little  band 
on  Caesar's  exposed  right  flank,  sweeping  around  it,  and  attack- 
ing him  front  and  rear  at  the  same  time.  But  Caesar  did  not 
propose  to  allow  him  any  such  simple  solution  of  the  battle 
problem.  No  sooner  were  the  legions  well  across  the  Enipeus 
with  their  leading  lines,  than  those  of  Caesar  came  gallantly  for- 
ward to  meet  them. 

The  attack  was  determined  and  even  desperate,  but  the  best 
legions  of  Pompey's  army  happened  to  be  the  ones  on  whom  it 
fell,  and  the  contestants,  in  point  of  valor,  were  equally  matched, 
while  numbers  were  against  Caesar.  Little  by  little  his  scarred 
and  wearied  soldiers  were  forced  back  by  the  lines  of  Pompey, 
and  the  battle  in  the  centre  dragged  heavily,  with  little  promise 
of  anything  better  than  a  protracted  and  stubborn  duel  that 
would  last  till  dark;  but  on  Caesar's  right  his  little  band  of 
horsemen  and  intermingled  light  troops,  after  a  brave  and 
ii 


162  PHARSALIA. 

spirited  resistance,  were  completely  swept  away  by  four  times 
their  force  in  heavy  cavalry ;  and  Pompey  saw  with  delight  that 
while  in  the  centre  his  legions  were  holding  their  own,  the  right 
of  Caesar's  infantry  was  now  uncovered,  and,  just  as  soon  as 
Labienus  with  the  "  heavies  "  could  return  from  pursuit,  he  felt 
sure  that  their  wild  charge  upon  the'  right  and  rear  of  the  veter- 
ans before  him  would  utterly  break  their  formation,  and  then  the 
day  would  be  his. 

But  Caesar  well  knew  his  adversary  and  had  planned  a  coun- 
ter-trap.    Counting  upon  the  defeat  of  his  inferior  cavalry  on 
the  right,  and  knowing  how  ardent  and  disorderly  would  be  the 
pursuit,  he  had  stationed  some  distance  back  of  his  right,  and 
concealed  by  the  low  ridges  across  the  plain,  a  picked  body  of 
2,000  of  his  oldest,  most  reliable  soldiers,  men  of  the  legions 
who  had  followed  him  in  Spain  and  Gallia.     Telling  them  to 
expect  the  rush  of  the  Pompeian  cavalry,  he  ordered  them  not 
to  throw  the  javelin  but  to  retain  it,  to  dash  in  among  the  horse- 
men and  to  vigorously  thrust  at  their  faces  with  the  spear.     An 
attack  from  infantry  was  the  last  thing  Labienus  looked  for. 
His  men  were  utterly  astounded  by  the  impetuous  onslaught. 
They  fought  confusedly  a  few  moments,  but  their  leaders  seem 
to4  have  been  surrounded  and  picked  off,  or  some  strange  panic 
to  have  seized  them,  for  all  of  a  sudden,  to  the  utter  dismay  of 
Pompey,  his  cavalry  came  tearing  back,  and  never  rallying  at  all, 
plunged  into  the  shallow  waters  of  the  Enipeus,  across  to  the 
opposite  bank,  and  away  over  the  low  hills  toward  Scotussa. 
Then  the  veteran    legionaries,  jubilant  over  their  phenomenal 
success  over  the  cavalry,  but  steadily  keeping  their  ranks,  swept 
down  upon  Pompey's  Asiatic  archers,  easily  brushed  them  out 
of  the  way  and,  with  triumphant  shout,  broke  in  upon  his  now 
uncovered  and  well-nigh  exhausted  left  wing.     Caesar's  slowly 
retiring  centre  halted  and,  reanimated  by  the  success  of  their 
comrades,  resumed  their  efforts  against  the  enemy,  and  at  this 
moment  Caesar  launched  in  his  fresh  and  impatient  reserve. 

Despite  his  overwhelming  numbers,  it  was  all  over  with  Pom- 
pey. He  had  never  had  much  faith  in  his  legions  as  compared 
with  those  of  Caesar.  His  main  reliance  had  been  the  cavalry, 


POMPEY  UTTERLY  ROUTED.  163 

and  when  they  broke  and  left  him,  he  himself  in  despair  quitted 
the  field.  His  friends  claimed  that  he  rushed  to  rally  the  fleeing 
horsemen.  Historians  assert  that  he  fled  to  his  camp.  Which- 
ever it  may  be,  there  was  no  directing  head  when  Caesar's  grand 
general  attack  crashed  in  upon  the  Pompeian  lines,  and  the 
legions,  disheartened  and  deserted,  fell  back  in  some  disorder, 
sustaining  severe  loss  as  they  crossed  the  stream ;  and  Pompey, 
noting  their  defeat  from  a  distant  point,  tore  from  his  shoulders 
the  badge  of  his  office,  the  general's  scarf  he  no  longer  dared  to 
wear,  and  spurred  for  the  sea-coast.  His  army  was  still  .strong 
enough,  properly  led  and  handled,  to  beat  Caesar,  but  he  had 
lost  his  nerve. 

As  for  Caesar,  he  well  knew  how  to  strike  when  the  iron  was 
hot  and  to  reap  the  fruits  of  victory.  Eagerly,  persistently  he 
urged  forward  the  pursuit,  striking  everywhere.  The  camp 
guard  was  quickly  overthrown  ;  every  attempt  to  rally  checked 
by  impetuous  dash;  for  miles  his  legions  chased  the  rapidly 
falling  foe,  and  when  the  sun  went  down  behind  the  range  of 
Pindus,  for  miles  in  every  direction,  the  broad,  rolling  prairie 
land  of  Thessaly  was  covered  with  the  dead  and  dying  of  Pom- 
pey's  broken  host.  Pharsalia  meant  not  only  its  defeat,  but  its 
practical  annihilation.  Fifteen  thousand  of  that  host  were  killed 
or  wounded,  while  Caesar  had  lost  but  200  men,  and  the  morn- 
ing after  the  battle  the  20,000  Pompeians,  who  still  had  managed 
to  hold  together,  laid  down  their  arms.  Out  of  eleven  legions 
the  eagles  of  nine  were  surrendered  to  Caesar. 

As  to  the  immediate  consequences  of  Pharsalia,  it  is  recorded 
that  to  put  an  end  once  and  for  all  to  this  disastrous  civil  war 
the  victor  deemed  it  necessary  to  resort  to  extreme  measures 
with  the  leaders.  Many  senators,  knights  and  men  of  prom- 
inence in  Roman  affairs  were  captured  with  the  remnants  of 
Pompey's  army.  These,  almost  all,  were  put  to  death.  Others 
suffered  heavy  fine  or  confiscation  of  property.  Minor  officers 
and  soldiers  were  distributed  throughout  the  army  and  required 
to  take  service  under  the  victorious  eagles  of  Caesar,  a  thing  no 
one  of  them  seemed  to  be  averse  to. 

But  the  political  consequences  of  this  great  and  decisive  vie- 


164  PHARSALIA. 

tory  were  far-reaching.  All  the  kings,  all  principalities,  all 
nations  and  cities  subject  to  Roman  rule,  fast  as  the  news 
reached  them  of  the  overthrow  of  Pompey,  were  prompt  to 
tender  their  allegiance  to  the  conqueror  of  Gaul,  the  now  ac- 
knowledged leader  of  the  great  nation.  Most  of  them  denied 
refuge  to  the  exiles  and  wanderers'who  strove  to  find  escape 
from  the  dreaded  punishment  of  Caesar.  From  the  Atlantic  to 
the  Euphrates  the  name  of  Julius  Caesar  knew  no  rival. 

Pompey  fled  to  Egypt,  where,  on  the  instant  of  his  arrival,  he 
was  assassinated  by  one  of  his  former  officers.  Cato,  Scipio 
and  others  of  his  generals  succeeded  in  reaching  Africa  and  in 
stirring  up  a  powerful  rebellion  against  the  rule  of  Caesar,  but, 
never  thinking  of  returning  to  Rome  until  he  had  put  down  the 
last  vestige  of  revolt,  that  daring  and  energetic  soldier  followed 
at  their  heels,  and  the  terrible  battle  of  Thapsus,  which  cost  them 
50,000  souls,  ended  their  last  efforts.  Losing  only  fifty  men, 
Caesar  had  slain  a  thousand  for  one.  Cato  killed  himself  in 
despair,  and  the  conqueror  of  every  nation  that  had  yet  opposed 
him,  including  his  own,  returned  in  triumph  to  the  capital  to  be 
named  dictator  for  life. 

Yet  within  two  years  of  his  last  victory  at  Thapsus,  Caius 
Julius  Caesar,  "  Caesar  Imperator,"  the  greatest  soldier  and  hero 
ever  brought  forth  even  by  martial  Rome,  died  in  the  very  height 
of  his  power,  in  the  vigor  of  his  ambitious  life,  the  victim  of  a 
score  of  high-born  assassins. 


PHILIPPI, 


42  B.  C. 

HE  assassination  of  Julius  Caesar  led  to  a  re- 
newed outbreak  of  civil  war.  Brutus,  Gassius, 
Trebonius,  Cimber  and  Casca,  who  were 
leaders  in  the  conspiracy  against  him,  claimed 
to  be  striving  in  the  interests  of  a  thoroughly 
republican  form  of  government  Caesar's 
announcement  of  his  determination  to  lead 
an  army  into  Parthia  to  avenge  the  death  of 
Crassus  and  the  disaster  of  Carrhae,  carried 
with  it,  they  asserted,  a  decided  intention  of  the  imperatpr  to 
assume  the  title  of  king.  "  Caesar  was  ambitious  "  was  the  cry 
against  him ;  but  such  was  his  hold  on  the  Roman  people  that 
only  by  foul  means  could  his  downfall  be  secured. 

Occurring  ^s  the  assassination  did  in  the  very  height  of  his 
popularity  with  the  people  of  Rome,  and  so  soon  after  he  had 
been  named  dictator  for  life,  the  effect  produced  throughout  the 
entire  world,  as  known  to  historians  of  the  day,  was  something 
indescribable.  Caesar  had  only  reached  his  fifty-seventh  year ; 
the  maladies  which  had  marked  his  early  youth  had  disappeared ; 
his  life  was  so  rugged  with  ceaseless  campaigning  that  there  was 
every  promise  of  years  of  vigorous  health  and  usefulness  to 
come.  The  greatest  soldier  of  his  great  nation,  and  one  of  the 
most  polished  scholars  and  gentlemen  of  his  day,  Caesar  was 
revered  and  honored  throughout  the  army,  and  was  respected 
and  perhaps  feared  by  all  classes. 

The  turbulent  populace  had  long  been  eager  for  an  excuse  for 
outbreak.  It  now  was  furnished  them.  To  have  been  a  devoted 
adherent  of  the  dead  hero  was  sufficient  claim  for  any  man  to 

(165) 


166  PHILIPPI. 

demand  their  adherence  now,  and  Mark  Antony  was  shrewd 
enough  to  seize  the  opportunity. 

Despite  the  efforts  of  such  statesmen  and  orators  (if  there 
were  orators  like  him)  as  Cicero,  the  people  overleaped  all 
bounds;  wild  scenes  of  tumult  and  disorder  took  place.  Antony, 
by  virtue  of  having  been  Caesar's  faithful  friend,  was  now  upheld 
as  his  representative,  and  speedily  took  upon  himself  the  rights, 
though  he  possessed  not  the  authority,  of  dictator.  Caesar  had 
made  certain  assignments  of  prominent  Romans  to  the  govern- 
orships of  the  provinces,  and  these  Antony  proceeded  to  carry 
out,  thus  ridding  the  capital  at  least  of  some  of  his  heartiest  op- 
ponents. The  Senate,  in  order  to  avert  possible  civil  war,  had 
accepted  the  advice  of  Cicero.  The  assassins  were  to  be  left  to 
the  judgment  of  posterity.  Amnesty  was  declared.  Trebonius 
was  sent  to  govern  the  provinces  in  Asia;  Cimber  to  Bithynia; 
Marcus  Brutus  to  Macedonia,  and  Cassius  to  Syria,  and  in  this 
way,  though  it  drove  them  from  Rome,  vast  power  was  to  be 
placed  in  the  hands  of  the  republican  leaders.  But  here  Antony 
interposed.  These  assignments  had  been  the  projects  of  Caesar 
and  were  ratified  by  the  Senate,  but  Brutus  and  Cassius  were  per- 
sonally and  politically  his  enemies.  Before  the  expiration  of  their 
terms  of  office  as  praetors  at  home  Brutus  and  Cassius  found 
themselves  supplanted.  Antony  declared  that  he  acted  for  Caesar 
in  revoking  their  appointments  and  sending  his  colleague,  Dol- 
abella,  to  Syria  while  he  took  Macedonia  himself. 

Then  a  new  popular  hero  appeared.  Caesar  had  adopted 
young  Caius  Octavius  as  his  son,  and  this  youth,  now  barely 
nineteen  years  of  age,  had  been  serving  with  the  legions  in 
Greece;  had  endeared  himself  to  the  soldiers  by  manly  bearing, 
and,  urged  by  them  and  his  mother's  letters,  he  hurried  back  to 
Italy  and  assumed  his  full  name,  now  legally  his  own,  Caius 
Julius  Caesar  Octavianus.  This  was  the  boy  who  was  destined, 
a  few  years  later,  to  triumph  over  all  opponents,  and  by  skill, 
daring  and  address  to  work  his  way  up  to  the  throne  of  the 
proudest  nation  on  the  face  of  the  globe,  to  be  hailed  every- 
where as  its  first,  perhaps  its  greatest  emperor,  Augustus  Caesar. 

Antony  had  not  looked  for  the  coming  of  this  eager  strip- 


-  CAIUS   OCTAVIUS   APPEARS.  167 

ling.  He  was  amazed  at  the  tact  and  energy  the  young  soldier 
displayed.  The  army  took  to  him  at  once.  Cicero,  the  orator 
and  statesman,  Antony's  most  bitter  enemy,  hastened  to  his 
support.  Five  legions  "  declared "  for  Octavianus,  and  pro- 
nouncing him  a  rebel,  Antony  had  to  take  the  field  against  him. 
Two  new  consuls,  Hirtius  and  Pansa,  came  into  office  and  were 
sent  with  their  armies  to  reinforce  Octavius,  for  now,  urged  by 
the  eloquence  of  Cicero,  the  Senate,  too,  had  come  to  his  sup- 
port. Antony  became  the  rebel.  Sharp  actions  were  fought 
near  Mutina,  and  by  strange  fatality  both  the  new  consuls  were 
killed.  The  advantage  for  the  time  seemed  decidedly  with 
Antony,  who  presently  appeared  at  the  head  of  twenty-three 
legions,  and  the  Senate  was  in  consternation. 

In  dread  of  Antony  their  first  move  was  to  repudiate  Octavius 
and  forbid  his  coming  within  ninety  miles  of  Rome,  but  the 
young  soldier  was  worthy  of  his  name  and  his  adoption ;  he  had 
all  the  spirit  and  dash  of  the  dead  Caesar.  With  eight  legions 
he  crossed  the  Rubicon  and  reached  the  gates  of  Rome,  and  the 
Senate  cringed  before  him  while  the  people  hastily  assembled 
and  elected  him  consul.  He  was  less  than  twenty  years  old,  by 
just  one  day,  at  the  moment  of  his  election  to  th^is  high  office. 

Being  now  at  the  head  of  the  state,  Octavius  sent  propositions 
of  peace  to  Antony  and  Lepidus  which  were  promptly  accepted. 
The  decrees  of  the  Senate  against  them  were  annulled.  The 
murderers  of  Caesar,  it  was  arranged,  should  be  brought  to  trial, 
and,  as  joint  rulers  of  Rome,  "  the  Csesarean  leaders,"  as  they 
were  called,  Antony,  Lepidus  and  Octavius,  formed  the  cele- 
brated "  Second  Triumvirate  "  in  the  year  43  B.  C. 

Brutus  and  Cassius  were  now  ruling  in  the  eastern  provinces. 
Only  a  few  months  before,  the  Senate  was  praying  for  their 
return 'with  troops  to  annihilate  both  Antony  and  Octavius. 
Now,  war  was  declared  against  them — the  last  leaders  of  the 
republican  party.  Their  career  in  the  East  had  been  discredit- 
able in  the  last  degree,  and  they  had  violently  quarrelled  when 
meeting  at  Sardis.  Brutus  had  permitted  the  burning  and  pil- 
lage of  Xanthus,  whose  people  preferred  to  throw  themselves 
into  the  flames  rather  than  fall  into  the  hands  of  his  soldiers. 


168  PHILIPPI. 

Cassius  had  attacked  Rhodes,  demanded  a  fine  of  8,500  talents, 
and  enforced  its  payment  by  beheading  fifty  prominent  citizens. 
There  was  every  evidence  in  the  armies  of  both  these  leaders  of 
utter  license,  debauchery  and  cold-blooded  cruelty  as  well  as 
insubordination. 

On  the  other  hand,  before  taking"  the  field  against  these  pow- 
erful political  generals,  the  Triumvirate  made  itself  a  black 
record  in  the  so-called  "  proscription."  They  dared  leave  no 
powerful  enemies  at  home.  Each  of  the  three  prepared  a  list 
of  the  citizens  most  inimical  to  him.  Even  near  relatives  were 
included,  and  then  occurred  a  series  of  cold-blooded  assassina- 
tions that  are  horrible  in  their  details.  Even  the  grand  old 
statesman  and  orator,  Cicero,  he  "who  so  often  had  saved  the 
state,"  sick  and  prostrate  on  his  litter,  was  overtaken,  and,  while 
he  calmly  bared  his  throat  and  looked  his  conscience-stricken 
executioner  in  the  eye,  received  his  savage  death- wounds.  His 
venerable  head  and  those  of  the  scores  of  proscribed  who  failed 
to  make  their  escape  were  borne  to  the  capitol,  and  then  the 
Triumvirate  went  forth  to  war. 

Knowing  well  their  coming,  Brutus  and  Cassius,  with  a  large 
army  of  one  hundred  thousand  men,  well  used  to  war,  as  every- 
body seems  to  have  been  in  those  days,  awaited  them  near  Phil- 
ippi.  The  position  was  one  most  favorable  for  defence.  The 
mountains  (Pangaeus,  which  separated  them  from  Thrace  as  they 
stood  at  the  eastern  end  of  Macedonia)  came  down  almost  to 
the  sea-shore ;  the  foothills  were  sharp  and  abrupt — easily  for- 
tified, and  the  ^Egean,  bearing  their  many  ships,  lay  close  upon 
their  left.  All  their  supplies  came  to  them  by  sea,  and  protected 
by  its  waters  and  their  ready  fleet  from  the  possibility  of  being 
"turned"  in  their  southern  or  left  flank,  and  resting  their  right 
on  the  mountains  themselves,  Brutus  and  Cassius  felt  secure. 
Their  lines  were  just  about  twelve  miles  east  of  Philippi. 

But  Brutus  had  been  educated  mainly  in  Athens,  was  a  Stoic, 
a  dreamer,  and  a  believer  in  omens.  History  tells  of  a  terrible 
vision  appearing  to  him  just  before  the  campaign,  pronounced 
itself  his  evil  demon,  declared  its  intention  of  confronting  him 
again  at  Philippi.  Shakespeare  makes  the  vision  the  ghost  of 


THE  VISION   OF  .BRUTUS.  169 

Caesar  himself,  but  whatever  it  was,  the  creature  of  a  disordered 
brain  or  an  avenging  conscience,  it  ruined  the  nerve  of  Brutus. 
He  confided  his  dread  and  premonitions  to  Cassius,  and  it  is 
probable  that  when  that  vision  reappeared,  as  it  is  said  to  have 
done,  a  night  or  two  before  the  battle,  Brutus  was  doubly  con- 
vinced that  death  was  near. 

Here  at  Philippi  the  army  of  the  Triumvirate  speedily  estab- 
lished its  camp.  Much  more  formidable  in  numbers  and  dis- 
cipline than  that  of  the  republicans,  it  had  made  a  long  and 
toilsome  march  and  was  well-nigh  destitute  of  provisions. 
Antony,  nearest  the  sea,  and  commanding  the  right  wing,  faced 
the  army  of  Cassius ;  Octavius,  with  the  left  wing,  confronted 
that  of  Brutus.  It  was  the  month  of  November  in  the  year  42 
B.  C.  that  the  last  blow  for  the  Roman  republic  was  to  be  struck. 
Cassius,  shrewd,  cautious,  calculating,  saw  that  with  their  lack 
of  provisions  the  enemy  would  be  most  harassed  by  delaying  the 
combat,  but  Brutus  was  desperate — determined  to  risk  all  on  a 
single  throw,  and  to  do  it  at  once.  It  was  he  who  precipitated 
the  battle  of  Philippi. 

A  singular  misfortune  had  occurred  to  Octavius  just  at  this 
crisis,  one  that  for  a  time  threatened  to  becloud  his  reputation  as 
a  soldier.  A  battle  was  imminent ;  he  was  taken  sick  and  had 
to  be  removed  some  distance  to  the  rear,  and  Brutus  had  ordered 
a  general  attack  with  his  wing  just  at  the  moment  when  the  army 
in  front  of  him  had  been  deprived  of  its  leader. 

Of  the  actual  phases,  the  movements  and  changes  of  the  bat- 
tle of  Philippi,  no  detailed  accounts  have  reached  us.  The  wing 
of  Brutus,  charging  with  great  impetuosity,  seems  to  have  utterly 
overthrown  that  of  the  now  absent  Octavius,  and  to  have  driven 
it  back  in  confusion  and  dismay.  But,  while  he  was  winning 
this  great  success,  and  perhaps  beginning  to  take  heart  and 
believe  that  the  evil  demon  of  his  vision  was  but  an  empty 
dream  after  all,  Mark  Antony  on  the  other  flank  had  charged, 
utterly  overwhelmed  Cassius,  and  sent  the  republican  left  wing 
whirling  from  the  field.  Cassius  himself,  driven  even  beyond  his 
camp,  was  left  almost  alone  in  the  rout  that  followed.  He  could 
not  rally  his  men.  He  was  deserted  by  most  of  his  officers,  and 


170  PHILIPPI. 

suddenly  catching  sight  of  a-band  of  horsemen  eagerly  spurring 
towards  him,  and  believing  them  to  be  enemies  in  search  of  him, 
the  prime  mover  of  the  murder  of  Caesar  threw  himself  upon  the 
sword  of  an  attendant.  The  horsemen,  to  escape  whom  he  had 
killed  himself,  proved  to  be  a  joyous  party  sent  by  Brutus  to 
announce  that  the  battle  was  won. 

So  it  was,  in  front  of  Brutus.  But  the  soldiers  of  the  self- 
slaughtered  Cassius  had  scattered  into  the  mountains,  whither 
the  legions  of  Antony  could  not  follow  them,  and  he,  learning 
of  the  disaster  to  the  Roman  left,  could  only  recall  his  troops 
and  faU  back  to  re-establish  their  front.  The  first  day  of  Philippi 
was  at  an  end. 

The  death  of  Cassius  proved  a  terrible  blow  to  the  hopes  of 
the  republican  leaders.  He  was  able  to  lead  and  control  his 
soldiers,  but  Brutus,  though  successful  in  action,  was  the  slave 
of  his  men.  Victorious  in  the  first  day's  fight,  and  speedily 
made  aware  that  the  army  of  the  Triumvirate  was  suffering  for 
supplies  and  badly  shattered,  he  was  unable  to  take  advantage 
of  the  situation.  His  soldiers  almost  mutinied.  They  demanded 
that  he  should  at  once  open  the  treasure-chests,  and  pay  out  to 
them  large  sums  in  money  or  they  would  desert  in  a  body  to 
the  enemy.  The  sums  they  demanded  were  paid,  and  then  they 
redoubled  their  demands.  Then  the  prisoners  were  turned  over 
to  their  cruelty,  and  finally  Brutus  was  compelled  to  promise 
them  the  plunder  of  the  city  of  Thessalonica  as  the  price  of  their 
loyalty.  In  this  way,  for  twenty  days  more,  he  kept  them  to- 
gether, and  then  Octavius  reappeared,  was  received  with  accla- 
mations by  his  men,  an  immediate  battle  was  the  result,  and  on 
this,  the  second  day  of  Philippi,  the  Triumvirate  held  its  own ; 
the  legions  of  Brutus  were  forced  back  to  the  camp  after  desper- 
ate fighting,  and  though  he  with  four  legions  held  their  ground 
for  the  night  on  the  foothills  back  of  camp,  when  morning 
dawned  they  refused  to  fight  and  Brutus  was  defenceless ;  the 
evil  demon  of  his  vision  had  indeed  met  him  at  Philippi,  and 
Brutus  threw  himself  upon  his  own  sword. 

Philippi  was  the  end  of  the  great  Roman  republic. 

And  now  Octavius  returned  to  Rome  and  became  ruler  of  all 


SUICIDE   OF   ANTONY  AND   CLEOPATRA. 

the  west  Antony  preferred  the  luxury  and  wealth  to  be  found 
in  the  Asiatic  provinces,  and  so  decided  to  remain  there.  It 
was  while  in  Cilicia  that  he  summoned  before  him  for  trial 
Cleopatra,  the  renowned  Queen  of  Egypt,  who  stood  accused  of 
conspiring  with  Cassius  against  the  Triumvirate.  She  came 
fearlessly,  sailing  up  the  Cydnus  in  her  marvellous  barge  "  with 
purple  sails  and  silver  oars,"  surrounded  by  all  the  beauty  and 
witchery  of  her  court ;  she  herself  outrivalling  all  in  physical 
charms  and  in  mental  powers.  She  was  summoned  to  sentence 
but  she  came  to  conquer,  and  Antony  fell  a  victim  at  the  first 
interview.  Here  began  his  downfall. 

Rivalry  of  an  intense  nature  had  already  sprung  up  between 
him  and  Octavius.  For  five  years  a  hollow  pretence  of  alliance 
was  kept  up  between  them,  and  Antony  had  for  a  time  to  appear 
at  Rome,  but  speedily  returned  to  the  east  and  Cleopatra,  who 
had  completely  ensnared  him.  In  36  B.  C.,  Lepidus,  dissatisfied 
with  the  small  share  he  received  in  the  distribution  of  provinces, 
ventured  to  make  war  on  Octavius,  and  was  easily  overthrown. 
Then  Antony  made  a  terrible  failure  of  the  war  with  the  Par- 
thians,  and  exasperated  Rome  by  hurrying  back  to  his  Egyptian 
mistress,  and  deserting  his  noble-born  wife,  Octavia.  Open 
rupture  was  announced  between  Octavius  and  himself.  Antony 
was  denounced  as  an  enemy  to  the  commonwealth,  and  the 
betrayal  of  his  will  to  Octavius  enabled  the  latter  to  convince 
the  Senate  and  the  people  that,  aided  by  the  powerful  navy  of 
Cleopatra,  the  "  renegade  imperator "  proposed  to  conquer 
Rome,  remove  the  capital  to  Alexandria,  and  make  his  enchant- 
ress mistress  of  the  world.  The  war  that  instantly  broke  out 
was  short  and  sharp,  terminated  by  the  great  naval  battle  of  Ac- 
tium  on  September  2d,  31  B.  C.  Antony  and  Cleopatra  fled  in 
disgrace,  speedily  dying  self-inflicted  deaths ;  and  Octavius  was 
left  sole  ruler  of  Rome  and  all  that  was  Roman.  Founder  of 
the  empire,  he  now  became  Augustus  Caesar. 


CHALONS. 

451  A.  D. 

HE  Christian  era  opened  with  a  terrible  hu- 
miliation for  Rome.  Oppressed  and  bur- 
dened beyond  endurance,  the  Germans  rose 
against  her,  and  in  a  most  bloody  and  de- 
cisive battle  the  legions  of  Varus  were  com- 
pletely annihilated  by  the  hordes  of  Ar- 
minius,  in  the  thick  forests  still  known  as 
the  Teutobergerwald.  The  Romans  were 
surrounded  and  slowly  slaughtered,  and,  from 
a  military  standpoint,  the  battle  can  only  be 
described  as  a  massacre. 

In  the  year  43  Rome  began  the  conquest  of  Britain,  and  at 
the  same  time  kept  up  her  vast  armies  in  Asia,  destroying  Jeru- 
salem in  70,  and  then,  while  Trajan  was  emperor,  extending  her 
conquests  away  beyond  the  Euphrates.  A  century  later  she 
fought  a  long  and  desperate  war  against  the  Germans,  finally 
subduing  them.  In  the  year  250  her  provinces  were  invaded  by 
the  Goths,  and  civil  and  foreign  wars  were  incessantly  sapping 
her  strength.  The  first  Christian  emperor,  Constantine,  re- 
united the  empire  in  324,  and  moved  the  capital,  the  seat  of  the 
Roman  empire,  to  Constantinople,  in  330.  Then,  in  395,  came 
the  revolt  of  the  Goths,  and,  in  410,  the  capture  of  Rome  itself, 
by  Alaric. 

Battle  after  battle  was  fought  in  these  four  centuries,  but  space 
limits  us  to  the  description  of  those  presenting  notable  military 
or  historical  features,  and  thus  we  are  brought  to  the  year  45 1 
and  "The  battle  of  the  people,"  at  Chalons-sur-Marne,  France. 
Rome  had  virtually  finished  her  work  of  receiving  and  trans- 
(172) 


CHARACTER   OF  ATTILA.  173 

mitting  the  civilization  of  Greece,  and  under  her  protection  the 
Christian  religion  was  now  recognized  throughout  her  provinces, 
but  Rome  herself  was  on  the  decline.  By  the  middle  of  the 
fifth  century  Germanic  nations  had  settled  the  Roman  provinces 
north  of  the  Mediterranean.  The  Visigoths  held  northern  Spain 
and  all  France  below  the  Loire ;  the  Suevi,  southern  Spain  ;  the 
Burgundians,  Franks,  Alemanni  and  Alans,  other  portions  of 
Gaul;  the  Ostrogoths,  the  country  just  to  the  north  of  Italy; 
and  of  all  these  the  Visigoths,  under  King  Theodoric,  were  tha 
foremost  in  power  and  civilization. 

Against  them  came  the  Huns — a  race  wild,  savage  and  appa- 
rently countless,  that  swept  into  Europe  from  the  East  about 
the  year  375,  and  conquered  everything  before  them  until  they 
reached  the  thickly  populated  tracts  of  Western  Europe.  Roman 
armies  even  tried  to  check  them  and  were  overwhelmed.  Tribes 
and  cities  went  down  before  them,  and  now,  with  Hungary  as 
their  seat  of  government,  and  with  their  renowned  leader,  Attila, 
at  their  head,  they  threatened  to  sweep  the  Germanic  nations 
into  the  sea. 

Attila  is  described  by  historians  as  a  man  of  unusual  power 
and  influence.  Hideously  ugly  in  person,  he  had  nevertheless 
unbounded  command  over  friends  and  foes,  and  the  military 
skill  of  Alexander.  He  was  austere,  sober,  just  and  deliberate, 
gave  protection  to  all  subjects  and  a  war  of  extermination  to  all 
who  resisted  him.  His  soldiers  followed  him  as  they  would  a 
god.  He  called  himself  "Attila,  Descendant  of  the  Great  Nim- 
rod.  Nurtured  in  Engaddi.  By  the  Grace  of  God,  King  of  the 
Huns,  the  Goths,  the  Danes,  and  the  Medes.  The  dread  of  the 
World."  He  ruled  the  immense  country  north  of  the  Danube ; 
the  Black  Sea,  east  of  the  Caucasus,  and  in  445  he  founded  the 
city  of  Buda,  on  the  Danube,  as  his  capital. 

Rome  was  greatly  alarmed  at  his  wonderful  march  of  con- 
quest westward,  and  strove  to  form  a  stronger  alliance  with  the 
Germanic  tribes  against'  him.  The  Visigoths  under  King  Theo- 
doric were  quick  to  respond.  Attila  had  just  completed  the 
punishment  of  some  of  the  Eastern  Roman  provinces  for  a  rebel- 
lion against  him,  said  to  have  been  inspired  at  Constantinople; 


174  CHALONS. 

and  now,  in  450  A.  D.,  he  only  needed  a  pretense  to  make  war 
on  Western  Europe.  It  soon  came.  Honoria,  sister  of  Valen- 
tinian,  Emperor  of  the  West,  sent,  offering  to  marry  him.  The 
offer  was  probably  inspired  by  hatred  of  her  brother  and  some 
of  her  people,  but  it  was  discovered,  and  she  was  imprisoned 
and  closely  guarded.  Attila  announced  his  determination  of 
compelling  Rome  to  free  his  intended  bride ;  and,  securing  the 
allegiance  of  the  Franks  on  the  lower  Rhine,  he  marched  west- 
ward, crossed  the  river  near  Coblentz  with  a  total  strength  of 
700,000  fighting  men,  met  and  badly  whipped  the  Burgundians, 
who  strove  to  make  a  stand  against  him,  and  was  speedily  in 
France. 

Sending  a  strong  column  northwest  to  destroy  the  cities  and 
subdue  the  people  in  Northern  Gaul,  he  himself,  with  the  main 
army,  pushed  up  the  valley  of  the  Moselle  toward  the  southwest, 
destroying  the  towns  of  the  Burgundians ;  and  Eastern  Gaul 
being  thus  speedily  brought  to  terms,  he  prepared  to  move  west- 
ward, cross  the  river  Loire,  and  descend  upon  the  Gothic  terri- 
tory toward  the  Bay  of  Biscay. 

In  his  way,  however,  stood  the  fortified  city  of  Orleans,  on 
the  right  bank  of  the  Loire,  and  here  at  last  he  met  vigorous  re- 
sistance. All  along  the  stream,  too,  his  attempts  to  cross  were 
frustrated  by  the  energy  of  the  Roman  general,  Aetius,  and  his 
ally,  King  Theodoric,  who  were  also  busily  recruiting  their 
armies  to  make  a  stand  against  the  Huns.  Aetius  spared  no 
able-bodied  man.  All  were  forced  to  enlist  under  the  Roman 
standard,  and  Theodoric,  for  his  part,  was  no  less  active.  Orleans 
bravely  held  out,  and,  before  he  could  prevent  it,  Attila  found 
that  Aetius  and  Theodoric'  were  united  and  marching  north- 
ward against  him  with  an  army  as  great  as  his  entire  force,  now 
much  scattered. 

Quickly  he  abandoned  the  siege,  fell  back  to  Chalons,  on  the 
Marne,  and  called  in  his  outlying  troops,  and  on  the  broad,  open 
plain,  near  where  the  little  villages  of  Chape  and  Cuperly  now 
stand,  he  built  a  great  intrenchment  to  surround  his  camp,  and 
confidently  awaited  the  coming  of  the  southern  allies.  It  was, 
of  all  others,  the  very  place  where  his  strongest  arm,  the  cavalry, 
would  be  most  effective. 


A   BLOODY   CONFLICT   BEGINS.  175 

The  grand  army  of  allied  Romans  and  Visigoths  speedily 
made  its  appearance.  By  this  time  it  was  probably  much  larger 
than  that  of  Attila.  Aetius  with  the  legions  held  the  right; 
Theodoric  the  left ;  and  the  centre,  which  was  somewhat  ad- 
vanced, was  placed  under  the  King  of  the  Alans,  Sangipan  by 
name,  who  was  suspected  by  both  Theodoric  and  Aetius  of  being 
lukewarm  to  the  cause.  Opposite  them  were  ranged  the  wild 
forces  of  Attila;  he  himself  commanding  his  centre,  while  the 
Ostrogoths  and  other  conquered  subjects  were  placed  on  the 
flanks.  Roman  Aetius  was  a  veteran  soldier,  and  well  knowing 
the  importance  of  seizing  any  rising  ground  as  a  protection 
against  cavalry  attack,  he  had  skillfully  managed  to  secure  and 
hold  some  abrupt  slopes  that  really  overlooked,  if  not  com- 
manded, the  left  flank  of  the  Huns — a  fact  that,  most  unaccount- 
ably, Attila  had  not  properly  appreciated.  History  is  very  silent 
about  the  affair,  but  it  is  a  fair  presumption  that  he  had  directed 
its  occupation  and  that  the  order  was  not  promptly  obeyed.  At 
all  events,  he  appears  to  have  been  enraged  at  the  discovery  of 
its  occupation  by  the  Romans,  and  the  battle  began  there  on  the 
instant. 

So  determined  was  Attila  to  recover  at  once  the  advantage 
the  position  on  the  slopes  would  give  him,  that  he  detached 
some  of  the  best  troops  from  his  centre  and  launched  them  in 
with  his  entire  left  in  a  furious  assault  on  the  Roman  lines  along 
the  crest.  A  bloody  and  determined  conflict  began,  the  Huns 
fighting  up-hill  with  wild  enthusiasm  and  confidence,  but  falling 
like  sheep  before  the  heavily  armored  ranks  of  the  legions. 
When  fully  a  third  of  their  number  were  killed  or  wounded  and 
the  ground  was  fairly  covered  with  their  prostrate  bodies,  the 
Huns  began  to  show  some  faint  signs  of  wavering.  Then  it  was 
that  Aetius  gave  the  signal  to  charge,  and  with  one  mighty  im- 
pulse the  Romans  surged  forward,  sweeping  all  before  them  down 
the  hillside.  Almost  at  the  same  time  Theodoric  with  the  brave 
Visigoths  darted  forward  in  an  impetuous  rush  upon  the  Ostro- 
goths on  the  extreme  right  of  Attila's  lines.  These  latter  were 
far  from  having  heart  in  the  fight ;  were  simply  enforced  levies ; 
their  sympathy  could  hardly  have  been  with  their  half-savage 


176  CHALONS. 

conquerors,  and  their  resistance  was  but  feeble.  Nevertheless, 
for  a  time  they  stood  their  ground,  and  one  ill-fated  javelin, 
thrown  perhaps  at  random,  struck  down  gallant  King  Theodoric 
as  he  charged  at  the  head  of  his  cavalry.  He  fell  beneath  the 
thundering  hoofs  of  his  squadrons  and  was  trampled  to  death 
in  the  instant  of  victory.  Learning  even  in  the  heat  of  battle 
of  their  great  loss,  the  Visigoths  with  redoubled  fury  drove  the 
opposing  right  in  headlong  confusion  from  the  field,  and  then 
turned  as  one  man  and  charged  the  Hunnish  centre  now  locked 
in  combat  with  the  Alans. 

Attila  quickly  saw  his  peril,vand  ordered  his  centre  to  fall  back 
face  to  the  foe  until  they  reached  the  intrenchments.  There  had 
been  terrible  slaughter  on  his  left  along  the  contested  slope,  and 
though  his  centre  could  easily  have  overthrown  that  of  the  allies, 
he  plainly  saw  that  with  his  left  wing  badly  crippled  and  his  right 
wing  utterly  gone,  the  open  plain  was  no  longer  to  be  thought 
of.  Back  went  the  struggling  Huns,  amazed  and  discomfited  at 
an  experience  so  new  to  them,  and  the  withdrawal  of  the  centre 
was  accomplished  in  safety.  Once  more  Attila  was  enabled  to 
reform  his  lines  with  his  archers  well  protected  by  earthworks 
and  the  rows  of  wagons. 

For  some  strange  reason  Aetius,  after  beating  back  the  fierce 
attack  upon  the  slopes,  called  off  his  men  and  prohibited  the 
pursuit  they  were  so  eager  to  engage  in.  Had  the  Romans 
followed  up  their  advantage  there,  it  is  probable  that  the  camp 
itself  would  have  been  in  their  hands  before  nightfall  and  the 
victory  far  more  decisive  than  it  was ;  but  he  held  aloof.  Attila 
succeeded  in  reassembling  his  centre  and  what  remained  of  his 
left  wing,  and  night  put  an  end  to  further  operations  for  the  time 
being.  His  retreat,  if  it  could  be  so  called,  was  effected  in  ad- 
mirable order,  and,  though  pursued  and  hounded  all  the  way, 
the  centre  preserved  its  resolute  front,  and,  once  within  the 
lines  of  intrenchments,  their  bowmen  proved  too  dangerous  for 
further  attack. 

All  the  same,  Attila  was  wofully  depressed.  His  losses  had 
been  terrible,  and  he  confidently  expected  that  with  the  rising 
sun  his  enemies  would  make  a  grand  and  united  attack  which  it 


ATTILA'S   RETREAT— HIS   DEATH.  ]77 

might  be  impossible  to  resist.  He  would  fight  to  the  last,  but 
in  his  desperation  he  resolved  not  to  be  taken  alive,  nor  to  per- 
mit the  foe  to  realize  anything  valuable  in  the  way  of  spoil. 
So  during  the  long  night,  while  his  officers  were  posting  the 
best  archers  along  the  front  of  the  lines  and  making  every 
preparation  for  stout  defence,  he  caused  a  great  mound  to  be 
made  of  the  wooden  saddles  of  his  cavalry ;  round  it  he  heaped 
the  plunder  and  treasure  he  had  won ;  on  it  were  placed  his 
wives,  who  happened  to  be  with  the  army,  and  he  himself  took 
his  station  there.  It  was  to  be  his  funeral  pyre  should  the  allies 
successfully  storm  the  camp. 

But  the  allies  did  not  attack.  Morning  revealed  the  plain 
covered  for  miles  with  dead  .and  dying,  but  the  lines  of  Rome 
and  Gaul  had  not  advanced.  It  is  said  that  Aetius  refused  to 
complete  the  work  of  the  day  before,  because  he  knew  that  an 
overwhelming  rout  and  slaughter  of  the  Huns  would  so  elate  his 
allies,  the  Visigoths,  that  they  might  renounce  their  allegiance 
to  Rome  entirely  and  declare  their  independence  of  Roman  rule, 
since  they  had  shown  how  valiantly  they  could  hold  their  own  in 
battle.  Be  this  as  it  may,  Aetius  persuaded  young  King  Thoris- 
mund,  who  had  just  succeeded  Theodoric,  his  father,  that  it 
would  be  best  to  leave  things  as  they  were  and  return  to  his 
capital.  Molested  no  further,  but  terribly  shattered  and  beaten, 
Attila  was  allowed  to  retreat  from  France.  He  died  two  years 
after  Chalons,  and  his  great  empire  fell  to  pieces  with  his  death. 
The  Huns  were  no  longer  the  terror  and  scourge  of  Western 
Europe. 
12 


TOURS. 

732  A.  D. 

(OR  years  after  Chalons  great  changes  were 
taking  place  in  Christendom.  The  Roman 
Empire  died  out  in  the  West.  The  Saxons 
and  Angles  conquered  Britain.  Italy  and 
Northern  Africa  were  for  a  time  added  to 
the  Roman  Empire  of  the  East.  Wars 
were  vigorously  carried  on  between  the 
Emperors  of  Constantinople  and  the  Kings 
of  Persia  well  into  the  seventh  century. 
Then  came  the  era  of  Mohammed  and  the  Hegira,  in  622. 
Then  Mohammed  conquered  Arabia,  and  during  the  remainder 
of  the  century  the  Mohammedan  Arabs,  gaining  constantly  in 
strength  and  confidence,  invaded  first  Persia,  then  conquered 
Syria,  Egypt  and  Africa ;  and  early  in  the  eighth  century,  from 
707  to  713,  they  had  crossed  the  straits  of  Gibraltar,  and  were 
battling  and  conquering  all  over  Spain. 

The  Germanic  conquerors  of  Rome  had,  three  centuries 
before  this,  fallen  back  across  the  Rhine,  never  to  return.  A 
French  monarchy  had  been  founded  in  Gaul  by  King  Clovis, 
and  for  three  hundred  years  it  had  struggled  on.  Now,  the 
peace,  prosperity  and  the  hopes  of  Christian  France  were  threat- 
ened by  this  advancing  wave  of  followers  of  the  pagan  prophet. 
Everywhere,  from  the  south  of  Gaul,  along  Africa,  Egypt,  Ara- 
bia, Syria,  far  to  Eastern  Persia,  everywhere,  from  the  Pyrenees 
to  the  Himalayas,  the  name  of  Mohammed  was  worshipped,  and 
his  Koran  was  the  law. 

And  now,  with  a  veteran  and  united  army,  thoroughly  disci- 
plined and  equipped,  these  determined  Saracens  had  planted 
(178) 


II.    PORTRAITS   OF   NOTABLE  LEADERS   OF   TWELVE   CENTURIES. 
\Famous  and  Decisive  Battles.) 


CROSSING   THE    PYRENEES.  179 

their  magazines  along  the  frontier  and  with  stores  in  abundance, 
with  every  advantage  in  their  favor,  they  were  about  to  cross 
the  Pyrenees  and  attempt  the  conquest  of  Gaul.  From  Persia 
to  Spain  the  Caliph  was  the  supreme  power,  and  him  the  Mos- 
lems obeyed  unhesitatingly ;  and  his  trusted  general,  Abderrah- 
man  Abdillah  Alghafeki,  was  governor  in  Spain  and  com- 
mander of  the  army  of  occupation.  Abderrahman  was  the  hero 
of  the  Saracen  soldiery,  a  tried  leader,  a  generous  and  zealous 
man,  and  it  was  with  unbounded  confidence  that  they  prepared 
to  follow  him  across  the  mountains  to  the  plains  of  Southern 
France. 

In  the  summer  of  732,  at  the  head  of  80,000  soldiers,  among 
whom  were  some  admirable  Arabian  cavalry,  Abderrahman 
crossed  the  Pyrenees  as  Hannibal  had  crossed  them  ten  centu- 
ries before,  and  swooped  down  upon  the  cities  and  towns  that 
lay  before  him.  France  had  no  army  with  which  to  successfully 
oppose  him.  Count  Eudes,  of  Aquitaine,  strove  to  check  him 
on  the  Garonne,  but  was  beaten  with  great  loss,  and  beyond 
doubt  the  Mohammedan  invasion  of  France  would  have  been  a 
complete  success,  had  the  leading  men  not  promptly  called  to 
their  aid  Prince  Charles,  of  the  Austrasian  Franks,  over  near  the 
Rhine ;  and  this  Charles,  surnamed  Martel  (the  Hammer),  lost 
no  time  in  pushing  forward  with  his  irregular  cavalry  to  join 
forces  with  his  western  neighbors,  and,  just  one  hundred  years 
after  the  death  of  Mohammed,  the  followers  of  the  prophet  were 
met  and  overthrown  in  "  the  deadly  battle  "  of  Tours. 

More  than  one  great  fight  has  taken  place  in  the  beautiful 
valley  of  the  Loire,  but  none  has  the  historic  interest  which 
centres  in  this.  Great,  decisive  and  important  as  was  the  anni- 
hilation of  the  legions  of  Varus  by  the  German  Arminius,  the 
victory  of  Charles  Martel  over  the  Saracens  at  Tours  outrivalled 
it  in  national  consequence.  Doctor  Arnold,  the  eminent  Eng- 
lish writer  of  history,  regards  the  latter  as  the  most  important 
and  decisive  of  the  middle  ages.  It  was  the  check  to  Moham- 
medan invasion,  without  which  Southwestern  Europe  would 
have  been  overrun  as  was  Southeastern,  where,  to  this  day,  the 
descendants  of  the  Saracens  are  the  rulers  of  Turkey,  the  hold 


180  TOURS. 

ers  of  the  great  city  which  Napoleon  described  as  "  the  Empire 
of  the  World." 

Charles  Mattel  had  no  standing  army,  but  years  of  warfare 
had  skilled  his  hand  and  eye,  and  given  strength  to  his  own 
high  courage.  He  organized  a  large  force  of  militia  among  the 
Franks,  and  brought  with  him,  to  the  rescue  of  his  kinsmen,  a 
considerable  body  of  horse  and  foot  from  along  the  Rhine. 
Just  how  many  men  he  could  muster  nobody  seems  to  know. 
The  historians  of  that  day  were  the  old  monks,  who  wrote  very 
vaguely  when  it  came  to  describing  military  matters,  nor  were 
the  accounts  on  the  Saracen  side  any  more  complete. 

From  all  obtainable  sources  it  would  seem  that,  after  crossing 
the  Pyrenees  and  defeating  Count  Eumenes  on  the  Garonne,  the 
80,000  soldiery  of  Abderrahman  scattered  over  the  level  plains 
of  France,  robbing,  burning  and  destroying  in  a  most  ruthless 
manner.  It  is  related  by  the  monks  that  so  sure  were  they  of 
success  and  of  subduing  the  whole  country,  that  it  appeared 
as  though  this  Moslem  army  of  occupation  had  come  to  stay 
permanently,  for  they  brought  with  them  their  wives  and  chil- 
dren, flocks  and  herds,  and  all  their  belongings.  It  was  an  in- 
vasion with  a  purpose. 

Abdurrahman  had  obtained  accurate  information  as  to  the  real 
inhabitants,  their  means  of  defence,  etc.,  and  knew  that  from 
them  he  had  nothing  to  dread.  Of  Charles  Martel  and  the 
possibility  of  interference  where  he  was  concerned,  he  had  appa- 
rently little  idea.  His  army  was  allowed  to  scatter  in  every 
direction  over  the  broad,  fertile  valleys,  and  in  so  doing  they 
became  necessarily  disorganized,  and  lost  much  of  their  disci- 
pline. Their  Berber  or  Arabian  light  cavalry  committed  terri- 
ble ravages  throughout  the  land,  and  the  bitterest  hatred  sprang 
up  against  them.  Whatever  the~Franks  were  lacking  in  warlike 
instruction  they  soon  made  up  in  eager  daring ;  and,  taking  ad- 
vantage of  their  ardor  and  the  scattered  condition  of  the  Sara- 
cens, Martel  probably  wisely  chose  to  strike  hard  and  quick, 
without  even  waiting  to  organize  and  discipline  his  volunteers. 

The  armies  met  near  the  city  of  Tours,  on  the  broad  river 
Loire.  The  invaders  had  already  assaulted  the  walls  and  were 


TACTICS   OF   CHARLES    M ARTEL.  igj 

carrying  everything  before  them — even  committing  the  greatest 
excesses  and  crimes.  While  thus  plunder-laden,  and  scattered 
and  disordered,  the  army  of  Martel  marched  steadily  down  upon 
them.  Abderrahman  hastily  recalled  his  forces  and  strove  to 
form  lines,  and  several  days  of  indecisive  skirmishing  passed  by. 
His  Arabian  cavalry,  always  ready  and  daring,  opened  the  real 
battle  on  the  3d  of  October,  charging  again  and  again  upon  the 
sturdily  advancing  lines  of  the  Franks,  inflicting  great  losses  but 
suffering  severely  on  their  own  side.  Martel  had  but  few  horse- 
men to  oppose  to  such  trained  riders  as  these,  and  for  some  time 
it  seemed  as  though  their  wild  attacks  must  succeed  in  wearing 
out  the  firmness  of  the  soldiers  of  Gaul,  unused  as  they  had  long 
been  to  anything  like  warfare ;  but  Martel  was  spirited,  hopeful 
and  energetic,  fighting  cautiously  but  bravely,  and  when  at  last 
the  day  was  done  he  had  succeeded  in  engaging  the  entire 
host  of  Abderrahman;  had  compelled  him  to  abandon  the  assault 
of  the  city  in  the  moment  of  triumph,  and  in  holding  his  own 
position  intact  against  the  furious  charges  of  the  enemy.  The 
first  day  closed  decidedly  in  his  favor,  and  Abderrahman  was 
driven  into  his  camp,  to  the  south  towards  Poictiers. 

But  the  battle  was  not  yet  won.  At  the  first  gray  of  dawn 
the  Moslem  cavalry  were  at  them  again,  but  now  the  awe  they 
had  inspired  in  the  breasts  of  the  simple-minded  peasantry  had 
disappeared.  The  Franks  had  gained  great  confidence,  and  not 
only  repulsed  the  charges  with  heavy  loss,  but  soon  began  to 
press  the  squadrons  in  retreat  and  force  them  in  turn.  It  so 
happened  therefore  that  a  cry  went  up  that  the  camp  in  rear  of 
Abderrahman's  lines  was  being  attacked,  and  all  the  plunder 
would  be  recaptured.  This  added  to  the  unsteadiness  of  the 
troops  already  shaken  by  the  determined  stand  of  the  Franks. 
Dozens  of  squadrons  broke,  galloping  off  to  the  rear  under  pre- 
tence of  defending  the  camp.  The  lines  of  Abderrahman  began 
to  waver.  He  himself  was  quick  to  note  it  and  to  throw  him- 
self into  the  thick  of  the  fight,  calling  on  all  to  stand  by  him  ; 
but  Martel,  too,  with  a  soldier's  keen  eye,  had  marked  every 
symptom,  and  now  at  last  ordered  a  general  advance  and  charge 
upon  the  Saracens.  With  one  simultaneous  impulse  the  Frank- 


182  TOURS. 

ish  army  swept  forward ;  Abderrahman,  fighting  like  a  lion,  was 
surrounded,  hewed  down  and  pierced  by  a  dozen  spears.  Then 
indeed  the  demoralized  army  could  stand  it  no  longer  and  broke 
and  fled  closely  and  vehemently  pursued.  Martel,  like  Caesar, 
gave  no  rest  to  beaten  foe ;  no  time  to  rally  and  try  it  again. 
Everywhere  the  Moslems  were  cut"  down  and  slaughtered,  for 
no  mercy  was  shown  to  those  who  had  been  so  unmerciful,  and 
the  carnage  during  that  long  afternoon  of  pursuit  was  something 
indescribable.  One  writer  of  the  day  asserts  that  over  300,000 
Saracens  were  slain,  and  that  the  loss  of  Cherles  Martel  did  not 
exceed  1,000,  but  the  statements  both  ways  are  unreliable. 
Only  80,000  fighting  men,  according  to  Saracen  chronicles,  were 
in  the  army,  though  the  monks  always  claimed  that  several 
hundred  thousand  were  north  of  the  Pyrenees.  Certain  it  is 
that  the  army  was  annihilated,  the  leader  killed,  and  the  plun- 
der recaptured.  Their  own  writers  speak  of  their  defeat  as  a 
most  "  disgraceful  overthrow,"  and  it  is  reasonable  to  suppose 
that  Martel  had  accomplished  his  victory  with  an  inferior 
force. 

The  battle  of  Tours  freed  Gaul  at  once  from  further  assault 
for  a  long  time  to  come.  It  is  true  that  the  Saracens  made  one 
more  effort  to  invade  France  by  moving  up  the  valley  of  the 
Rhone,  but  the  attempt  was  speedily  and  sharply  checked.  The 
death  of  Charles  left  his  sons,  Carloman  and  Pepin,  to  divide 
the  Prankish  empire,  but  the  latter  soon  assumed  the  title  of 
king,  became  possessed  of  the  whole  of  France,  and,  when  he  in 
turn  died,  in  768,  the  kingdom  was  again  divided  between  two 
sons,  Carloman  and  Charles ;  again  the  elder  speedily  died,  leav- 
ing undivided  sovereignty  to  the  younger  brother.  When  just 
twenty-eight  years  of  age  Charles,  second  son  of  Pepin,  grandson 
of  Charles  Martel,  became  head  of  the  whole  empire  of  the  west, 
and  with  wonderful  skill,  vigor  and  address  extended  its  limits 
in  every  direction,  building  up  a  magnificent  Christian  empire 
that  soon  included  Rome  itself  within  its  territory,  and,  in  the 
year  800,  he  was  solemnly  crowned  at  St.  Peter's  Emperor  of 
the  Roman  Empire  of  the  West,  and  became  to  history  Charles 
the  Great — Charlemagne. 


HASTINGS. 


1066. 

HE  battle  of  Tours  had  rid  the  Franks  once 
and  for  all  of  the  possibility  of  Saracen  over- 
throw. The  grand  empire  of  Charlemagne 
was  founded  on  the  victory  won  by  his  grand- 
father, Charles  Martel,  and  yet  no  sooner  had 
Charles  the  Great  been  called  from  earth 
than  the  disruption  of  that  great  empire  be- 
gan. The  kingdom  of  France  was  soon 
separated  from  Germany  and  Italy.  Then 
France  herself  began  to  suffer  from  the  incursions  of  a  vigorous, 
hardy  race,  called  the  Northmen,  Danes  by  birth,  and  for  two 
centuries  fleet  after  fleet  of  Scandinavians  swept  down  upon  the 
coasts  of  England,  France  and  Spain,  and  in  the  year  911  Duke 
Rolla  (Hrolf  the  Northman),  with  a  powerful  army  of  Scandi- 
navian warriors  at  his  back,  settled  in  the  north  of  France,  the 
province  of  Neustria  having  been  ceded  to  them  by  the  king  as 
the  price  of  a  peaceful  future.  Intermarriages  with  the  Frankish 
families  soon  followed,  but  these  people  of  Duke  Rolla  became 
the  ruling  race  in  northern  France,  and  their  country  became 
known  as  Normandy. 

Just  such  stalwart  manhood  and  brawn  and  muscle  as  came 
in  with  these  hardy  adventurers  was  what  was  needed  to  develop 
a  race  of  knights  and  soldiers  in  France  such  as  had  not  been 
seen  since  the  days  of  Caesar,  and  the  warlike  skill  they  brought 
with  them,  tempered  by  the  polish  of  the  Latin  nations  of  the 
south,  formed  a  combination  of  qualities  that  in  one  century  had 
made  the  knights  of  Normandy 'renowned  throughout  Europe. 
Pilgrimages  to  the  Holy  Land  of  Palestine  were  then  frequent, 

(183) 


184  HASTINGS. 

and  Norman  officers  became  known  in  Italy,  speedily  winning 
a  settlement  of  their  own  in  Apulia  and  also  in  the  island  of 
Sicily.  Meantime,  across  the  channel,  the  Saxon  line  of  kings 
was  still  filling  the  throne  of  England  after  the  sons  of  the  Danish 
King  Canute  had  died  out,  and  Edward  the  Confessor  was  ruler 
of  the  island.  He  had  received  his  education  in  the  court  of 
Normandy,  and  was  strongly  imbued  with  Norman  ideas.  He 
well  knew  that  under  an  old  compact  with  King  Hardicanute 
the  Norsemen  believed  themselves  entitled  now  to  the  crown  of 
England,  but  so  long  as  Duke  Robert  of  Normandy  was  absent 
on  his  pilgrimage  there  was  no  probability  of  trouble  arising,  and 
when  his  son  William  rose  to  the  dukedom  in  1035  he  was  not 
in  readiness  to  enforce  any  claim,  nor  did  he  in  any  way  actively 
interfere  when  Edward,  his  kinsman,  came  to  the  fore  as  the 
successor  of  the  Canutes  in  1041. 

But  Edward  the  Confessor  was  childless,  and  three  powerful 
rivals  made  preparations  to  seize  the  throne  when  his  death 
should  leave  it  vacant.  For  the  time  being  all  eyes  were  on 
England.  The  rivals  were :  first,  a  foreign  prince  from  the 
north;  second,  a  foreign  prince  from  the  south;  third, an  English- 
born  prince — a  hero  of  the  people. 

Harald  Hardrata  of  Norway  was  the  first ;  William  of  Nor- 
mandy the  second  ;  Harold  the  Saxon  was  the  third.  It  is  said 
by  historians  that  the  interest  of  the  great  contest  was  greatly 
enhanced  by  the  prominence  and  character  of  these  three  rivals, 
all  champions  of  their  respective  races.  The  prize  was  a  noble 
one,  the  struggle  gallant  in  the  last  degree. 

Shortly  before  the  death  of  Edward  the  Confessor,  Harold 
had  been  induced  to  visit  Normandy  as  the  ostensible  guest  of 
Duke  William.  Harold  was  already  proclaimed  by  the  English 
people  their  choice  for  king  when  the  now  enfeebled  Edward 
should  die ;  but  Edward  was  suspected  of  leaning  toward  Nor- 
mandy and  the  claims,  as  he  was  known  to  admire  the  marked 
ability,  of  William.  It  may  be  that  he  actually  played  into  the 
hand  of  Normandy  and  sent  Harold  thither.  At  all  events, 
though  treated  as  a  guest,  the  young  earl  found  himself  actually 
a  prisoner,  and  while  there,  in  the  presence  of  a  crowded  court, 


HAROLD   DEFEATS   THE   NORWEGIANS.  185 

William  of  Normandy  extracted  from  the  Saxon  a  solemn 
pledge  to  deliver  up  to  him  the  throne  of  England  on  the  death 
of  Edward.  Alone,  defenceless,  and  believing  his  life  endan- 
gered if  he  refused,  Harold  reluctantly  gave  the  pledge,  was 
then  permitted  to  return  to  England,  and  on  the  5th  of  January, 
1066,  King  Edward  died,  and  the  throne  was  vacant. 

The  very  next  day  all  the  nobles,  "  the  thanes  and  prelates 
present  in  London,"  all  the  people  within  reach  named  Harold 
for  king,  and  on  the  /th  of  January,  disregarding  the  oath  ex- 
tracted from  him  by,  as  he  claimed,  violence  and  the  fear  of  his 
life,  the  Saxon  was  duly  anointed  and  crowned  King  of  England. 

He  was  instantly  assailed  both  from  north  and  south.  His 
renegade  brother,  Earl  Tostig,  urged  on  the  preparations  of 
King  Harald  Hardrata  from  the  Norseland,  and,  though  dwarfed 
by  the  importance  and  extent  of  the  invasions  of  Duke  William, 
the  movement  of  the  Norse  king,  almost  at  the  same  time,  should 
never  be  forgotten  in  this  connection.  Even  while  Harold  of 
England  was  throwing  all  his  energies  into  the  scheme  for  the 
defeat  of  the  powerful  Normans,  now  preparing  to  invade  him 
from  the  channel,  he  learned  that  Harald  of  Norseland  had  landed 
at  the  far  end  of  his  kingdom.  He  had  to  drop  everything  on 
the  channel  shores  and  hasten  to  meet  him.  Two  hundred  war 
ships,  three  hundred  transports  and  the  best  soldiery  of  Scan- 
dinavia came  to  back  Harald  Hardrata.  Landing  in  Yorkshire 
and  overthrowing  the  local  forces,  he  conquered  the  city  of  York, 
and  in  an  incredibly  short  time  was  master  of  all  the  country 
north  of  the  Humber.  But,  quick  as  the  news  could  reach  King 
Harold  in  Sussex,  he  sped  away  northward,  a  valiant  army  with 
him,  and,  surprising  the  Norwegians  by  the  rapidity  of  his 
march,  he  terribly  defeated  them  at  Stamford  Bridge,  September 
25th,  1066,  Harald  Hardrata  and  his  noblest  men  going  down 
before  him.  The  battle  and  victory,  splendid  as  it  was,  had  been 
won,  however,  at  great  cost.  Harold  lost  many  excellent  officers 
and  men ;  but,  worst  of  all,  William  of  Normandy,  utterly  unop- 
posed, had  effected  his  landing  on  the  Sussex  shore. 

Superb  as  was  William's  character  as  a  soldier,  he  was  as  con- 
summate a  politician  and  statesman.  Before  entering  upon  the 


186  HASTINGS. 

contest  at  all  he  had  reminded  Harold  of  his  oath.  Harold  had 
replied  that  he  could  not  lay  down  what  was  not  his  own — the 
will  of  his  country.  His  royalty  was  the  voice  of  his  people. 
Even  were  it  not,  he  argued,  an  enforced  oath  could  not  be  bind- 
ing. The  Norman  first  published  his  rival  all  over  Europe  as  a 
perjurer;  then,  to  fortify  still  more  his  position  in  public  esteem, 
submitted  the  whole  case  to  the  Pope  of  Rome,  who  solemnly 
decided  that  England  rightfully  belonged  to  William,  sent  him  a 
blessed  banner  to  be  borne  in  the  van  of  his  army,  and  bade  him 
bring  England  to  terms  without  delay.  The  superstitious  rever- 
ence in  which  the  Church  of  Rome  was  held  was  in  itself  an  all- 
powerful  ally  to  Duke  William,  but  he  neglected  nothing.  His 
preparations  were  complete. 

All  the  wealth  of  his  dukedom,  all  the  influence  of  his  own 
powerful  mind  were  thrown  into  the  task  of  recruiting  from  the 
noblest  classes  the  knighthood  of  his  army.  All  the  soldiers  of 
fortune  of  the  day  hastened  to  fight  under  that  consecrated  ban- 
ner, and  the  very  chivalry  of  Christendom  crowded  to  his  ranks, 
eager  to  be  enrolled  in  so  holy  a  cause  under  so  renowned  and 
brilliant  a  leader. 

All  through  the  spring  and  summer  the  seaports,  ship-yards 
and  harbors  of  northern  France  were  crowded  with  sailors  and 
builders,  with  soldiers  and  knights.  At  last,  late  in  August,  the 
great  armament  was  complete.  Baffling  winds  delayed  him 
for  a  time,  but  on  the  2Qth  of  September,  1066,  just  after 
Harold's  triumph  at  Stamford  Bridge,  William  of  Normandy, 
with  50,000  gallant  knights  and  gentlemen  and  10,000  soldiers 
of  the  line,  effected  his  landing  in  Pevensey  Bay,  not  far  from 
the  castle  of  Hastings. 

It  was  a  desperate  blow  to  Harold.  He  had  been  most  ener- 
getic in  his  preparations,  had  organized  a  large  army  and  a 
powerful  fleet  to  defeat  the  threatened  invasion,  but  both  had 
been  diverted  at  the  critical  moment.  He  was  rejoicing  in  York 
when  the  bitter  news  reached  him,  but  instantly  retraced  his 
steps,  hurrying  back  to  Sussex.  The  victory  over  the  Nor- 
wegians had  won  him  the  enthusiastic  devotion  of  all  England. 
It  was  in  his  power  to  immediately  enroll  a  large  army.  His 


WILLIAM   OF   NORMANDY    LANDS.  187 

fleet  was  already  numerous  and  powerful.  From  a  strategical 
standpoint,  now  that  William  with  60,000  men  had  landed  on  his 
coast,  the  one  thing  for  him  to  do  to  insure  an  overwhelming 
triumph  was  to  withdraw  the  small  force  in  southern  England ; 
to  tempt  the  Normans  toward  London ;  to  leave  to  his  seamen 
the  duty  of  cutting  off  all  their  supplies  or  reinforcements  from 
France;  then  to  surround  the  invaders  with  the  overwhelming 
force  he  could  bring  to  bear  and  crush  them  out  of  existence. 
But — Harold  was  soft-hearted.  He  could  not  bear  to  lay  open 
the  lands  of  southern  England  even  temporarily  to  the  plunder- 
ing hands  of  the  invaders.  He  stopped  in  London  only  long 
enough  to  give  orders  for  the  assembly  of  all  his  available  tfoops^ 
in  Sussex  at  once.  He  directed  the  fleet  to  rendezvous  off  the 
coast,  and  then  pushed  on.  It  may  be  that  victory  over  the 
Norsemen  had  made  him  altogether  too  confident,  but  he  showed 
the  utmost  eagerness  to  meet  the  southern  invaders,  and,  in  his 
haste,  neglected  many  a  valuable  precaution.  In  William  of  Nor- 
mandy and  his  knights  he  was  destined  to  meet  foemen  full  as 
brave  as,  but  far  more  skillful  and  far  more  wary  and  cautious 
than,  the  rude  soldiery  of  Harald  of  the  Norseland. 

The  landing  of  William  of  Normandy  had  been  accomplished 
under  auspices  that  were  wonderfully  favorable.  The  breeze 
was  light  and  soft.  The  sea  smooth  and  still.  The  ships  were 
easily  beached,  and  then  the  Norman  archers — they  who  were 
so  soon  to  play  the  most  important  part  in  the  struggle  with 
England — "  shaven  and  shorn,  clad  in  short  garments,"  stripped 
for  the  fight,  so  to  speak,  and  carrying  only  their  bows  and  full 
quivers,  sprang  into  the  summer  surf,  out  over  the  smooth,  sandy 
shore  and  well  to  the  front.  A  strong  skirmish  line  of  several 
thousand  expert  bowmen  covered  the  whole  movement,  and 
secured  the  army  of  the  Normans  against  surprise.  Then  came 
the  landing  of  the  mail-clad  knights  and  their  chargers.  Many 
must  have  gone  to  fight  on  foot  until  the  fortune  of  war  should 
provide  them  with  mounts,  for  though  he  had  50,000  gallant 
knights  and  gentlemen  Duke  William  could  not  begin  to 
muster  ships  enough  to  transport  horses  for  that  many.  But 
enough  horsemen  there  were  to  make  a  stout  array,  and  with 


188  HASTINGS. 

lances  in  hand  they  too  rode  forward  to  meet  any  foe  that  might 
appear,  while  the  disembarkation  went  uninterruptedly  on. 

Three  wooden  castles,  in  pieces,  had  been  carefully  prepared 
in  France.  These  too  were  brought  ashore.  One  was  immedi- 
ately set  up  on  good  high  ground.  Stores  and  provisions  were 
safely  landed ;  and  the  long  projected  invasion  was  an  accom- 
plished fact. 

As  Duke  William  himself  sprang  from  his  boat  to  the  sands  a 
singular  thing  occurred.  He  slipped,  and  fell  heavily  forward 
upon  his  breast  and  hands.  Superstition  was  rife  in  those  days, 
and  a  cry  of  "bad  omen  "  went  up;  but  he  sprang  to  his  feet, 
holding  high  his  hands,  tightly  grasping  the  dripping  sands  of 
the  seashore,  and  called  out  so  that  all  could  hear,  ""See,  my 
lords,  by  the  splendor  of  God !  I  have  taken  possession  of  Eng- 
land with  both  my  hands,"  and  his  presence  of  mind  and  ready 
wit  revived  their  spirits.  There  was  no  more  thought  of  evil 
omen. 

Protected  by  strong  outposts  of  archers  and  cavalry  the  Nor- 
man army  spent  its  first  night  on  English  soil  in  peace ;  moved 
eastward  the  next  day  towards  Hastings,  set  up  the  other  two 
castles  and  prepared  a  strongly  fortified  camp.  Meantime,  how- 
ever, Duke  William  sent  his  cavalry  well  out  northward  toward 
London,  to  watch  for  every  movement  of  the  enemy,  while  his 
foragers  swept  over  the  country,  bringing  in  provisions,  cattle, 
anything  useful  they  could  lay  hand  upon.  Harold  had  hoped 
to  surprise  the  Normans  as  he  had  the  Norwegians,  but  found 
himself  utterly  mistaken.  Their  cavalry  kept  watch  over  his 
every  movement,  and,  seeing  this,  he  simply  contented  himself 
with  driving  them  in  towards  their  main  body,  and  then,  with 
what  force  he  had,  halting  about  seven  miles  from  the  Norman 
camp. 

His  force  was  inferior  to  that  of  William.  Again  the  policy 
was  urged  upon  him  of  falling  back  towards  London,  destroying 
the  crops  and  provisions  as  he  went.  This  would  soon  have  had 
disastrous  effect  upon  the  foreigners,  who,  cut  off  from  reinforce- 
ments or  supplies  by  the  English  fleet,  would  have  starved,  or 
fallen  victims  to  the  masses  of  volunteers  that  were  ready  to 


POSITION   AND   EQUIPMENTS   OF  THE   SAXONS.  189 

flock  to  the  standard  of  King  Harold.  But  he 'was  determined 
and  eager  for  a  fight.  His  brothers,  Gurth  and  Leofwine,  then 
urged  him  to  take  no  personal  part  in  the  combat,  but  to  let 
those  who  loved  fight  for  him  and  their  common  country.  This, 
too,  he  rejected,  declaring  that  no  man  should  say  that  he  forced 
his  friends  to  fight  where  he  himself  shared  not  every  danger. 
This  point  settled,  he  chose  his  battle-ground,  and  chose  it  with 
great  skill,  for  he  knew  that  his  antagonist  would  be  forced  to 
attack  him. 

Some  eight  miles  back  of  Hastings,  where  the  ruins  of  Battle 
Abbey  now  stand,  was  a  little  place  then  called  Senlac.  Here, 
on  a  wooded  ridge  with  open  slopes  towards  the  south,  Harold 
established  his  lines,  and  covered  his  entire  front  with  a  stout 
palisade  of  stakes,  shields,  osier  hurdles  and  wattles,  a  compact 
earth-and-basket-work  that  made  a  capital  rampart.  Back  of 
the  ridge  were  thick  woods,  and  on  the  one  flank  which  was 
open  he  caused  a  deep  ditch  to  be  dug  from  north  to  south  as  a 
protection  against  cavalry  attack  from  that  side ;  for  it  was  the 
large  force  of  knights  and  mounted  men-at-arms  that  Harold 
had  most  reason  to  dread. 

Here  behind  these  intrenchments  the  English  army,  hurriedly 
summoned  from  all  over  the  kingdom  south  of  the  Humber, 
gathered  in  loyalty  to  their  new  sovereign  and  to  their  native  land. 
Those  from  the  cities  were  well  armed,  as  were  the  earls  and 
barons  with  their  retainers,  but  there  were  large  numbers  of 
peasantry  who  had  nothing  better  than  clubs,  picks,  iron  forks 
and  the  like.  The  nobles  and  the  better  classes  of  the  soldiery 
wore  helmets  with  hanging  capes  that  fell  upon  the  shoulders 
and  protected  the  throat  and  neck.  Their  bodies  were  clad  in 
the  stiff  and  heavy  hauberks  then  in  use  by  nearly  all  practised 
soldiers,  and  all  carried  stout  shields.  Their  weapons  were 
sharp  lances,  "  bills  "  (not  unlike  the  modern  bill-hook  in  shape 
but  much  heavier  and  larger),  and  many  carried  massive  battle- 
axes  and  maces.  These  were  the  arms  of  the  nobles  and  some 
of  the  veteran  soldiers,  but. in  addition  there  was  a  strong  force 
of  bowmen. 

On  the  other  side,  the  knights  and  nobles  of  the  Normans 


190  HASTINGS. 

were  superbly  mounted,  their  horses  and  themselves  to  a  cer- 
tain extent  covered  with  an  armor  impenetrable  to  lance  or  arrow: 
The  knights  wore  massive  helmets,  hauberks,  and  boots  of  metal ; 
all  carried  shields,  each  with  his  own  device  or  "  cognizance  " 
emblazoned  thereon,  by  which  they  might  be  known  to  one 
another  in  battle.  Their  arms  were  lances,  long  swords,  maces 
and  some  carried  the  battle-axes.  Among  the  footmen  defen- 
sive armor  was  little  worn  except  the  shield,  though  many  had 
bound  hides  upon  their  breasts  and  legs.  All  were  expert  archers, 
and  in  addition  to  their  bows  were  armed  with  short  swords. 
Such  were  the  forces  of  England  and  France  facing  one  another 
on  the  southern  shores  of  Sussex  early  in  October,  1066. 

But  though  he  sought  and  desired  an  immediate  and  decisive 
battle,  Duke  William  again  made  propositions  to  Harold,  all  of 
which  were  promptly  declined.  The  latter  well  knew  that  the 
price  which  William  was  to  pay  his  vassals  for  their  assistance 
was  the  division  of  all  England  into  estates  for  their  benefit. 
He  felt  assured  that  were  he  to  abdicate  now  he  could  not  save 
his  kingdom  from  pillage.  He  determined  to  fight  to  the  last, 
and,  despite  his  smaller  force,  was  hopeful  as  to  the  result.  In- 
deed his  nobles  were  of  the  same  opinion :  "  Our  lands,  our 
homes,  our  wives  and  daughters  are  promised  to  these  invading 
knights.  They  come  to  ruin  not  only  us  but  our  descendants." 
This  was  the  universal  voice  of  Harold's  army,  and  the  English 
swore  to  make  no  terms,  no  truce,  but  to  drive  out  the  Normans 
or  die  in  trying. 

And  now  all  knew  that  there  could  be  no  further  postpone- 
ment of  the  battle.  That  night  the  Saxons  spent  around  their 
camp-fires  carousing  and  singing ;  but  the  Normans  looked  well 
to  their  horses  and  arms,  confessed  themselves  to  their  priests, 
and  partook  of  the  holy  sacrament.  They  believed  that  the 
blessing  of  heaven  rested  with  them ;  that  the  banner  of  Rome, 
the  symbol  of  their  holy  church,  gave  to  their  invasion  all  the 
sacred  character  of  a  religious  war,  and  their  ceremonies  were 
conducted  with  full  hearts  and  utter  solemnity. 

At  daybreak  on  Saturday,  October  I4th,  both  camps  were 
speedily  awake  and  active;  but,  beyond  doubt,  the  Normans 


COMPOSITION   OF   THE   NORMANS.  191 

were  fresher  and  in  better  condition  for  the  fight  than  their 
Saxon  antagonists.  Once  more  the  priests  assembled  the 
knights  and  soldiery  who  bore  the  banner  of  the  pope.  Sol- 
emn masses  were  sung,  and  now,  assured  of  victory,  the  men 
are  gathering  around  their  leaders  and  receiving  brief  exhorta- 
tions as  to  the  duties  expected  of  them.  The  nobles  are  all 
assembled  at  the  tent  of  Duke  William,  where  he  has  explained 
in  detail  his  plan  of  attack,  and  is  now  adding  some  ringing 
words  of  encouragement  and  cheer.  He  is  all  serenity  and  con- 
fidence. "  I  have  no  doubt  of  victory ;  we  are  come  for  glory ; 
the  victory  is  in  our  hands,  and  we  may  make  sure  of  obtaining 
it  if  we  so  please." 

With  that  he  orders  them  to  go  and  arm  themselves,  and  one 
and  all  the  barons  and  knights  withdraw.  Half  an  hour  more 
and,  in  superb  array,  the  army  of  France  marched  forth  upon 
the  green  slopes  of  peaceful  Sussex. 

Duke  William  had  divided  his  force  into  three  grand  divi- 
sions. On  one  side  were  arrayed  "  the  men  of  Boilogne  and 
Poix,  and  all  my  soldiers,"  as  the  leader  had  designated  them, 
under  command  of  Roger  de  Montgomeri.  On  the  other,  "  the 
Poitevins  and  the  Bretons,  and  all  the  barons  of  Maine,"  led  by 
Alain  Fergert  and  Ameri.  In  the  centre,  where  the  hardest 
fighting  was  expected,  and  where  the  consecrated  banner  waved 
aloft,  rode  Duke  William  himself  with  "  his  own  great  men,  his 
friends  and  kindred."  The  best  blood  of  France,  the  best  blood 
of  the  young  nobility  of  every  court  in  Christendom  followed 
the  banner  of  the  church  that  day,  and  well  might  Harold  say, 
"  Those  whom  you  see  in  such  numbers  are  not  priests,  but 
stout  soldiers,  as  they  will  soon  make  us  feel." 

William's  superiority  was  in  cavalry,  and,  knowing  this,  Har- 
old's plan  of  intrenching  his  position  and  fighting  on  the  defen- 
sive was  capital.  But,  leading  the  Norman  horsemen,  marching 
gallantly  forward  towards  the  high  palisade,  came  ranks  of  Nor- 
man archers,  and  by  these  the  battle  is  begun.  With  loud  blare 
of  horn,  bugle  and  trumpet;  with  ringing  war-cry  and  half- 
savage,  answering  yell,  the  combatants  open  fire  with  their 
arrows.  In  a  moment  the  air  is  dark  with  the  flying  missiles. 


192  HASTINGS. 

But  the  Norman  lines  never  halt.  Pressing  vigorously  for- 
ward they  reach  and  spring  upon  the  palisading,  and  there  the 
ranks  of  France  and  England  clash  together.  Instantly  lance, 
spear,  sword,  axe  and  arrow  are  plying  their  deadly  work,  and, 
in  the  midst  of  most  terrific  din  and  clangor,  the  battle  of  Hast- 
ings has  fairly  opened. 

A  little  in  rear  of  the  centre  of  the  English  lines,  on  a  rising 
hillock,  has  been  planted  a  gorgeous  standard,  rich  with  gold 
and  gems.  Here,  when  all  was  ready,  King  Harold  had  placed 
himself  with  his  brothers  Gurth  and  Leofwine,  and  his  noble 
body-guard.  From  here  he  had  closely  watched  the  Norman 
army  as  it  came  up  from  the  south  and  deployed  before  his  eyes. 
Many  of  the  knights  and  nobles  he  was  able  to. recognize  and 
to  point  out  to  his  attendants.  Despite  his  bravery  and  hope, 
he  well  knew  that  a  desperate  fight  was  before  him.  "  Keep  to- 
gether," he  urged  his  barons,  ,"  all  is  lost  if  once  they  penetrate 
our  ranks ;  cleave  wherever  you  can.  It  will  be  ill  done  if  you 
spare  aught." 

It  was  just  about  nine  o'clock  in  the  morning,  when  the 
French  Knight  "  Taillefer,"  urging  and  receiving  permission 
from  Duke  William,  dashed  out  ahead  of  the  advancing  lines  of 
France,  and  bending  low  upon  his  saddle-bow,  with  couched 
lance,  came  charging  down  upon  the  very  centre  of  the  Saxon 
spearmen  at  the  palisade.  He  singled  out  his  victim,  drove  his 
lance  through  and  through,  then  drawing  sword,  dared  the  de- 
fenders to  attack  him.  In  an  instant  he  was  hurled  from  his 
horse  and  killed.  Then  came  the  simultaneous  dash  of  the 
archers,  and  now,  all  along  the  line  of  palisading,  the  battle  is 
fierce — a  hand-to-hand  conflict,  fought  with  the  utmost  despera- 
tion and  gallantry.  The  mail-clad  knights  of  Normandy  are  at 
once  seen  to  have  a  great  advantage.  With  their  heavy  maces 
they  batter  down  portions  of  the  palisade,  though  many  receive 
their  death-wounds,  and  many  a  horse  rolls  over  in  agony  in  the 
attempt.  Then  in  small  bodies  they  charge  at  the  gaps  thus 
made,  leap  in  upon  the  swordsmen  and  hew  right  and  left,  but 
nowhere  does  the  English  line  give  way.  A  strong  body  of 
Norman  horse  has  swept  around  the -flank  and,  despite  the  ditch, 


HAROLD   SEVERELY  WOUNDED.  193 

charged  in  upon  the  Saxons,  but  Harold  quickly  sends  an  active 
band  to  assail  them  in  turn  and,  with  bloody  loss  on  both  sides, 
the  Frenchmen  are  cut  down,  and  the  remnant  forced  back 
across  the  ditch  again,  and  the  ditch  itself  is  speedily  filled  with 
bodies  of  the  dead  and  dying.  For  hours  an  indescribable  com- 
bat is  carried  on.  In  heat  and  dust  and  din  of  battle,  taunts  and 
jeers  and  war-cries  that  are  unintelligible  to  one  another  except 
from  accompanying  pantomime,  arrows  and  darts,  stones  and 
even  swords  are  hurled  at  one  another.  A  dozen  times  the 
palisade  is  carried,  a  dozen  times  the  Normans  are  forced  back, 
and  for  six  terrible  hours  of  this  ebb  and  flow  of  battle-lines,  of 
shouting,  shrieking,  cursing,  struggling,  the  desperate  combat 
goes  on.  Everywhere  are  deeds  of  knightly  valor  or  stubborn 
plebeian  courage  to  be  noted.  Even  the  good  Bishop  of  Bayeux, 
seeing  some  of  the  Norman  retainers  taking  to  flight,  first  dashed 
in  among  to  stop  them,  and  then,  with  hauberk  over  his  white 
canonicals  and  uplifted  mace  in  hand,  returned  to  the  thickest 
of  the  fight,  animating  and  directing  the  assaults  of  the  knights. 
But  the  repulse  of  the  Norman  cavalry  on  the  flank  had  been 
a  severe  disappointment.  The  superb  and  stubborn  resistance 
of  the  Sa"xons  was  something  that  Duke  William  had  not  antici- 
pated.  The  day  was  on  the  decline.  Three  o'clock  had  come 
and  gone,  and  still  no  man  could  say  how  the  battle  would  end. 
For  some  time  the  Norman  archers  had  been  withdrawn  as  use- 
less. The  English  kept  their  shields  well  forward,  and  the 
light  shafts  glanced  off  harmlessly ;  but  suddenly  an  idea  comes 
to  William :  "  Shoot  upwards,  archers,  that  the  arrows  may  fall 
in  their  faces."  And  now,  from  the  heavens  above,  the  keen 
missiles  come  raining  down  upon  the  thick,  struggling  masses 
of  Saxon  infantry,  and  some,  flying  higher  and  dropping  farther 
to  the  rear,  find  their  way  into  the  group  around  the  priceless 
standard  of  England.  Another  minute  and  brave  Harold  him- 
self is  stunned,  blinded  and  sore-stricken.  A  shaft  has  sunk 
deep  into  his  cheek,  tearing  out  his  eye  in  its  course.  He 
drags  out  the  barbed  arrow,  then,  bleeding,  reeling  and  faint, 
leans  his  head  upon  his  shield.  He  has  seen  the  last  of  his 
devoted  army.  His  sight  is  gone. 
13 


194  HASTINGS. 

But,  ignorant  of  the  blow  that  had  robbed  them  of  their  sov- 
ereign, the  Saxons  fought  on.  Even  before  the  order  had  been 
given  to  the  archers,  the  Norman  leaders  had  resolved  upon  a 
plan  to  draw  the  English  out  of  their  works.  The  word  was 
passed  from  mouth  to  mouth :  "  Fall  back  at  the  signal ;  fall 
back,  but  be  ready  to  turn  again  when  they  are  scattered  in  pur- 
suit, well  out  on  the  slopes."  And  with  that,  slowly  at  first, 
then  more  hastily,  as  though  in  some  disorder,  the  lines  of 
France  begin  to  retire.  It  is  the  same  trick  that  Harold  so  suc- 
cessfully played  upon  the  Norsemen  at  Stamford  Bridge  a  month 
befipre,  but  he  cannot  see  it  now.  He  is  not  there  to  check  the 
pursuit  that  almost  instantly  is  taken  up  by  the  wild  and  un- 
manageable Saxons.  Incredulous  at  first,  they  soon  realize  that 
the  entire  Norman  force  is  surely  falling  back.  Then,  with 
raging  taunts  and  shouts,  with  brandishing  arms,  forgetful  of  all 
order  or  discipline,  over  the  works  they  go,  and  bounfl  down 
the  slopes  in  scattering  chase.  The  solid  ranks  are  broken. 
The  one  thing  against  which  Harold  warned  them,  and  is  now 
powerless  either  to  see  or  prevent,  has  befallen  them.  And  now 
the  trumpets  ring  out  the  signal,  "  halt."  The  Norman  knights 
.and  archers  once  more  face  the  disordered  foe ;  then,  with 
simultaneous  impulse,  bear  down  upon  them  in  headlong  im- 
pulse. This  time  there  is  no  withstanding  them.  Back  go  the 
broken  bands,  closely  followed  by  the  horsemen  of  Normandy, 
and  in  five  minutes  more,  what  remains  of  the  English  army  is 
grouped  in  solid  mass  on  that  bloody  hillock  where  the  great 
.standard  still  waves,  where,  blind  and  bleeding,  Harold  still 
stands  with  hopeless  sword ;  where  the  men  of  Kent  and  Essex 
still  confront  the  lances  with  undaunted  breasts.  But  all  is  use- 
less now.  '  Little  by  little,  one  by  one,  like  the  Spartans  of 
Leonidas  at  Thermopylae,  they  fall  around  their  leader,  are 
trampled  under  foot  and  iron  hoof;  and,  as  the  compact  circle 
grows  smaller  and  smaller,  the  surging  throng  of  Norman  as- 
sailants more  numerous,  the  mail-clad  knights  force  their  way 
in  towards  the  coveted  standard,  William  himself  being  among 
the  most  daring  and  conspicuous,  and  by  one  of  these  King 
Harold  himself  is  felled  to  earth,  while  another  gives  him  his 


WILLIAM   VICTORIOUS.  195 

death-wound  as  he  struggles  to  his  knee,  at  the  foot  of  the  flag 
he  has  so  devotedly  defended.  The  sun  goes  down  upon  a  field 
that  is  one  vast  charnel-house ;  upon  an  exhausted  but  victori- 
ous army  on  one  side,  upon  the  bleeding  relics  of  their  anni- 
hilated foemen  on  the  other ;  and  Duke  William  of  Normandy, 
winning  the  great  and  decisive  battle  of  Hastings,  wins  for  him- 
self the  throne,  for  his  nobles  the  broad  lands  of  Merrie 
England. 

Harold,  Gurth,  Leofwine,  all  the  noblest  earls  and  barons  of 
England,  more  than  half  the  army,  lay  among  the  slain ;  and 
yet  so  well  had  they  fought,  so  savagely  had  Saxon  battle-axe 
hewn  its  way  through  Norman  helm  and  hauberk,  that  20,000, 
one-fourth  of  the  army  of  France,  lay  dead  upon  the  nobly  dis- 
puted field. 

Solemnly  the  victor  celebrated  his  wonderful  triumph.  Secur- 
ing the  rich  standard  of  the  royal  Saxons,  his  first  words  were  to 
vow  the  erection  there  where  it  stood  of  a  holy  abbey,  where 
the  prayers  of  the  Church  of  Rome  should  ceaselessly  be 
chanted  for  the  souls  of  those  who  fell  in  the  great  victory. 
His  own  tent  was  set  for  the  night  amid  the  dead,  upon  the  hill 
where  Harold's  standard  had  waved  throughout  the  terrible 
day ;  and  then,  wearied  and  bruised,  the  victors  slept  upon  the 
field. 

Among  all  the  knights  and  nobles  none  had  fought  more 
gallantly  than  the  great  leader  himself.  Two  horses  had  been 
killed  under  him.  Several  foemen  had  fallen  by  his  hand.  His 
armor  was  hacked  and  battered  in  many  places,  and  he  had  nar- 
rowly escaped  mortal  hurts.  But  William  of  Normandy,  now 
become  William  the  Conqueror,  resumed,  on  the  morrow,  his 
triumphant  march  to  London,  and  there,  on  Christmas  day,  was 
duly  crowned  King  of  England. 

The  results  of  Hastings  were  many.  An  utterly  new  race  of 
men,  a  fresh  array  of  nobles  and  knights,  became  the  rulers  of 
the  land.  Bitter  hatred  for  years  existed  against  them  on  the 
part  of  the  Saxons,  and,  in  their  disdainful  pride,  the  conquerors 
made  no  effort  to  conciliate.  The  ancient  constitution,  the  last 
of  the  Saxon  kings,  the  leaders  of  the  Saxon  nobility,  all  were 


196  HASTINGS. 

overthrown.  The  people  of  the  land  who,  but  a  month  before, 
were  its  sturdy  owners,  became  little  better  than  slaves  of  the 
new  masters.  The  Saxon  language  was  declared  fit  only  for 
churls,  Saxon  customs  for  servants.  All  the  high  places  in 
church  or  state  were  now  filled  by  men  of  Roman  or  Norman 
selection.  From  Hastings  until  the  signing  of  the  Magna 
Charta,  nearly  a  century  and  a  half,  Anglo-Norman  and  Anglo- 
Saxon  held  aloof  from  and  hated  one  another ;  but  that  charter, 
wrested  from  King  John  at  Runnymede,  became  the  font  of 
English  nationality,  and  from  that  time  there  was  concert  and 
harmony. 

But,  bitter  as  had  been  the  hatred,  the  Norman  conquest  was 
the  making  of  England.  A  brave,  chivalrous,  warlike  and 
vastly  superior  and  intellectual  race  had,  by  Hastings,  become 
rooted  in  the  English  soil.  Their  better  qualities  were  marred 
by  their  many  acts  of  cruelty  and  oppression,  but  to  Norman 
blood  and  Norman  brains  the  British  Empire  is  this  day  in- 
debted, infinitely  more  than  many  of  its  people  will  admit  or  be- 
lieve. Speaking  of  the  Normans,  Campbell  has  dared  to  say, 
"  They  high-mettled  the  blood  of  our  veins."  Guizot  declares 
that  England's  liberties  are  due  to  her  conquest  by  the  Normans. 
Lord  Chatham  eulogized  the  "  iron  barons  "  who  were  the  build- 
ers of  the  great  constitution,  and  who  were  Normans  all ;  and 
even  the  great  English  historian  Gibbon,  himself,  has  had  the 
justice  to  say  that  "Assuredly  England  was  a  gainer  by  the 
Conquest." 


DEATH    OF   HAROLD   AT    HASTINGS. 


JERUSALEM, 


1099. 

HE  Saracens  who  had  been  driven  out  of 
France  by  the  valor  of  Charles  Martel  were 
nevertheless  masters  of  Africa  from  the  Straits 
of  Gibraltar  to  the  Red  Sea,  and  thence,  east- 
ward, had  swept  over  and  subdued  Asia  as 
far  as  the  Ganges.  For  years  before  the  in- 
vasion of  England  by  William  the  Conqueror, 
hundreds  of  high-born  men,  both  of  the  clergy 
of  the  Church  of  Rome  and  nobles  not  of  the 
priesthood,  had  been  crowding  each  year  eastward  to  pay  their 
devotions  at  the  sepulchre  of  Jesus  Christ  at  Jerusalem.  The 
influence  of  the  church  was  never  greater  than  in  the  eleventh 
and  twelfth  centuries.  Rome  had  then  no  dissenters.  Hers  was 
the  one  recognized  religion,  and  the  fervor  of  her  priesthood 
knew  no  bounds.  So  long  as  the  Saracens  themselves  ruled  in 
Syria  and  Palestine  all  went  smoothly.  The  pilgrims  to  the 
shrine  were  favorably  received,  courteously  treated,  and  en- 
couraged to  come  again  or  send  others.  The  fact  that  each 
one  was  roundly  taxed  for  the  privilege,  and  required  to  pay  very 
heavy  duty  on  every  relic  he  might  carry  away,  is  sufficient  ex- 
planation of  the  fact.  The  pilgrims  were  a  source  of  very  con- 
siderable revenue  to  the  Saracens.  They  did  no  possible  harm, 
brought  in  much  money,  took  away  nothing  but  valueless  palm 
branches  or  splinters  of  wood,  relics  for  which  they  gave  pre- 
posterous sums ;  the  Saracens  were  shrewd  money-getters  and 
quick  to  appreciate  their  advantage.  They  even  took  especial 
care  of  the  sacred  sepulchre,  hunted  up  and  preserved  all  pos- 
sible mementos  of  the  pure  and  humble  Saviour  whom  their 

(197) 


198  JERUSALEM. 

predecessors  had  crucified  and  scourged  a  thousand  years 
before.  The  possession  of  Jerusalem  within  whose  walls  His 
youthful  voice  had  so  early  astonished  the  elders  and  wise  men ; 
the  Mount  of  Olives  where  the  sweetest  sermon  ever  preached 
to  mortal  ears,  fell  from  His  gentle  and  loving  lips ;  the  stony 
height  of  blasted  Calvary  where  in  patient,  uncomplaining  agony 
His  bitter  torture  was  endured — all  these  were  gold  to  the  fol- 
lowers of  the  prophet,  and  for  centuries  the  pious  contributions 
of  pilgrims  and  palmers  might  have  continued  to  swell  the 
Saracen  treasury  had  not  a  sudden  foe  swept  down  upon  and 
robbed  them  of  Syria  and  Palestine.  The  Turcomans,  a  rude, 
half-savage  tribe  of  Tartars,  rushed  over  the  boundaries  and 
gained  Jerusalem. 

These  short-sighted  marauders  looked  with  jeering  laughter 
at  the  prostration  of  the  Western  pilgrims  before  the  shrine ; 
then  rudely  hustled  the  Christians  to  one  side  and  contemptu- 
ously overturned  or  defaced  the  sacred  relics  themselves.  Then 
came  systematic  insult,  robbery,  extortion  and  outrage  to  the 
pilgrims,  among  whom  even  delicately  nurtured  women  were 
now  to  be  found  ;  and  those  who  managed  to  escape  hurried 
back  to  the  seat  of  the  Christian  church  at  Rome  and  told  their 
sorrowful  story  at  the  throne  of  the  pope. 

The  immediate  cause  of  the  ensuing  wars  was  simply  this. 
All  Christendom  was  dismayed  and  outraged  at  the  idea  of 
leaving  the  holy  sepulchre,  the  holy  city,  the  holy  land  of  Pales- 
tine which  had  been  blessed  by  the  teachings  of  the  Saviour,  in 
the  possession  of  a  set  of  infidel  Turks  who  scoffed  and  derided 
the  very  mysteries  which  were  held  most  sacred.  There  was  no 
lack  of  faith  in  those  days.  Wherever  the  influence  of  the 
Church  of  Rome  extended,  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ  was  wor- 
shipped as  that  of  the  Son  of  God  and  the  Saviour  of  mankind, 
and  when  hundreds  of  religious  enthusiasts  returned  to  Rome 
telling  of  the  indignity  with  which  they  had  been  treated  and 
the  double  outrage  which  had  been  heaped  upon  them  simply 
because  they  were  followers  of  Christ,  it  was  an  easy  matter  to 
rouse  the  religious  fervor  of  an  entire  continent  to  the  rescue  of 
the  relics  deemed  sacred  beyond  all  price.  It  seemed  as  though 


PETER   THE   HERMIT   APPEARS.  199 

the  very  hand  of  God  pointed  to  Jerusalem  demanding  the 
banishment  of  'every  unbeliever  from  her  walls,  and  the  future 
protection  and  honor  of  the  tomb  of  the  beloved  Son  in  whom 
lested  the  redemption  of  the  world. 

Pope  Gregory  VI L,  when  at  the  head  of  the  church  on  earth, 
fired  by  holy  zeal  and  a  desire  to  make  the  cause  supreme,  had 
conceived  the  idea  of  making  a  grand  union  of  Christianity 
against  Mahometism.  His  unpopularity  among  the  princes  of 
the  various  nations  stood  in  his  way,  however,  and  it  was  left  for 
a  very  different  man  to  assume  the  original  leadership — Peter 
the  Hermit. 

Originally  a  soldier,  Peter  of  Amiens  had  become  a  recluse; 
had  made  the  pilgrimage  to  Jerusalem ;  had  been  a  witness  to 
the  extortions,  wrongs  and  indignities  heaped  upon  his  brethren 
in  the  faith,  and,  after  consultation  with  Simeon,  the  patriarch 
of  Jerusalem,  he  had  returned  and  laid  the  matter  before  Pope 
Martin  II.  at  Rome.  Both  he  and  Simeon  implored  earnest 
and  united  action.  The  pope  was  ready  and  willing.  He  sent 
Peter  to  the  cities  of  Italy ;  convened  a  council  at  Placentia,  which 
was  attended  by  4,000  ecclesiastics  and  30,000  other  persons, 
and  which  resulted  in  a  declaration  of  war  against  the  infidels  of 
Jerusalem  on  the  part  of  Italy.  But  greater  force  than  Italy 
could  raise  would  be  needed.  Peter  went  forward  into  France, 
exhorting,  haranguing  everywhere.  A  greater  council  was 
called  and  met  at  Clermont  in  Auvergne.  Pope  Martin  himself 
went  thither,  and  under  the  influence  of  his  eloquence  and  the 
fiery  preachings  of  Peter  the  multitude  burst  forth  into  one 
unanimous  appeal  for  war.  "  It  is  the  will  of  God !  "  and  these 
words  became  the  rallying  cry  on  many  a  subsequent  battle- 
field. 

The  organization  of  the  forces  began  at  once.  As  a  badge 
of  their  loyalty  to  the  holy  cause  the  volunteers,  as  they  all  were, 
adopted  the  cross  itself,  and  this  badge/  displayed  upon  the 
right  shoulder  of  their  cloaks  or  the  breasts  of  the  armor,  was 
henceforth  the  designation  of  their  faith  and  their  loyalty — Les 
croises,  the  men  of  the  cross,  they  called  themselves,  and  their 
cause  became — The  Crusade. 


200  JERUSALEM. 

It  was  a  time  when  the  priests  of  the  church  had  gained  their 
greatest  power  over  all  classes.  There  was  little  restraint  of 
either  law  or  honor.  Crime  and  disorder  were  rife,  and  the  un- 
educated believed  that  expiation  for  any  excess  or  outrage  could 
be  found  in  the  observances  of  the  church.  A  holy  war  meant 
universal  absolution  to  those  who" engaged  therein  on  the  side 
of  the  Cross,  and  all  over  Western  Europe  thousands  swarmed 
to  the  banners  of  the  pope.  It  was  the  sure  road  to  heaven. 
Nobles,  workmen,  peasants,  priests,  all  came  eagerly  forward  to 
swell  the  ranks.  Even  women,  disguised  in  armor,  obtained 
admission  in  the  rapidly  raised  armies — so  rapidly  raised,  in 
fact,  that  the  numbers  became  troublesome;  and  an  advanced 
guard  of  300,000  men,  led  by  Peter  the  Hermit  and  Walter  the 
Moneyless,  was  ordered  to  push  eastward  through  Germany, 
Hungary  and  Bulgaria.  At  first  this  large  body  of  utterly  un- 
disciplined campaigners  managed  to  subsist  on  the  free-will 
offerings  of  the  Germans  and  Hungarians;  but  they  soon  took 
to  plundering,  then  to  besieging  unprepared  cities,  and  it  then 
resulted  that  the  nations  attacked  them  in  strong  force,  slew 
thousands  among  them,  and  only  a  badly  shattered  remnant 
succeeded  in  reaching  Constantinople.  Here,  encouraged  by 
the  gifts  of  Alexis  Comnenus,  the  emperor,  some  pressed  for- 
ward across  the  Bosphorus.  Others  waited  for  the  main  bodies 
which,  under  experienced  soldiers  and  in  far  better  discipline, 
speedily  followed  the  pioneers.  It  was  not  long  before  an  army 
of  700,000  men,  mainly  from  France  and  Germany,  had  assem- 
bled on  the  plains  of  Asia  Minor ;  but,  before  that  took  place, 
the  eager  advanced  guard,  under  Peter  the  Hermit,  had  sus- 
tained terrible  reverses  at  Nicaea,  which  subsequently  became 
the  scene  of  so  severe  a  conflict. 

The  great  leaders  of  the  First  Crusade  were  Godfrey  of 
Bouillon;  Hugh  of  Verrnandois ;  Raymond  of  Toulouse; 
Stephen  of  Blois;  Tancred  and  the  Dukes  Robert  of  Nor- 
mandy and  Flanders.  The  first-named  followed  with  80,000 
men,  soon  after  the  advance-guard  of  Peter  the  Hermit.  He 
was  the  leader  of  the  cavaliers  of  Europe.  Godfrey,  in  1096, 
took  the  same  route  as  followed  by  Peter's  rabble,  but  went 


GODFREY    LEADS   THE   GRAND   ASSAULT.  201 

through  in  admirable  order  and  with  the  respect  of  the  people 
whose  countries  he  traversed.  The  Count  of  Vermandois  took 
his  followers  by  sea  and  met  with  shipwreck  and  misfortune. 
Raymond  of  Toulouse,  Stephen  of  Blois,  and  Robert  of  Nor- 
mandy, all  managed  to  lead  their  people  across  Europe  into 
Asia  Minor;  and  at  last  the  junction  of  the  forces  was  effected, 
and  700,000  soldiers  of  the  Cross  were  gathered  near  Nicaea,  the 
ancient  capital  of  Bithynia.  This  city  was  only  captured  after  a 
siege  of  two  months.  Then,  fighting  their  way,  the  crusaders 
pushed  on  eastward,  through  Asia  Minor,  until  they  came  to 
Syria,  and  here,  near  the  northern  border,  barring  the  way  to 
Jerusalem,  lay  the  walled  city  of  Antioch,  a  fortress  in  itself. 
A  long,  tedious  and  bloody  siege  detained  them.  They  won  the 
city,  were  besieged  in  turn,  and  finally  gained  a  great  victory 
over  the  Turks.  They  were  delayed  at  Antioch  a  year;  and  it 
was  not  until  the  I4th  of  July,  1099,  that  the  crusaders  were 
finally  led  by  Godfrey  of  Bouillon  to  the  great  assault  of 
Jerusalem. 

Over  a  month  had  been  spent  in  vigorous  preparation,  and 
some  ill-directed  attacks  had  been  made,  but  the  Genoese  build- 
ers finally  completed  strong  scaling-towers,  to  be  run  up  against 
the  solid  walls  ;  and  then,  guided  by  their  priesthood,  the  great 
army  of  the  crusaders,  with  bared  feet,  made  a  circuit  of  the  city, 
prostrating  themselves  at  every  place  made  sacred  by  the  teach- 
ings or  sufferings  of  their  Saviour;  their  rage  against  the  infidels 
being  added  to,  every  instant  by  the  insults  and  abuse  hurled  at 
them  from  the  walls.  Then,  early  on  the  morning  of  July  I4th, 
the  attack  began. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  in  the  army  of  the  crusaders  no 
one  knight  or  noble  enjoyed  supreme  command.  Any  impor- 
tant move  or  enterprise  was  determined  by  a  council  of  the 
leaders,  and  these  leaders  were  many.  Originally  the  Normans, 
Flemings  and  Italians,  under  Robert  of  Normandy,  Robert  of 
Flanders,  and  the  brave  and  zealous  Tancred  took  ground  against 
the  north  walls  of  the  city,  investing  the  whole  length  of  that 
front.  Next  to  them,  farther  west,  were  the  English,  said  to  have 
been  led  by  Edgar  Atheling ;  then  the  Bretons,  under  their  duke. 


202  JERUSALEM. 

These  seem  to  have  fronted  the  walls  of  the  northwest  side,  and 
close  beside  them,  between  the  road  leading  to  Joppa,  on  the 
sea-coast,  and  the  great  highway  to  Damascus,  up  the  valley, 
Godfrey  of  Bouillon  and  Baldwin  du  Bourg  had  encamped 
their  followers.  Here,  if  anywhere,  could  be  said  to  be  the 
head-quarters  of  the  siege,  as  to  the  south  of  their  camp,  and 
investing  the  city  from  the  west,  were  the  crusaders  of  Toulouse, 
and  the  men  of  Orange  and  Beam.  The  eastern  and  southern 
fronts  had  not  been  formally  besieged,  the  deep  valleys  there 
lying  being  regarded  as  obstacles. 

But  the  infidels  of  Jerusalem  had  been  as  active  as  their 
assailants.  They,  too,  had  been  preparing  engines  of  war,  and 
all  manner  of  devices  for  resisting  attack.  The  north  and  west 
walls  were  greatly  strengthened,  and,  at  the  last  moment,  the 
plans  of  the  besiegers  were  changed.  The  two  Dukes  Robert 
and  their  associate,  Tancred,  moved  over  to  the  eastward,  be- 
tween the  gate  of  Damascus  and  the  tall  angular  stone  structure 
soon  to1  be  known  as  Tancred's  Tower.  Godfrey  of  Bouillon 
marched  his  men  opposite  the  gate  of  Cedar,  and,  in  the  dark- 
ness of  night,  all  their  machines  of  war,  even  two  huge  towers, 
had  been  dragged  over  to  the  new  positions  with  them.  Duke 
Raymond,  too,  had  swung  round  so  as  to  assault  from  the  south; 
and,  at  the  first  dawn  of  day,  the  defenders  of  the  city  were 
aghast  to  see  that  now  they  were  threatened  at  entirely  unex- 
pected and  almost  unprepared  points. 

There  were  natural  defences  on  their  side,  however.  Deep 
ravines  lay  under  the  southern  walls,  supplying  the  place  of  a 
moat  or  ditch,  which,  had  one  been  dug  around  the  entire  city, 
would  have  vastly  added  to  the  difficulties  of  the  siege.  By  in- 
credible labor,  however,  the  crusaders  filled  up  a  part  of  the 
ravine  with  stones,  and,  by  working  day  and  night  for  forty- 
eight  hours,  succeeded  in  running  the  towers  close  to  the  walls. 
Then  all  was  ready  for  assault.  The  sun  was  not  up  on  the 
morning  of  that  memorable  Thursday,  the  I4th  of  July,  when 
Godfrey  of  Bouillon,  with  his  brother  Eustache,  and  Baldwin 
du  Bourg  took  station  on  the  highest  platform  of  his  tower,  sur- 
rounded by  a  score  of  armed  and  eager  knights,  and  gave  the 
signal  to  begin. 


ENTHUSIASM   OF   THE   BESIEGERS.  203 

Instantly  from  every  tower,  from  all  over  the  dry.  parched, 
desolate  slopes  around  the  holy  city,  the  clarions  and  trumpets 
rang  out  their  loud  peal,  and  the  voices  of  thousands  of  stalwart 
men  joined  in  mighty  chorus.  On  the  south,  east  and  north  of 
the  city  the  three  massive  towers  were  slowly,  heavily  pried  and 
dragged  towards  the  walls,  bristling  as  they  were,  on  every 
floor,  with  spears,  swords  and  battle-axes.  All  who  manned 
them  were  meant  for  close  combat  and  were  clad  in  metal  armor. 
At  intervals  along  the  walls,  holding  their  shields  above  their 
heads,  strong  bodies  of  active  men  rushed  in,  dragging  with  them 
the  clumsy  battering-rams,  and  then  quickly  covering  them  and 
their  workers  with  awnings  of  plank,  hide  and  shields.  Where 
the  ground  outside  was  high,  dozens  of  daring  and  adventurous 
spirits  ran  in,  bearing  light  scaling  ladders,  and  strove  in  this 
way  to  reach  the  parapets.  Here,  of  course,  lay  the  greatest 
danger;  but,  to  protect  these  men,  the  "  forlorn  hope"  of  the  as- 
sault, the  entire  wall  was  surrounded  by  thousands  upon  thou- 
sands of  expert  slingers  and  cross-bowmen,  who  kept  up  an  in- 
cessant shower  of  stones  and  arrows  upon  the  ramparts,  while  at 
intervals  among  them  were  stationed  the  rude  artillery  of  the 
day,  pedereros  and  mangonels,  for  hurling  heavy  rocks ;  or  cata> 
pults,  that  projected  great  darts.  None  were  reliable  or  effec- 
tive over  three  hundred  paces.  The  bowmen  were  the  real 
sharp-shooters  and  most  efficient  of  the  second  line  of  the 
besiegers. 

Furious,  inspired,  enthusiastic  as  was  the  assault  of  the  allied 
Christians,  the  advantage  lay  with  the  defenders,  and  vehemently 
did  they  press  it.  Among  the  besiegers  there  had  long  been 
desperate  suffering  for  want  of  water,  and  exposure  day  after  day 
to  the  scorching  rays  of  a  midsummer  sun  on  these  shadeless, 
sandy  slopes,  had  reduced  them  greatly  in  numbers,  and  in  per- 
sonal strength.  Within  the  walls,  however,  water  and  shade  had 
not  been  lacking.  All  brooks  and  streams  had  dried  up,  but 
the  tanks  and  wells  of  Jerusalem  still  held  out.  As  yet,  there-, 
fore,  there  had  been  more  suffering  among  the  Christians  than 
the  Turks,  and  now  the  former  were  compelled  to  fight  under 
greater  disadvantage,  for,  secure  behind  their  lofty  walls,  the 


204  JERUSALEM. 

latter  had  prepared  their  savage  devices  to  aid  them  in  repelling 
assault  Boiling  pitch,  boiling  oil,  huge  crates  of  rocks,  wooden 
beams,  paving  stones,  all  manner  of  missiles  had  been  distributed 
around  the  walls,  and  now  were  emptied  upon  the  devoted  heads 
of  the  assailants. 

In  vain  the  archers  strove  to  sweep  the  Saracens  from  the  bat- 
tlements. They  were  enabled  with  very  trifling  exposure  to 
hurl  their  ponderous  devices  upon  the  ladders  and  platforms  of 
the  soldiers  of  Christendom,  and  to  cause  terrible  suffering  and 
loss.  Nevertheless  the  zeal  of  the  knights  and  nobles  never 
flagged.  A  religious  fervor  seemed  to  have  seized  one  and  all. 
Wherever  a  crusader  fell,  dozens  leaped  to  take  his  place,  and  the 
desperate  battle  went  on.  Then  as  the  towers  were  gradually 
worked  in  close  to  the  walls  a  terrible  element  was  added  to  the 
defensive  powers  of  the  Turks — Greek-fire — which  they  poured 
down  upon  the  dry  woodwork,  and  against  which  the  assailants 
had  no  protection.  The  great  three-storied  tower  of  Raymond 
was  soon  reduced  to  ashes,  dozens  of  gallant  men  dying  beside  it 
in  vain  endeavor  to  extinguish  the  flames.  And  though  the 
towers  of  Godfrey  and  Tancred  had  not  been  destroyed,  they 
became  so  crippled  that  later  in  the  day  they  could  not  be  moved 
at  all,  and  the  hopes  of  the  crusaders  were  well-nigh  crushed. 
Fast  as  ladders  were  raised  they  were  hurled  down  from  the 
walls,  and  though  one  or  two  breaches  were  made  by  the  batter- 
ing rams,  the  infidels  gathered  in  great  force,  rushed  unex- 
pectedly out  upon  the  crusaders  through  the  gap  made  by  their 
engines,  and  spread  havoc  and  dismay  about  them  before  a  suffi- 
cient number  of  men  could  rally  and  whip  them  back  or  cut 
them  off.  Night  at  last  put  an  end  to  the  bloody  work  that  had 
been  going  on  all  the  long,  hot  summer's  day,  and  the  cru- 
saders, baffled,  wearied  and  in  bitter  humiliation,  fell  back  to  their 
camps. 

But  there  was  no  thought  of  giving  up.  Wearied  as  they 
were,  priests  and  leaders  went  about  the  camps  exhorting  the 
soldiers,  promising  the  sure  aid  of  heaven,  and  predicting  suc- 
cess on  the  morrow;  and  when  Friday,  the  I5th,  was  ushered  in, 
with  stubborn  determination  the  Christians  resumed  the  attack. 


" FIGHT   ON!    FIGHT  ON!"  205 

The  besieged  had  received  large  reinforcements  in  the  shape 
of  a  host  of  soldiers  from  Egypt,  and  their  spirits  were  greatly 
increased  in  consequence.  From  early  morning  until  high  noon 
the  conflict  was  simply  a  repetition  of  the  previous  day.  The 
wooden  towers  of  Godfrey  and  of  Tancred  and  the  Dukes  Robert 
were  placed  in  partial  order  during  the  night,  and  once  more 
great  efforts  were  made  to  push  them  up  to  the  walls,  but  they 
advanced  in  a  literal  sea  of  flames,  rained  down  from  the  fire~ 
pots  of  the  Mussulmans,  and  for  hours  it  was  found  impossible  to 
get  them  within  serviceable  distance  of  the  battlements.  On 
the  south  side  the  Count  of  Toulouse  was  using  all  his  artillery 
against  the  machines  of  the  besieged,  who  on  that  front  were 
commanded  by  the  Emir  of  Jerusalem,  a  man  of  renowned 
courage,  and  here,  too,  all  the  fresh  Egyptian  troops  were  en- 
gaged. On  the  north  Tancred  and  the  Dukes  of  Normandy 
and  Flanders  urged  on  their  followers,  and  eagerly  sought  means 
to  extinguish  the  flames  that  were  raging  before  them.  Vinegar, 
it  is  said,  would  have  answered  the  purpose,  but  vinegar  there 
was  none.  At  last,  as  noon  came,  even  their  towers  took  fire — 
the  last  two  that  remained ;  and  in  despair  and  exhaustion  many 
of  the  crusaders  came  reeling  back  from  the  walls.  Then,  with 
savage  glee,  the  Saracens  redoubled  their  taunts  and  jeers.  It 
seemed  as  though  the  God  of  the  soldiers  of  the  Cross  had  in- 
deed abandoned  them. 

But  suddenly  there  came  a  wonderful  change.  Over  on  the 
summit  of  the  Mount  of  Olives,  east  of  the  city,  and  well  back 
of  the  lines  on  that  side,  in  full  view  of  all  the  armies  of  Europe 
fighting  on  the  north,  the  east  and  the  south  sides,  there  rode 
into  view,  distinctly  outlined  against  the  burning  sky,  the  ap- 
parition of  a  tall,  stalwart  horseman,  clad  in  gleaming  armor, 
waving  his  spear  and  shield  .and  signalling  "  Fight  on  ! "  Godfrey 
de  Bouillon  and  Raymond  caught  sight  of  him  at  the  same  in- 
stant, and,  springing  forward,  eagerly  pointing  towards  the  mag- 
nificent figure,  and  with  ringing  voices  making  themselves  heard 
above  the  tumult,  they  shouted  "  St.  George  to  the  rescue.  Fight 
on!  Fight  on  !" 

With  a  wonderful  revival  of  hope,  courage  and  enthusiasm  the 


206  JERUSALEM. 

crusaders  returned  to  the  assault;  even  the  sick  rushing  into 
the  fight,  and  women  and  children  bringing  scant  supplies  of 
water.  At  last  the  flames  about  the  towers  seemed  to  die  out, 
possibly  the  Saracen  supply  was  getting  low ;  and  now,  towards 
one  in  the  blazing  afternoon  the  tower  of  Godfrey  is  fairly 
lurching  up  against  the  eastern  wall,  and,  despite  the  flights  of 
arrows,  darts,  javelins  and  fire-pots,  its  heavy  draw-bridge  is 
poised  in  mid-air  a  few  minutes,  while  the  knights  are  forming 
for  their  rush,  and  then  it  lowers  fairly  upon  the  swarming  bat- 
tlements. Instantly,  preceded  only  by  two  daring  brothers  of 
Tournay,  Godfrey  of  Bouillon  dashes  across  the  platform  and 
in  among  the  unarmored  infidels.  He  is  fully  armed,'  fully 
equipped ;  scores  of  gallant  knights  are  at  his  back ;  they  break 
like  a  torrent  through  the  rabble  of  Mussulman  soldiery,  hack- 
ing and  hewing  right  and  left;  and  now,  using  the  great  tower 
as  a  stairway,  hundreds  of  cheering  Christians  pour  upward  in 
their  tracks,  spreading  out  right  and  left  as  they  reach  the  sum- 
mit of  the  walls.  Almost  at  the  same  time,  through  breaches 
made  by  their  battering-rams,  and  by  means  of  their  scaling- 
ladders,  Tancred,  the  Dukes  of  Normandy  and  Flanders,  the 
Knights  of  St.  Paul,  of  Roussillon,  of  Mousson  and  Beam  hew 
their  way  in  from  the  north.  The  gate  of  St.  Stephen  is  chopped 
in  splinters  with  battle-axes,  and  Jerusalem  is  in  the  power  of 
the  soldiers  of  the  Cross.  East,  north  and  south,  now  they  are 
swarming  through  or  over  the  walls,  and  the  infidel  garrison 
prove  that,  man  to  man,  steel  to  steel,  they  are  utterly  inferior 
to  the  valor  and  strength  of  Christendom.  Even  the  Emir  of 
Jerusalem  at  last  lost  heart  and  fled  before  the  assaults  of  Ray- 
mond of  Toulouse,  taking  refuge  in  the  fortress  of  David ;  and 
now,  from  every  side,  the  victorious  crusaders  are  meeting  in 
the  very  centre  of  the  city,  embracing  one  another  in  a  delirium 
of  joy. 

Just  at  three  o'clock  on  that  darkened  Friday  afternoon, 
nearly  eleven  centuries  before,  Jesus  Christ  had  died  upon  the 
cross  for  the  redemption  of  the  world.  Just  at  three  o'clock  on 
this  burning  Friday  afternoon,  the  soldiers  of  the  Cross  had 
burst  through  all  obstacles  and  were  masters  of  Jerusalem.  No 


THE   CRUSADERS   TRIUMPHANT.  207 

thought  of  mercy,  no  sentiment  of  pity  for  helpless  women  or 
children  seem  to  have  been  aroused  by  the  coincidence.  While 
pious  Godfrey  and  other  eminent  leaders  hastened,  barefooted, 
to  prostrate  themselves  with  the  priests  before  the  holy  sepulchre 
itself,  thousands  of  unmanageable  and  infuriated  soldiery  gave 
themselves  up  to  the  wildest  deeds  of  murder  and  rapine.  For 
one  whole  week  the  wretched  Saracens  were  mercilessly  hunted 
down.  The  mosques,  where  they  had  taken  refuge  in  swarms, 
were  turned  into  slaughter-pens.  Claiming  to  be  actuated  in 
their  warfare  by  love  of  Christ  and  a  desire  to  restore  to  Chris- 
tianity the  scenes  of  His  sacred  ministrations,  these  tiger-like  sol- 
diers forgot  His  teachings  in  their  fury  for  vengeance,  and  over 
seventy  thousand  Saracens  were  massacred  in  the  streets  and 
homes  of  the  holy  city.  The  Jews  fled  to  their  synagogue,  and 
the  mercy  shown  them  was  scant  as  that  to  the  Mussulmans. 
The  crusaders  fired  the  great  building  and  burned  them  alive. 

And  now,  for  nearly  ninety  years,  the  powers  of  Christendom 
ruled  Jerusalem.  But  it  was  a  troublous  and  disorderly  reign. 
Discords  of  every  kind  arose  between  the  Knights  of  the  Tem- 
ple and  St.  John  and  the  clergy  of  the  city.  Religion  had  in- 
spired the  crusade- but  was  forgotten  in  its  triumph.  Peter  the 
Hermit,  who  had  entered  the  walls  with  the  conquerors,  and 
who  was  greete'd  with  almost  adoring  welcome  by  the  few 
Christians  then  dwellers  in  Jerusalem,  speedily  dropped  out  of 
sight  in  the  dissensions  that  followed  the  conquest.  Knight  and 
prelate  seemed  now  to  aim  only  at  plunder.  The  clergy,  who 
had  been  revered  and  respected  at  home,  and  accustomed  to  see 
their  mandates  obeyed,  even  by  the  highest  ranks,  found  them- 
selves now  thwarted  by  the  knights  and  soldiery.  Then  it  is 
recorded  that  religion  lost  all  its  former  hold  on  the  minds  of 
the  Christian  garrison,  and  that  the  immorality  of  the  priesthood 
was  the  inciting  cause,  and  "  the  house  divided  against  itself" 
was  destined  speedily  to  have  its  fall.  Gallant  and  true-hearted 
Godfrey  died  a  year  after  his  great  victory,  leaving  to  Baldwin, 
his  brother,  the  succession  to  the  throne ;  but  this  was  opposed 
by  Tancred,  and  his  reign  of  eighteen  years  was  marred  by  con- 
stant warfare.  Baldwin  du  'Bourg  succeeded  him  and  reigned 


208  JERUSALEM. 

till  1131,  and  his  death  was  followed  by  an  endless  series  of  dis- 
sensions and  disasters,  that  so  reduced  the  forces  of  the  crusaders 
in  the  east  that  they  were  compelled  to  implore  assistance.  A 
grand  expedition,  organized  in  1146  by  the  Emperor  Conrade 
and  by  King  Louis  the  Seventh,  of  France,  which  resulted  in  a 
loss  of  some  200,000  men,  relieved  them  only  temporarily.  This 
was  the  Second  Crusade,  and  was  simply  a  continuous  disaster, 
from  which  the  monarchs  returned  to  Europe  in  discouragement 
and  discredit. 

Then  there  arose  in  the  east  a  new  and  vigorous  leader,  a 
prince  of  Egypt,  a  brave,  politic  and  powerful  soldier.  For 
years  he  had  submitted  to  invasions  of  his  territory,  to  all  man- 
ner of  breaches  of  faith  from  the  divided  and  quarreling  Chris- 
tians in  Syria,  and  at  last  he  determined  on  putting  them  out  of 
the  way  and  on  retaking  the  capital.  He  fought  a  bloody  bat- 
tle with  them  at  Tiberias,  captured  every  important  city  in 
Palestine  on  his  way,  and,  in  overwhelming  numbers,  appeared 
with  his  army  before  Jerusalem,  now  left  with  100,000  inhabi- 
tants, but  destitute  of  a  garrison.  Despite  a  brave  resistance  the 
holy  city  was  captured,  but  in  marked  contrast  to  the  conduct 
of  the  crusaders  eighty-seven  years  before,  the  helpless  inhabi- 
tants were  treated  with  great  gentleness  and  even  kindness  by 
the  Moslem  conqueror.  Saladin  far  better  deserved  the  name 
of  Christian  than  thousands  of  those  who  employed  it  as  a  cover 
for  their  multitude  of  sins.  In  1187  the  Saracens  once  more 
held  the  holy  city,  and,  to  the  dismay  of  the  pope,  who  is  said 
to  have  died  of  the  shock,  and  of  all  Christendom,  the  sacrifices 
and  sufferings,  the  battles  and  marches,  and  the  victories  and 
sieges  of  the  First  and  Second  Crusades  had  all  been  in  vain. 
They  were  utterly  set  at  naught  by  the  overwhelming  disasters 
of  Tiberias  and  the  recapture  of  the  city  of  Jerusalem. 


Plate  II.— Arms  and  Accoutrements  of  the  Middle  Ages. 


i.  Neck  Helmet. 
2.  Shoulder  and  Arm  Shield. 
3,  4.   Knee  Armor. 
5.  Kettle  Drum. 
6.  Long  Bow. 
7.  Cross     " 
8.  Arbalest. 
9,  10,  ii.  Arrows. 
12.   Herald's  Trumpet. 
13.   Signal  Horn. 
14.   Helmet. 
15.  .Neck  Armor. 
16,  17.   Helmets. 

18,  19.  Sabres. 
20.  Shield  of  i3th  Century. 

21.              "         "    I2th              " 
22.              "         "    Ilth              " 

23.  Helmet  of  i2th      " 
24.  Double-handed  LongSword. 
25,  26,  27.  Battle  Lances. 
28.  Tournament  Armor. 
29.  Blunt  Practice  Lance. 
30.  Light  Service  Lance. 
31.  Blunt  Practice  Lance. 
32.   Light  Service  Lance. 
33.  Double-handledKrisSword. 

35.   Ecus,   or   Shield    nth   and 
I2th  Centuries. 
36.   Braconniere. 
37.  Costume  of  Knights  of  i^th 
Century. 
38.  Dagger. 
39.   Stylett. 
40.  Martel  de  Fer 
41.   Francisques. 
42.  Lochaber  Axe. 
43.  Stylett. 
44-  Dagger. 
45.  Crow's  Foot. 

PLATE   II.   ARMS   AND    ACCOUTREMENTS  OF    MIDDLE   AGES. 
(Famous  and  Decisive  Battles.) 


ACRE. 


HE  death  of  King  Henry  the  Second  of  Eng- 
land, the  wisest,  best  and  most  powerful  of  the 
monarchs  of  the  island  up  to  that  time,  called 
to  the  throne  his  eldest  legitimate  son,  Rich- 
ard, a  prince  who  had  embittered  the  last 
'years  of  his  father's  life  by  disloyalty  and 
open  revolt,  and  whose  ingratitude  had  had 
much  to  do  with  bringing  about  the  illness 
which  ended  that  useful  and  worthy  reign. 
Richard  the  First  became  King  of  England  in  July,  1189,  and 
at  this  moment  all  Christendom  was  in  a  turmoil  of  excitement 
over  the  efforts  of  the  Church  of  Rome  to  bring  about  a  third 
Crusade  for  the  final  rescue  of  the  holy  sepulchre.  Saladin  was 
in  undisputed  possession  of  the  Holy  Land,  excepting  the  foot- 
hold still  retained  by  the  soldiers  of  the  Cross  around  the  walls 
of  Ptolemais,  an  important  harbor  and  fortress  on  the  sea-coast, 
soon  known  to  history  as  Acre,  or,  in  full,  St.  Jean  d'Acre. 

Many  catastrophes  and  disasters  had  overtaken  the  various 
armies  of  crusaders  that  had  set  forth  for  the  rescue  of  Jerusalem^ 
Thousands  of  brave  knights  and  true  noblemen  had  laid  down 
their  lives ;  hundreds  of  thousands  of  rude  and  brutal  soldiery 
had  never  returned,  to  the  no  great  loss  of  their  native  coun- 
tries ;  but  the  Church  of  Rome  had  been  vastly  benefited  finan- 
cially by  the  Crusades ;  the  plunder  of  many  a  rich  city  had  been 
laid  at  the  feet  of  the  popes,  and  quite  as  much  on  this  account 
perhaps  as  from  zeal  against  the  infidels  or  true  devotion  to  the 
cause  of  Christianity  the  priests  of  the  Romish  church  were  tire- 
less in  their  importunities,  and  their  instructions  doubtless  came 
14  (209) 


210  ACRE. 

from  the  Sovereign  Pontiff.  Every  ruler  of  power  or  prominence 
•was  incessantly  urged  by  the  priesthood  to  equip  and  send  east- 
ward all  the  soldiers  of  his  realm,  and  join  in  the  great  work  of 
exterminating  the  infidel  Mussulman  and  restoring  the  Christian 
throne  at  Jerusalem ;  and  now  that  Richard  of  England  had 
gained  his  crown,  the  very  man  they  needed  stood  only  too 
ready  to  lend  an  ear  to  their  appeal. 

More  from  love  of  military  glory,  and  an  unbounded  pride  in 
his  own  physical  skill  and  strength,  than  any  depth  of  religious 
feeling,  the  young  king  was  prompt  to  act.     It  seemed  from  the 
very  first  as  though  the  main  purpose  of  his  government  had 
been  the  recovery  of  Jerusalem,  and  the  very  day  of  his  corona- 
tion was  marked  by  an  awful  outrage  at  the  expense  of  thousands 
•of  defenceless  Jews  in  his  kingdom.     He  had  forbidden  their 
appearance  at  the  ceremony,  but,  with  the  fatuity  of  their  race, 
a  number  of  their  wealthiest   representatives  believed  that  by 
•coming  with  valuable  presents  they  would  be  recognized,  ad- 
mitted, and  probably  succeed  in  establishing  more  cordial  rela- 
tions with  the  soldierly  young  monarch.     But  almost  all  the 
spendthrift  nobility,  and  scores  of  the  officers  and  soldiers,  were 
"  in  the  hands  of  the  Jews,"  and,  grasping,  merciless  creditors  as 
the   Israelites  had  been,  there  was  every  feeling  against  them. 
Richard's  order  gave  his  guards  an  excuse  to  drive  the  importu- 
nate delegation  into  the  streets ;  the  Jews  ran  in  terror ;  the  sol- 
diers pursued  in  cruel  delight,  and,  like  wildfire,  a  cry  went  up 
that  the  new  king  had  ordered  that  the  Crusade  begin  at  home 
and  that  the  Jews  be  massacred  forthwith.    The  mob  of  London 
was  let  loose  upon  the  wretched  Hebrews  ;  they  were  slaughtered 
without  mercy ;  their  wives  and  daughters  were  outraged  and 
slain ;  their  hoarded  wealth  scattered  to  the  winds,  and,  once 
started,  the  rabble   knew  not  where  to  stop.     The   homes  of 
wealthy  Christians  were  next  sacked  and  burned,  and  for  some 
days  the  scenes  of  riot  and  confusion  baffled  all  description.   The 
story  flew  to  the  provinces.     At  the  city  of  York  500  Jews  had 
taken  refuge  in  the  castle  and  made  for  a  time  a  vigorous  defence, 
but,  finding  their  efforts  unavailing,  and  that  the  mob  were  gain- 
ing ground  every  instant,  the  poor,  helpless  creatures  first  killed 


RICHARD'S   AMBITION.  211 

their  own  wives  and  children,  then  set  fire  to  the  castle  and  died 
in  the  flames.  It  is  said  that  the  nobility  and  gentry,  most  of 
whom  were  indebted  to  the  Jews,  now  ran  to  the  cathedral  where 
their  bonds  were  kept,  and,  with  much  solemn  rejoicing,  made  a 
huge  bonfire  of  them  before  the  altar.  Richard  had  indeed  be- 
gun his  Crusade  at  home. 

And  now,  though  he  had  a  large  fortune  inherited  from  his 
father,  King  Richard  virtually  mortgaged  'his  kingdom  in  order 
to  raise  immense  sums  to  enable  him  to  carry  on  the  war.  He 
meant  to  be  the  hero  of  the  Third  Crusade,  and  to  win  a  glory 
and  record  before  which  the  names  of  Godfrey,  Tancred  and  Ray- 
mond would  fade  into  insignificance.  He  sold  the  offices  of  trust 
and  profit ;  he  sold  the  revenues  and  manors  of  the  crown ;  he 
released  the  pledged  soldiers  of  the  Cross  from  their  vows  on 
payment  of  ransom-money,  and  by  all  manner  of  exactions  and 
oppressions  ground  money  from  the  English  people  of  every 
rank.  It  was  with  the  utmost  relief  they  finally  saw  him  started 
with  his  gorgeous  retinue,  the  richest  prince  that  had  yet  taken 
the  field  in  the  service  of  the  Cross. 

Already  the  Emperor  Frederick,  with  150,000  men,  had  started 
for  Palestine.  His  army  was  subjected  to  much  hardship  and 
was  greatly  reduced  by  the  time  he  reached  Syria,  where  he 
himself  died  of  a  sudden  fever,  and  Prince  Conrade,  his  son, 
pushed  on  to  the  Holy  Land,  arriving  there  finally  with  less 
than  10,000  effectives.  So  many  severe  lessons  had  thus  been 
taught  the  crusaders  of  the  danger  and  difficulty  of  marching  all 
the  way,  that  now  the  allied  Kings  of  England  and  France  de- 
termined to  try  the  voyage  by  sea.  With  this  view  the  com- 
bined armies,  numbering  in  all  100,000  men,  were  encamped  at 
Vezelay,  on  the  borders  of  Burgundy,  and  here  Kings  Richard 
and  Philip  pledged  to  each  other  cordial  friendship,  the  fealty 
of  their  knights  and  barons,  their  faith  and  honor  for  the  de- 
termined prosecution  of  the  Crusade,  and  mutual  agreements  not 
to  permit  the  invasion  of  each  other's  kingdoms  by  their  sub- 
jects during  this  absence  from  home ;  and,  with  such  apparently 
complete  understanding,  each  at  the  head  of  his  own  army 
marched  to  the  point  where  he  was  to  meet  his  fleet — Philip 


212  ACRE. 

going  to  Genoa,  Richard  to  Marseilles.  Both  put  to  sea  about 
the  1 4th  of  September,  1190.  Both  were  driven  by  storms  to 
put  into  the  harbor  of  Messina.  There  they  were  detained  all 
winter,  and  there  discord  arose  between  them. 

Both  kings  were  haughty,  ambitious,  eager  for  glory,  and 
more  or  less  unscrupulous.  Rivals  from  the  outset  as  soldiers, 
they  now  became  embroiled  in  their  family  relations.  There 
had  been  a  time  when  King  Richard  was  expected  to  marry 
Princess  Alice  of  France.  Now  he  refused  to  do  so,  and  an- 
nounced his  determination  of  marrying  Berengaria  of  Navarre. 
King  Philip  had  to  consent,  but  with  infinite  anger,  and  his  re- 
jected sister  was  left  in  France,  while  Berengaria,  Queen  of 
England,  accompanied  the  great  expedition  to  Palestine.  Broils 
and  battles  had  sprung  up  between  the  French  and  English  sol- 
diers while  at  Messina,  and  no  love  was  lost  between  the  rival 
hosts  when,  in  the  spring,  the  French  set  sail  for  the  Holy  Land, 
leaving  King  Richard  waiting  for  his  expected  bride  before  he 
would  consent  to  start. 

All  this  time  Ptolemais  or  Acre  had  been  the  scene  of  a 
vehement  conflict.  Inside  the  walls,  and  bravely,  skillfully  de- 
fending it,  was  a  strong  garrison  under  the  Saracen  Caracos,  a 
veteran  and  distinguished  soldier.  Outside  the  walls,  closely 
investing  them  and  fighting  with  determined  courage,  were  the 
united  forces  of  all  the  crusaders  left  in  Palestine.  A  large  and 
vigorous  army,  but — it  lay  between  two  fires.  Saladin  himself 
with  a  powerful  host,  mainly  of  well-trained  horsemen,  lay  around 
the  camp  of  the  invaders,  and  even  while  they  were  surround- 
ing and  hemming  in  and  hammering  away  at  the  garrison  of 
Acre  they  themselves,  besieging,  were  besieged.  Saladin  was 
vigilant,  vehement  in  his  tactics,  striking  incessantly  at  every 
exposed  point  on  their  lines,  and  utterly  hampering  the  Chris- 
tians in  their  prosecution  of  the  siege.  This  was  the  state 
of  affairs  when  the  fleet  of  King  Philip  appeared  off"  the  har- 
bor of  Acre,  and  was  soon  followed  by  that  of  Richard  of 
England. 

The  arrival  of  such  powerful  reinforcements  gave  infinite  hope 
to  the  well-nigh  exhausted  besiegers.  If  concert  of  action  could 


KNIGHTLY   CONDUCT  OF   SALADIN.  213 

be  maintained,  there  was  now  every  prospect  of  success.  It  was 
arranged  that  the  new  armies  should  alternate  in  their  duties; 
that  while  the  English  on  one  day  attacked  the  city,  the  French 
should  guard  the  camps  against  the  assaults  of  Saladin,  and,  in 
the  rivalry  that  arose,  deeds  of  prodigious  valor  were  soon  the 
theme  of  every  tongue.  Richard  himself  became  the  hero  of 
the  siege.  Personally  of  superb  courage  and  strength,  he  won 
the  devoted  admiration  of  his  soldiers  by  his  fearless  exposure 
and  impetuous  bravery,  and  as  speedily  became  the  object  of 
the  intense  hatred  of  his  insidious  and  envious  rival. 

The  great  camp  of  the  crusaders  spread  like  a  fortified  city 
over  the  plain  which  surrounded  Acre.  It  was  divided  up  by 
streets,  and  in  many  places  substantial  houses  had  been  built  in 
place  of  the  lighter  tents.  Each  nation  had  its  separate  ward  or 
quarter,  and  its  own  arms,  armor  and  language.  An  almost 
Babel-like  variety  of  tongues  prevailed,  but  at  the  signal  for  bat- 
tle there  was  unanimity  and  combined  effort.  With  the  armies 
of  Richard  and  Philip  fairly  at  work,  there  could  be  but  short 
life  for  Acre,  and  the  reduction  of  the  city  seemed  now  but  a 
question  of  a  few  days. 

But  here  the  consequences  of  Philip's  jealousy  and  his  insidi- 
ous stabs  at  his  braver  rival  began  to  tell  upon  the  latter. 
Some  of  Richard's  own  trusted  knights  became  estranged. 
Then  Philip  fell  ill,  and  accused  Richard  of  having  poisoned  his 
food.  Then  King  Richard  was  prostrated  by  a  mysterious 
malady,  and  really  believed  that  his  rival  was  in  some  way  the 
cause  of  it.  The  garrison  of  Acre  quickly  saw  that  the  direct- 
ing head  and  arm  of  the  siege  was  no  longer  at  the  front,  took 
heart  again  and  redoubled  their  efforts.  A  curious  feature  of 
the  war  was  the  conduct  of  Saladin  at  this  juncture.  .  He  was 
far  more  knightly  and  chivalric  than  many  a  knight  of  Christen- 
dom ;  and  when  he  learned  that  both  the  rival  monarchs  were 
ill,  his  own  physicians,  skilled  in  the  treatment  of  local  maladies, 
were  sent  with  medicines  to  their  succor.  This  was  so  glaring" 
an  innovation  on  the  practices  of  war  that,  while  at  first  con- 
founded by  such  delicate  attentions,  both  monarchs  sent  mes- 
sages of  thanks.  This  led  to  frequent  inquiries  from  Saladin  as 


214  ACRE. 

to  how  his  royal  patients  were  progressing,  and  to  courteous 
and  grateful  responses  from  both  the  bed-ridden  kings.  Then 
they  accused  each  other  of  holding  communication  with  the 
enemy.  There  was  something  very  puerile  about  it. 

Two  general  assaults  had  been  made  on  the  walls,  and  both 
times  the  crusaders  had  been  so  harassed  by  simultaneous 
attacks  from  outside -by  Saladin,  that  they  were  able  to  throw 
only  hampered  effort  into  the  attempts,  and  were  beaten  back. 
Nevertheless  the  walls  were  crumbling  under  their  repeated 
blows  ;  famine  and  disease  had  weakened  the  garrison;  many  had 
been  killed,  and  Saladin  could  in  no  way  replace  them ;  there 
were  no  longer  men  enough  to  man  and  work  the  ponderous 
garrison  artillery;  stones  and  other  missiles  were  getting  scarce; 
the  supply  of  Greek-fire  was  giving  out;  all  their  oil  and  lead 
had  long  since  been  boiled  and  poured  in  death-dealing  tor- 
rents on  the  besiegers,  and  at  last  the  garrison  proposed  a 
capitulation. 

The  answer  was  a  demand  for  the  surrender  by  the  Saracens 
of  all  the  cities  they  had  captured  since  their  great  victory  at 
Tiberias.  A  prompt  refusal  was  given,  and  the  Saracens  nerved 
themselves  for  a  last  effort. 

And  now  followed  several  days  of  incessant  and  terrific  fight- 
ing, which  was  but  a  repetition  of  that  witnessed  at  Jerusalem. 
In  one  magnificent  assault  a  noble  knight  of  Florence  succeeded 
in  cutting  down  and  carrying  off  the  Moslem  standard,  and  Al- 
beric  Clement,  Marshal  of  France,  sword  in  hand,  cut  his  way 
well  into  the  city  before  he  fell,  hacked  to  death.  Stephen  of 
Blois  and  many  other  knights  were  burned  to  cinders  by  Greek- 
fire  which  they  could  not  escape,  and  throughout  the  ranks  of 
the  crusaders  there  had  been  heavy  loss.  But  by  this  time  the 
last  energies  of  the  garrison  were  spent.  Some  few  emirs 
managed  to  escape  at  night  by  the  harbor,  but  the  starving 
remnant  at  last  renewed  their  offer  of  surrender.  Throwing 
themselves  on  the  mercy  of  the  Christians,  they  agreed,  if  their 
lives  were  spared,  that  1,600  Christian  prisoners  should  be  given 
up,  together  with  the  wood  of  the  true  cross,  and  to  pay  an 
immense  sum  in  gold.  The  garrison  and  the  whole  population 


END   OF   THE   BLOODY   SIEGE.  215 

were  to  remain  as  hostages  in  the  hands  of  the  crusaders  until 
this  ransom  was  paid  by  their  Saracen  friends. 

But  now,  according  to  some  accounts,  there  fell  the  one  blot 
upon  the  name  of  the  knightly  and  gallant  Saladin.  Apprised 
of  the  surrender  and  the  terms  just  as  he  was  making  a  final  effort 
to  relieve  the  city,  he  demurred  about  the  payment  of  the  sum 
required,  temporized  for  days  on  one  pretence  or  another,  until 
at  last  Richard  of  England,  in  a  fit  of  rage,  ordered  the  imme- 
diate slaughter  of  5,000  defenceless  prisoners,  as  a  means  of 
bringing  the  Saracen  to  terms,  and  the  inhuman  order  was  car- 
ried out  in  full  view  of  the  chieftain,  whose  vacillation  and  cu- 
pidity had  brought  it  about. 

This  was  the  end  of  the  long  and  bloody  siege  of  Acre.  For 
three  years  the  city  had  held  out  against  the  fleets  and  armies 
of  the  crusaders,  who  had  spilled  a  sea  of  blood  around  its  walls. 
Nine  determined  battles  had  been  fought  between  the  Christians 
and  Saracens  in  sight  of  its  towers.  Hundreds  of  spirited  skir- 
mishes had  occurred  between  the  outposts  and  the  cavalry  of 
Saladin.  Thousands  of  valuable  lives  and  countless  treasure 
had  been  sacrificed,  and  all  to  no  real  purpose. 

Philip,  disheartened  and  wearied,  decided  to  return  to  France, 
leaving  Richard  in  sole  command,  and  the  latter  saw  before  him 
a  tremendous  undertaking.  He  had  yet  to  march  down  the  sea- 
coast,  reduce  the  fortress  of  Ascalon,  and  fight  his  way  to  the 
walls  of  Jerusalem.  The  war  was  now  to  be  fought  between 
Richard  and  Saladin,  beyond  all  question  the  two  greatest  sol- 
diers of  the  day. 

With  a  much  reduced  but  still  formidable  army,  the  King  of 
England,  after  the  fall  of  Acre,  marched  upon  Ascalon,  the  scene 
of  his  greatest  personal  triumphs.  With  300,000  fighting  men, 
Saladin  threw  himself  across  his  path,  and  now  ensued  that 
series  of  desperate  combats  that  made  the  wars  of  the  crusades 
for  centuries  the  theme  of  minstrels'  songs  and  written  pages. 
Near  Ascalon,  at  Azotus,  occurred  the  most  brilliant  and  glori- 
ous of  great  Richard's  battles ;  for  here,  when  the  fortunes  of  the 
day  were  utterly  against  him,  when  both  his  right  and  left  wings 
were  routed  and  well-nigh  gone,  the  hero  of  England  rode  into 


216  ACRE. 

the  very  van  of  the  battle,  leading  the  still  steadfast  centre,  and 
there,  with  sword  and  battle-axe,  doing  appalling  execution 
among  the  Saracens,  reanimating  his  followers,  giving  his  wings 
time  to  retake  breath  and  rally,  snatching  victory  from  the  jaws 
of  defeat  and  winning  for  himself  the  immortal  name  by  which 
he  was  ever  after  known  :  Richard'  Coeur  de  Lion — Richard  of 
the  Lion  Heart.  Eight  thousand  Saracens  were  stretched  dead 
upon  the  sands  of  Palestine  on  that  eventful  day.  Ascalon  went 
down  before  the  crusaders,  and  then  they  turned  upon  Jerusalem. 

But  here  at  last  his  armies  failed  him.  First,  to  curry  favor 
with  their  own  monarch,  some  of  the  prominent  French  leaders 
abandoned  the  campaign.  Then  whole  battalions  of  the  soldiers 
declared  themselves  unable  to  longer  continue  the  contest  in 
that  parched  and  desolate  land.  The  English,  too,  began  to 
waver  and  fall  back,  and  at  the  very  moment  when  King  Rich- 
ard saw  before  him  the  towers  of  the  holy  city  and  the  long 
hoped-for  opportunity  of  retaking  it,  he  realized  that  his  force 
was  no  longer  sufficient  to  warrant  the  attempt.  But  his  victo- 
ries had  given  him  the  ascendency  over  Saladin,  and  that  chief 
was  glad  to  conclude  a  truce,  by  the  terms  of  which  he  agreed 
to  leave  Acre,  Joppa  and  the  sea-ports  of  Palestine  in  the  hands 
of  the  Christians,  and  that  every  pilgrim  or  crusader  should  be 
permitted  now  to  visit,  unmolested,  the  shrine  at  Jerusalem. 
This  treaty  was  to  remain  in  force  three  years,  three  months, 
three  weeks,  three  days  and  three  hours — "  a  magical  number," 
suggested  by  the  superstitions  of  the  crusaders. 

Long  before  the  expiration  of  the  truce,  brave  Saladin  died  at 
Damascus,  and  Richard,  his  great  conqueror,  was  a  prisoner  in 
Germany.  Betrayed  by  his  brother  John,  and  intrigued  against 
by  his  relentless  rival,  King  Philip,  the  lion-hearted  king  had 
great  difficulty  in  making  his  way  back  to  England ;  but  once 
there,  his  people  rallied  enthusiastically  to  his  support,  his 
brother  grovelled  at  his  feet  for  pardon,  and  obtained  it  through 
the  intercession  of  his  mother,  Queen  Eleanor;  but  before  he 
was  enabled  to  punish  and  humble  King  Philip,  an  arrow-wound 
in  the  shoulder  inflamed,  gangrene  set  in,  and  on  the  6th  of 
April,  1199,  in  the  tenth  year  of  his  martial  reign,  and  the  forty- 


ACRE. 


217 


second  of  his  adventurous  life,  Richard  Cceur  de  Lion  lay  dead, 
and  the  Crusades  soon  died  out  with  these,  their  greatest  lead- 
ers. Long  afterwards  other  expeditions  were  sent  to  the  holy 
land,  the  most  notable  being  that  of  King  Louis  the  Ninth,  of 
France,  universally  known  as  Saint  Louis,  who  finally  died  of 
the  pestilence,  which  was  ravaging  the  shores  of  Africa  'when 
he  led  his  armies  thither  against  the  western  possessions  of  the 
infidels.  The  Crusades  ended  with  his  death,  in  1270. 


ATTACK  ON   THE  WALLS   OF  ACRE. 


CRESSY. 

1346. 

IN  the  26th  of  August,  1346,  was  fought  a  gal- 
lant battle  that,  though  marking  no  historical 
movement  of  nations  or  peoples,  and  though 
not  being  one  of  the  decisive  battles  of  the 
world,  is  memorable  as  the  beginning  of  a 
military  epoch.  Light  artillery  had  its  bap- 
tism on  that  hard-fought  field. 

Siege-guns  had  been  known  for  years. 
Gunpowder  had  been  used  for  centuries  by 
the  Chinese,  the  Hindoos,  the  Arabs,  the  Moors,  who  brought 
it  to  Spain.  Siege-guns,  clumsy  and  rude,  to  be  sure,  but  guns 
for  all  that,  had  grown  into  use  all  over  Christendom ;  but  when 
Berthold  Schwartz  stumbled  upon  the  principle  of  granulating 
the  thin  dust  of  the  ancients,  he  contrived  an  explosive  so  pow- 
erful, that  it  gave  him  the  name  of  inventor.  Only  twenty-six 
years  before  Cressy  did  he  hit  upon  this  improvement.  Then 
new  guns  sprang  into  use  all  over  western  Europe.  Crude 
things  they  were ;  and  those  which  have  made  this  battle  the 
light  artillerist's  initial  point,  were  not  much  larger  and  no  more 
formidable  than  the  duck-gun  of  to-day.  Much  time,  trouble 
and  muscle  were  expended  in  lugging  the  piece  into  action,  and 
then  all  who  could  do  so  stood  aside,  when  finally  this  pioneer- 
gun  discharged  its  contents  towards  the  enemy.  But  so  little 
were  they  trusted,  so  long  did  they  take  to  load,  to  aim  and  to 
shoot,  and  so  utterly  uncertain  was  it  which  way  the  charge 
would  go,  that  though  Cressy  saw  the  introduction  of  field- 
artillery,  and  is  renowned  for  that  fact,  and  for  the  hard,  honest, 
stubborn  fighting  that  was  done  there,  it  seems  that  very  little 
(218) 


35  3O  f25  20  15  1O  5  O  5 


/Modern  Europe 


15  20          25  3O          3J  4O 


SO  5J  GO 


ENGLAND   INVADES   FRANCE  219 

part  did  the  artillery  play  in  the  varying  fortunes  of  the  day. 
Indeed,  the  French  forgot  theirs  altogether. 

Edward  the  Third  was  King  of  England,  and,  as  was  usual  in 
the  days  succeeding  the  Crusades,  there  was  strife  twixt  Eng- 
land and  France.  It  took  several  centuries  to  settle  their  diffi- 
culties, but  the  immediate  cause  of  the  war  of  1346  seems  still 
to  be  a  matter  of  dispute  between  the  historians  of  the  respec- 
tive nations.  Each  lays  the  blame  upon  the  other.  Three 
years  previously  King  Edward  was  in  France  with  a  small  army 
of  12,000  men,  acting  in  defence  of  the  Countess  of  Mountfort. 
He  was  besieged  by  a  much  larger  force,  and  was  very  glad  to 
listen  to  the  entreaties  of  the  messengers  of  the  Pope  of  Rome, 
who  was  anxious  to  put  an  end  to  hostilities.  A  treaty  was 
entered  into  for  a  three  years'  truce.  Edward  went  back  to 
England,  and  even  an  English  historian  (Hume)  says  that  he 
never  meant  to  keep  the  peace.  He  certainly  was  the  first 
aggressor,  and  Parliament,  in  1344,  voted  him  supplies  to  con- 
tinue the  war,  and  urged  him  not  to  be  deterred  "  by  a  fraudu- 
lent truce." 

Edward  therefore  sent  an  army  under  command  of  his  own 
cousin,  the  Earl  of  Derby,  into  Guienne ;  the  earl  attacked  and 
beat  the  French  in  several  sharp  engagements,  until  an  over- 
powering force  came  against  him,  when  he  begged  for  aid  from 
home.  King  Edward  was  eager  and  ready.  He  longed  for  a 
pretext  for  the  reinvasion  of  France.  He  had  at  Southampton, 
all  prepared,  a  fleet  of  a  thousand  sail ;  and  now  with  all  the 
chief  nobility  of  England,  with  his  own  brave  boy,  the  Prince  of 
Wales,  then  but  sixteen  years  old>  and  with  a  powerful  army  he 
landed  at  .La  Hogue  on  the  I2th  of  July. 

His  original  destination  had  been  the  shores  of  Guienne,  on 
the  southwestern  coast  of  France,  adjacent  to  the  Bay  of  Biscay, 
but  prudent  advisers  pointed  out  the  fact  that  all  the  French 
troops  were  now  concentrated  thereabouts,  and  that  he  would 
find  the  northern  provinces  well-nigh  defenceless,  and  he  readily 
changed  his  plan.  The  harbors  of  La  Hogue,  Cherbourg  and 
Barfleur  lay  close  together,  and  almost  immediately  he  had  pos- 
session of  all  three. 


220  CRESSY. 

The  army  of  King  Edward  was  a  mixed  array.  There  were 
4,000  "  men-at-arms ;"  10,000  archers;  10,000  Welsh  and  6,000 
Irish  infantry.  The  men-at-arms  and  archers  were  mainly  native 
English.  They  were  the  regulars — the  disciplined  and  most 
reliable  troops.  But  the  Welsh  and  Irish,  though  turbulent  and 
disorderly,  were  very  effective  light  troops  and  foragers,  and  did 
fearful  service  in  the  ravaging  work  on  which  King  Edward 
entered  forthwith.  The  men-at-arms  were  all  finely  mounted 
and  heavily  equipped.  The  archers  were  lightly  clad  and 
protected,  were  swift  of  foot  and  tolerably  good  marksmen. 
But  one  and  all  these  soldiers  were  let  loose  over  northern 
France  with  orders  to  plunder,  burn  and  destroy — spreading 
east  and  west  during  the  day  but  reuniting  at  central  points  at 
night. 

Eager  to  popularize  the  invasion  among  his  nobles,  King 
Edward  appointed  the  Earl  of  Arundel  constable  of  the  army ; 
the  Earls  of  Warwick  and  Harcourt  marshals,  and  several  of  the 
younger  lords,  among  them  the  Prince  of  Wales,  were  named 
knights.  The  order  of  knighthood  was  dearly  prized  among 
the  younger  soldiers,  for  the  traditions  of  the  Crusades  and 
the  glorious  deeds  of  their  forefathers  were  fresh  in  the  minds 
of  all. 

The  first  large  city  to  fall  before  the  English  was  Caen.  A 
defence  had  been  attempted  in  the  open  field  (for  the  city  was 
unfortified),  but  the  hastily  gathered  garrison  were  no  match  for 
the  invaders.  They  broke,  ran  pell-mell  back  into  the  city  with 
the"  English  among  them  or  at  their  heels,  and  then  began  a 
brutal  massacre  of  the  people — men,  women  and  children  being 
furiously  slaughtered.  It  was  soon  checked  by  Edward's  young 
knights,  but  the  pillage  went  on.  In  three  days  the  city  was 
sacked  of  all  its  treasure ;  money,  plate,  jewels,  silks,  etc.,  were 
shipped  back  to  England,  together  with  300  of  the  richest  citizens 
as  prisoners.  Then  the  English  turned  on  the  grand  old  city  of 
Rouen,  but  the  French  had  destroyed  the  bridge,  and  King 
Philip  of  France  had  hastened  from  Paris  with  a  good-sized 
army  and  held  the  east  bank  of  the  Seine.  They  could  not 
cross. 


"LET   HIM   WIN   HIS   SPURS."  221 

But  they  went  on  up  the  valley,  even  as  far  as  the  gates  of 
Paris,  some  few  of  them.  They  burned  the  beautiful  palace  of 
St.  Germain.  They  destroyed  many  peaceful  villages.  Then 
Edward  saw  that  great  forces  were  gathering  to  surround  him, 
trapped  as  he  was  far  from  the  ships  and  the  shores.  He  knew 
that  he  must  get  back  by  a  short  cut  across  the  Seine.  His  ready 
wits  enabled  him  to  delude  the  French,  to  quickly  rebuild  the 
bridge  at  Poissy  and  then  to  strike  north  for  the  coast.  Still 
he  had  desperate  danger  to  encounter,  but  wit  and  courage  again 
helped  him,  and  at  last — breathless,  dripping  with  the  waters  of 
the  river  Somme  through  which  he  and  his  men  had  plunged, 
but  whose  rising  tide  balked  the  vehemence  of  the  pursuit — he 
halted  on  the  slopes  of  Crecy,  as  it  was  called  by  the  French,  the 
sparkling  waters  of  the  English  Channel  at  his  back,  and  all 
France  pressing  after  him  in  chase. 

But  France  had  to  stop  and  hunt  for  bridges,  and  the  King 
of  England  had  a  day  to  himself.  A  born  fighter  was  Edward 
the  Third,  and  though  four  times  his  force  would  be  on  him  on 
the  morrow,  he  never  flinched  or  lost  heart. 

In  three  lines  he  drew  up  his  army  on  a  gentle  slope  near  little 
Cressy.  In  front  of  the  first,  at  intervals  along  the  line,  he 
placed  his  few  clumsy  field-guns,  and  supporting  them,  com- 
manding his  exposed  advance,  he  stationed  the  gallant  boy  in 
whom  his  hopes  were  centred.  "  Let  him  win  his  spurs,"  said 
the  stern  father ;  "  I  can  name  him  knight — he  alone  can  make 
himself  a  true  one." 

But  he  gave  the  boy  his  noblest  earls  to  back  him — Harcourt, 
Oxford,  Warwick,  and  there  too  were  Lords  Chandos  and  Hol- 
land. Brave  noblemen  were  stationed  with  the  second  line. 
The  king  himself  took  the  third.  From  the  high  ground  be- 
hind he  meant  to  overlook  the  fight,  and  only  plunge  in  with 
his  reserve  just  when  and  where  it  should  be  needed  to  turn  the 
issue  of  a  doubtful  fight.  He  covered  the  flanks  with  trenches, 
and  his  baggage,  drawn  up  in  the  wood  behind  the  crest,  was 
similarly  protected. 

Everything  was  done  so  quietly  and  methodically  that  the 
soldiers  gained  confidence  despite  the  fearful  odds ;  but  when 


222  CRESSY. 

their  king  rode  around  through  the  ranks  exhorting  them  to  be 
steadfast  and  of  good  cheer — to  fight  as  they  saw  his  son  fight — 
they  gained  enthusiasm  with  every  word.  He  would  ask  noth- 
ing of  his  soldiers  that  he  would  not  ask  of  the  heir  to  his 
throne. 

And  so  in  easy  composure  the  English  watched  the  tumul- 
tuous approach  of  the  French,  still  some  miles  away  towards 
Abbeville,  but  pouring  over  the  bridge  and  deploying  across 
the  open  ground  that  lay  towards  the  Somme.  A  brisk  shower 
of  rain  swept  over  the  scene  as  the  first  line  of  the  French  moved 
forward.  King  Edward's  archers  coolly  slipped  their  bows  back 
within  their  covers — and  waited.  The  opposing  line,  all  bow- 
men, Genoese,  came  on  in  eager  haste,  and  let  their  bowstrin'gs 
soak.  It  was  a  fatal  oversight. 

•  There  were  1 5 ,000  of  these  Genoese  crossbowmen,  led  by  Doria 
and  Grimaldi.  Behind  them  came  a  second  line,  led  by  the  Count 
of  Alen9on,  King  Philip's  brother.  The  king  himself  led  the 
third  line,  and  with  his  army  were  three  other  crowned  heads — 
those  of  the  Kings  of  Bohemia,  of  the  Romans,  and  of  Majorca. 
All  the  nobility  of  France  were  there,  and  over  100,000  soldiery- 
In  great  haste,  in  bitter  hatred,  in  disorder  and  fatigue,  they  in- 
sisted on  rushing  in  to  the  attack  and  extermination  of  the 
little  army  of  invaders  that  had  worked  such  havoc  among  their 
homes.  They  never  doubted  the  issue. 

Just  at  three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  of  this  showery  August 
day,  the  eager  lines  of  France  begin  the  ascent  of  the  slope. 
The  rain  has  ceased  for  the  time  being,  and  now  as  their  oppo- 
nents come  within  range,  the  bowmen  of  England  draw  forth 
their  weapons.  A  moment  more,  and,  as  with  one  accord,  the 
Genoese  crossbows  are  raised  to  the  shoulders  of  the  advancing 
line ;  then  the  air  is  filled  with  thousands  of  bolts  whizzing  up 
the  slope,  but  to  the  dismay  of  the  French,  to  the  glee  and 
ridicule  of  the  islanders,  not  one  reaches  its  mark.  The  wet, 
limp  bow-strings  refuse  to  perform  their  work,  the  missiles  pass 
harmlessly  into  the  sward.  Then  comes  the  answer.  With 
jeering  laughter,  but  practised  aim,  the  English  archers  let 
drive  their  barbed  flights  into  the  dense  masses  of  the  wavering 


THE   STRUGGLE   BEGINS.  223 

Genoese.  In  vain  the  leaders  spring  to  the  front  and  strive  to 
urge  them  on.  They  are  aghast  at  the  failure  of  the  only  weapon 
they  know  how  to  use ;  they  are  falling  by  scores  under  the  un- 
erring aim  of  the  English.  They  are  thrown  into  utter  confu- 
sion, and,  to  the  amaze  of  the  crowding  and  over  confident 
soldiers  of  the  lines  behind  them,  they  begin  to  surge  back. 

Instantly  the  gallant  young  Prince  of  Wales  pricks  spurs  to 
his  horse,  and  with  joyous  shout  calls  to  his  nobles  and  his 
whole  line  to  follow  him,  and  with  cheers  and  exultation  they 
charge  down  the  slope  upon  the  hapless  allies  of  France.  And 
now  in  good  earnest  back  go  the  crossbowmen— back  into  the 
very  faces  of  the  second  line — back  upon  the  knights  and  armored 
cavalry  of  the  Count  of  Alen£on.  Enraged  at  their  cowardice, 
the  latter  orders  his  horsemen  to  cut  them  down.  Then,  too, 
before  the  first  line  of  the  English  passed  beyond  them,  each 
one  of  their  unwieldy  guns,  it  is  said,  was  fired  into  the  strug- 
gling mass,  and  the  charge  that  followed  was  doubly  successful 
from  the  consternation  thereby  produced.  The  French  had 
already  seen  artillery  in  siege  operations,  and  Cordova  and  Gibral- 
tar in  Spain  had  succumbed  to  stone  shot  from  cumbrous 
engines  that  vomited  fire,  smoke  and  uproar ;  but  in  open  battle 
artillery  had  not  yet  been  used,  and  the  few  discharges  of  the 
English  guns  must  have  had  at  least  a  moral  effect. 

But  all  the  chivalry  of  France  is  in  that  second  line  under 
Alen9on.  Full  30,000  gallant  knights  and  gentlemen,  skillful 
horsemen  and  trained  foot  soldiers,  all  together  now  they  sweep 
forward,  kicking  contemptuously  out  of  their  way  or  trampling 
under  foot  the  cowering  Genoese,  and  with  the  fierce  delight  of 
battle  they  meet  and  envelop  the  slender  line  of  brave  young 
Edward.  It  is  his  maiden  battle.  He  well  knows  that  the  eyes 
of  all  England  are  on  him,  and  with  fearless  mien  and  flashing 
sword  he  spurs  into  the  midst  of  the  group  of  nobles  in  the 
opposing  centre.  He  is  just  sixteen,  but,  stripling  though  he  is, 
the  spirit  of  a  race  of  kings  nerves  his  arm;  and  he  has  the  best 
blood  of  old  England  at  his  back.  At  close  quarters  now,  hand 
to  hand,  foot  to  foot,  the  battle  rages,  and  the  Kings  of  France 
and  England  under  their  standards  gaze  anxiously  upon  the 


224  CRESSY. 

struggle.  Soon  it  is  seen  that,  despite  superb  courage,  the  far 
greater  numbers  of  the  French  are  proving  too  much  for  young 
Edward's  line.  And,  prompt,  impetuous  and  eager,  the  Earl  of 
Arundel  orders  in  his  portion  of  the  second  to  the  rescue, 
Northampton  follows  at  once  with  his,  and  fresh  horsemen 
from  the  French  third  line  spur  forward  to  meet  them.  It  is  a 
tremendous  conflict  now.  Every  inch  of  ground  is  fought  over 
a  dozen  times,  but  ever  in  the  thickest  of  the  fight  the  glittering 
array  of  knights  surround  the  mail-clad  form  of  the  slender 
young  leader.  There,  at  least,  there  is  "  no  footstep  backward." 

The  Earl  of  Warwick,  fearing  that  too  great  a  strain  was  being 
brought  to  bear  upon  his  young  master,  sent  word  begging  the 
king  himself  to  come  to  the  rescue  with  all  the  reserve,  but 
though  in  an  agony  of  anxiety,  King  Edward  gazed  steadily  at 
the  heart  of  the  battle  one  moment,  then — 

"  Go  back  to  my  son,"  said  he.  "  Tell  him  that  to  him  I  in- 
trust the  honor  of  the  day.  He  will  show  himself  worthy  the 
knighthood  I  so  lately  conferred  on  him.  He  can,  without  my 
help,  beat  back  the  enemy,"  and  this  was  the  message  that  came 
to  "  The  Black  Prince  "  in  the  heat  of  the  battle. 

Never  faltering  before,  this  seems  to  have  given  him  heroic 
strength.  Calling  on  all  to  join  him,  young  Edward  once  again 
dashed  into  the  midst  of  the  attacking  line.  Knights  and  nobles 
spur  at  his  back  and  side.  They  strike  for  the  brilliant  group 
of  nobles  among  the  French,  and  there  in  short,  sharp  conflict 
down  go  the  Count  of  Alen9on,  down  go  the  Kings  of  Majorca 
and  Bohemia  (the  latter  'tis  said  by  the  hand  of  Prince  Edward 
himself,  but  as  the  king  was  blind  with  old  age  it  is  one  part  of 
the  story  we  would  rather  not  believe).  The  whole  cavalry  line 
is  thrown  into  confusion,  thousands  of  riders  are  unhorsed 
and  slain,  the  savage  Welshmen  rushing  in  and  cutting  their 
throats  with  knives  as  they  drag  them  from  their  wounded 
horses. 

In  vain  the  King  of  France  spurred  forward  with  his  reserve 
to  restore  the  battle.  His  horse  was  killed.  Another  was  given 
him,  and  he  again  strove  by  voice  and  example  to  reanimate  his 
men,  but  now  all  England  was  upon  them.  Hope  and  courage 


NOTABLE   FliENCH   DEAD.  225 

were  gone,  and,  as  the  sun  went  down  towards  the  western 
horizon,  the  French  army  was  in  full  flight,  the  king  himself 
being  led  away,  and  saved  only  by  the  devotion  of  some  of  his 
knights. 

Pursuit  was  kept  up  till  darkness,  and  stragglers  were  cut 
down  and  slain  without  mercy.  The  loss  on  the  French  side 
was  appalling,  for  even  on  the  following  day  they  were  trapped 
into  ambush  and  the  slaughter  kept  up.  A  fog  was  rolling  in 
from  the  sea.  Many  of  the  French  lost  their  way.  The  Eng- 
lishmen raised  on  the  heights  all  the  standards  captured  in  the 
battle  of  the  day  before,  and  hundreds  of  poor  fellows  were 
lured  into  fancied  shelter  by  the  cruel  artifice  and  murdered  in 
cold  blood. 

The  French  dead  at  Cressy  are  given  as  follows :  Two  kings 
(Bohemia  and  Majorca),  the  Count  d'Ale^on,  the  Dukes  of 
Bourbon  and  Lorraine,  the  Earls  of  Aumale,  Blois,  Flanders 
and  Vaudemont;  1,200  knights,  1,400  gentlemen  of  rank,  4,000- 
men-at-arms  (heavy  cavalry)  and  30,000  ordinary  soldiery. 
What  deserved  to  be  an  easy  victory  for  King  Philip  had  been 
turned  into  overwhelming  rout  and  slaughter  by  the  skill,  cool- 
ness and  courage  of  King  Edward  of  England,  whose  own 
losses  were  insignificant  in  comparison. 

Crecy,  or  Cressy,  deserves  to  be  remembered  mainly  for  the 
skill  of  King  Edward,  and  the  heroic  courage  of  his  knights  and 
nobles.  It  was  in  memory  of  this  gallant  battle  that  the  soldier- 
monarch  resolved  upon  the  creation  of  that  proud  order  of 
knighthood  that  to  this  day  is  so  honored,  envied  and  prized  in- 
England — the  Order  of  the  Garter. 

Originally  intended  only  as  a  reward  for  most  heroic  and 
valuable  services  of  a  military  nature,  some  additions  and  inno- 
vations have  been  made  by  recent  monarchs,  by  which  some 
few  very  eminent  statesmen  (notably  Disraeli)  and  members  of 
the  royal  houses  of  great  nations  have  been  admitted  by  favor 
of  the  Sovereign  of  Great  Britain.  But  the  Order  of  the  Garter 
dates  back  to  Cressy ;  some  accounts  alleging  that  King  Ed- 
ward took  off  his  garter  in  the  heat  of  the  battle  and  hurled  it, 
as  the  Romans  sometimes  did  their  eagles,  into  the  midst  of  the 
15 


226  CRESSY. 

foe,  to  animate  the  soldiers  to  charge  and  recover  it.  Others 
date  its  well-known  motto,  "Honi  soit  qui  mal  y  pense"  to  the 
iromantic  incident  of  King  Edward's  picking  up  and  restoring, 
with  a  courtier's  bow,  the  garter  which  had  been  dropped  at  a 
court  ball  by  the  Countess  of  Salisbury. 

Another  well-known  symbol  of  English  royalty  dates  back  to 
Cressy.  The  crest  of  the  old  King  of  Bohemia  was  three  ostrich 
feathers,  his  motto  the  German  words,  "  Ich  Dien  " — "  I  serve." 
Whether  it  be  true  that  the  poor  old  man  was  killed  by  the 
sword  of  the  young  prince  or  not,  his  crest  and  motto  were  then 
and  there  adopted  by  young  Edward,  and  to  this  day  are  known 
.as  those  of  the  Prince  of  Wales,  the  heir  to  the  throne  of 
England. 

Of  this  gallant  soldier,  who  "  won  his  spurs "  so  well  at 
Cressy,  it  may  be  said  that,  ten  years  later,  commanding  the 
armies  of  England,  he  again  won  a  great  victory  over  those  of 
France,  at  Poictiers,  capturing  the  king  himself;  but  "The 
Black  Prince,"  as  he  was  now  universally  known,  never  reached 
the  throne.  He  quarreled  with  his  father  later  in  life,  and  died 
at  the  age  of  forty-six. 

Cressy  was  a  terrible  blow,  temporarily,  to  France;  but  King 
Edward  felt  himself  strong  enough  only  to  reduce  Calais  by 
siege,  a  year's  task,  and  before  the  end  of  that  year  France  had 
recruited  an  army  of  200,000  men,  and  peace  was  again,  for  a 
brief  time,  secured  by  the  intervention  of  Rome. 

Since  allusion  has  been  made  to  the  great  victory  of  the  Black 
Prince  at  Poictiers,  it  is  fitting,  in  concluding  this  chapter  on 
•Cressy,  to  make  brief  mention  of  a  third  brilliant  victory  for  the 
English  arms  in  France — Agincourt.  The  three  battles  were  so 
singularly  alike  in  almost  every  particular,  that  the  description 
of  Cressy  would  serve  as  the  type  of  all.  Agincourt  was  fought 
between  Henry  V.,  of  England,  and  the  commander-in-chief  of 
the  French  forces,  the  Constable  D'Albert,  October  25th,  1415. 
The  English  had  some  25,000,  the  French  twice  that  number 
and  the  advantage  of  position,  supplies,  etc. ;  but  Henry  took 
.advantage  of  French  impetuosity,  as  had  his  great  predecessors. 
He  forced  the  enemy  to  attack  him  on  crowded  ground,  com- 


THE   BATTLE   OF   AGINCOURT. 


227 


pletely  overthrew  him,  and  the  French  loss  in  nobles  and 
knights  exceeded  that  of  Cressy,  though  a  far  less  number  of 
soldiers  of  the  line  were  victims.  Agincourt  was  one  of  the 
proudest  victories  ever  won,  though  the  victors  immediately  re- 
turned to  their  own  country.  Fought  nearly  two  centuries 
apart,  Crecy  and  Agincourt  lie  close  together,  between  Calais 
and  St.  Valery,  near  the  English  Channel. 


EDWA**    HI.  CONGRATULATING   THE   BLACK   PRINCE,   AFTER    CRESSY. 


ORLEANS. 

1429. 

WO  years  after  Agincourt,  Henry  the  Fifth 
again  invaded  France,  conquered  Normandy, 
and,  in  1420,  concluded  the  treaty  of  Troyes, 
by  which  it  was  agreed  that  while  King 
Charles  should  retain  the  title  of  King  of 
France,  the  government  should  be  Henry's, 
and  that  the  crown  should  descend  to  the 
latter's  heirs.  In  1422,  singularly  enough, 
both  kings  died.  Henry  VI.  was  immedi- 
ately proclaimed  King  of  England  and 
France,  but  numbers  of  the  French  refused  to  be  bound  by  the 
treaty,  and  the  dauphin,  the  son  of  Charles  VI.,  was  named 
King  Charles  VII.  Instantly  the  English  regent,  the  Duke  of 
Bedford,  attacked  and  beat  the  army  of  the  dauphin  at  Crevant, 
and,  in  1422,  won  a  great  victory  at  Verneuil  over  the  dau- 
phin's people  and  their  Scotch  allies.  Thus  far,  therefore,  for 
nearly  three  centuries,  the  English  had  been  having  an  almost 
uninterrupted  success  in  France,  and,  vastly  disheartened,  the 
French  army  that  had  made  its  way  to  Orleans  now  found  it- 
self besieged. 

The  city  of  Orleans  lies  at  the  northernmost  point  reached  by 
the  river  Loire,  which,  rising  in  the  extreme  south  of  France, 
flows  northward  some  two  hundred  and  fifty  miles,  and  then, 
at  almost  an  acute  angle,  sweeps  round  to  the  south  of  west  and, 
after  another  meander  of  equal  length,  empties  into  the  Bay  of 
Biscay.  Just  under  the  48th  parallel,  at  this  4angle,  lies  the  old 
town,  mainly  on  the  northern  bank  of  the  stream,  though  even 
in  1428  its  suburbs  extended  some  distance  out  on  the  low 
(228) 


PREPARATIONS   OF   THE   FRENCH.  229 

grounds  on  the  other  side,  a  strong  bridge  connecting  the  two 
sections  of  the  city.  Fortification  had  already  grown  to  be 
something  of  an  art,  and  the  southern  end  of  the  bridge  was  de- 
fended by  a  strong  field-work,  that  nowadays  would  be  known 
as  a  tete-du-pont,  while  on  the  bridge  itself  two  solid  towers  of 
masonry  had  been  raised  close  to  the  southern  shore.  North 
of  and  including  these  towers  all  was  solid  masonry ;  south  of 
them  only  a  draw-bridge  connected  with  the  shore.  These 
"  Tourelles,"  as  they  were  called,  and  the  bridge-head  combined 
to  make  a  strong  fortified  post,  and  into  them  a  garrison  of  con- 
siderable strength  had  been  thrown,  when  the  advisers  of  the 
feeble-minded  dauphin  induced  him  to  make  one  supreme  effort 
to  save  Orleans. 

There  was  every  reason  why  he  should.  The  Loire  divided 
France  about  in  half.  Everything  north  and  east  of  it  was  now 
held  by  the  English.  He  and  his  upholders  were  confined  to 
the  countries  below  it,  and  Orleans  was  the  last  stronghold  left 
to  them.  Driven  from  his  proper  capital,  the  Dauphin  Charles 
was  fretting  at  Chinon,  a  hundred  miles  or  so  southwest  of  Or- 
leans. He  had  ordered  his  best  troops  to  the  Loire,  and  placed 
the  Lord  of  Gaucour,  a  gallant  soldier,  in  command  of  the  de- 
fences of  the  threatened  city  as  soon  as  the  movement  of  the 
English  indicated  their  intention  of  swooping  down  upon  it. 
Already  the  Earl  of  Salisbury,  with  a  strong  force,  had  crossed 
the  Loire,  and  soon  showed  by  his  advance  his  project  of  in- 
vesting the  fortress  from  the  south.  He  had  but  10,000  men,  but 
the  uninterrupted  triumphs  of  the  English  had  made  him  con- 
fident of  his  ability  to  resist  counter  attack,  and  knowing  that 
he  could  not  hope  to  carry  the  walls  by  assault,  he  determined 
first  to  win  the  bridge  and  so  cut  off  the  main  line  of  supplies 
for  the  garrison.  He  arrived  before  the  town  on  the  1 2th  of 
October,  1428,  and  on  the  23d  had  carried  the  Tourelles  by 
storm.  But  in  retreating  across  to  the  city  the  French  broke 
down  the  arches  of  the  bridge. 

And  now  in  good  earnest  artillery  began  to  play  its  part  in 
siege  operations.  The  English  planted  a  heavy  battery  in  the 
works  they  had  won,  commanding  some  of  the  main  streets  of 


230  ORLEANS. 

the  city,  while  the  garrison  in  turn  shifted  some  of  their  guns  to 
bear  upon  the  Tourelles,  and  here,  a  few  days  after  the  assault 
on  the  tete-du-pont,  a  cannon  shot  killed  the  Earl  of  Salisbury 
and  the  command  devolved  upon  the  Earl  of  Suffolk. 

Among  the  prominent  officers  in  Orleans  at  this  time  was  the 
Count  of  Dunois,  a  natural  son  of  the  Duke  of  Orleans  who 
had  been  assassinated  by  the  Duke  of  Burgundy  just  before  the 
treaty  of  Troyes.  Dunois  had  already  shown  great  courage 
and  ability  as  a  leader  of  small  commands  and  was  gradually 
advanced  to  more  important  posts.  The  English  were  unable 
with  so  few  men  to  surround  the  city.  The  French  made  forays 
in  every  direction,  adding  to  their  own  supplies  and  cutting  off 
those  that  were  intended  for  the  invaders,  so  that  the  latter  were 
compelled  to  send  convoys  to  bring  in  their  trains  of  provisions. 
Thus  it  happened  that  a  severe  combat  took  place  between 
2,500  English,  under  Sir  John  Fastolffe,  and  4,000  French, 
under  Dunois.  The  latter  kept  his  men  well  out  of  close  range 
and  hammered  away  at  Fastolffe's  wagons  with  his  battery, 
utterly  demolishing  them  and  their  contents  and  giving  the 
English  decidedly  the  worst  of  the  day,  until  a  lot  of  insubordi- 
nate Scotch  allies  rushed  out  of  his  line  of  battle  bent  on  an 
independent  attack  of  their  own.  Dunois  was  then  dragged 
into  a  very  different  kind  of  battle  in  which  he  could  no  longer 
use  his  artillery,  and  being  now  compelled  to  fight  at  close 
quarters  his  people  were  soon  completely  thrashed  by  the  stal- 
wart English  and  he  himself  was  wounded.  This  fight,  "  The 
Battle  of  the  Herrings,"  as  it  was  called  from  the  fact  that 
the  provisions  of  the  train  consisted  mainly  of  that  fishy  food 
(Lent  was  then  beginning),  renewed  the  hopes  and  courage  of 
the  English,  and  correspondingly  depressed  the  defenders  of 
Orleans. 

Reinforcements  were  constantly  arriving  for  both  besiegers 
and  besieged.  Some  3,000  soldiers  were  now  within  the  walls 
holding  their  own  against  23,000.  But  by  this  time  the  Earl 
of  Suffolk  had  succeeded  in  building  at  regular  intervals  around 
the  city  strong  redoubts,  called  bastilles,  wherein  his  men  were 
safely  lodged,  and  was  busily  engaged  in  connecting  them  with 


HEROIC  DEFENCE  OF  THE  CITY.  231 

lines  of  earthworks  to  complete  the  investment  of  the  city.  The 
early  spring  of  1429  found  matters  in  this  state:  the  English 
and  their  allies,  the  Burgundians,  being  strong  and  jubilant;  the 
French  well-nigh  starving  and  hopeless. 

Still  disdaining  to  surrender  to  the  hated  English,  yet  de- 
spairing of  aid  from  the  weakling  monarch  they  were  so  nobly 
serving,  Gaucour  and  Dunois  made  proposals  to  surrender  Or- 
leans to  their  countryman,  the  Duke  of  Burgundy.  That  noble- 
man went  at  once  to  Paris  and  laid  the  proposition  before  the 
English  regent,  the  Duke  of  Bedford,  who  made  so  rude  and 
discourteous  a  reply  that  Burgundy  went  back  in  disgust  and 
withdrew  all  his  troops  from  the  siege.  Still  the  English  had 
now  far  more  than  men  enough.  They  could  simply  take  their 
ease  in  the  trenches  and  starve  out  the  city.  Taking  it  by 
assault  was  no  longer  to  be  thought  of.  Never  was  walled 
town  more  heroically  defended.  The  few  attempts  that  Suffolk 
had  made  convinced  him  that  it  was  a  hornets'  nest  he  could  not 
tamper  with.  Impetuous  as  had  been  the  attack,  it  was  met 
with  wonderful  skill  and  spirit.  The  besieged  toppled  over  the 
scaling  ladders  and  sent  the  climbers,  stunned  and  bleeding, 
into  the  ditch;  rolled  huge  stones  down  upon  them;  threw  fire- 
pots  (something  like  the  modern  hand-grenade),  red-hot  bands 
of  iron,  buckets  of  scorching  ashes  and  brands,  kettles  of  boiling 
oil  or  water,  and  reserved  their  arrows  and  missiles  for  other 
purposes.  Even  the  women  of  the  city  aided  in  a  dozen  ways 
— some  even  using  long  lances  at  the  walls.  There  were  but 
few  troops,  as  we  know,  in  Orleans  at  this  time,  but  every  citizen 
became  an  active  defender.  Lord  Suffolk  had  captured  the 
outworks,  one  after  the  other,  but  had  made  no  impression  on  the 
walls.  His  guns  and  those  of  the  defenders  were  mainly  used 
against  life  and  limb.  The  cannon  of  the  days  prior  to  the  siege 
of  Constantinople  (1453)  nac^  not  proved  effective  against  solid 
masonry,  though  some  in  use  could  throw  stone  balls  of  100 
pounds ;  but  these  had  not  come  into  vogue  in  France. 

So  long  as  the  garrison  could  obtain  provisions  it  was  plain 
that  they  would  hold  out  against  him.  His  quickest,  safest  and 
best  plan  was  to  devote  all  his  energies  to  shutting  off  every 


232  ORLEANS. 

source  of  supply.  This  he  did,  but  not  so  effectually  as  to  pre- 
vent individuals  or  small  parties  from  slipping  through  from 
time  to  time.  Then,  too,  the  river  was  open,  and  there  was  con- 
stant communication  between  the  garrison  and  the  advisers  of 
Charles  at  Chinon. 

But  that  weak-spirited  youth  hail  by  this  time  abandoned  all 
hope.  He  had  determined  on  leaving  Orleans  to  its  fate  and 
seeking  refuge  for  himself  and  his  court  in  flight.  The  fortunes 
of  France  were  at  the  very  lowest  ebb.  Her  men  were  ex- 
hausted and  could  not  save  her.  Suddenly  three  women  came 
to  the  fore. 

Mary  of  Anjou,  wife  of  the  dauphin,  and  by  right  Queen  of 
France,  was  a  wise  and  far-seeing,  woman.  She  had  probably 
neither  respect  nor  love  for  her  husband,  but  she  had  for  France. 
Agnes  Sorel,  beautiful  and  accomplished,  the  acknowledged 
mistress  of  the  dauphin,  and  yet  living  in  all  amity  under  the 
same  roof  with  his  queen-wife,  was  as  devoted  to  her  native 
land.  In  hearty  accord,  in  this  matter  at  least,  this  strangely 
allied  pair  went  diligently  to  work  to  overthrow  their  pusillan- 
imous master's  determination — and  succeeded.  Had  he  fled,  all 
hope  would  have  abandoned  France  forever ;  but,  though  they 
could  not  tell  him  how  to  send  aid  to  Orleans,  they  made  him 
stand  his  ground,  and  in  doing  it,  Mary  of  Anjou  and  Agnes 
Sorel  anchored  the  cause  of  France,  at  the  instant  when  it  was 
drifting  upon  the  reefs  of  utter  destruction. 

But  who  was  to  turn  the  tide,  and  then  pilot  the  nation  back 
to  honor  and  prosperity?  Three  women,  we  have  said,  were 
the  appointed  instruments.  Who  was  the  third  ? 

Way  over  to  the  northeast,  in  what  is  now  German  territory, 
east  of  the  city  of  Nancy,  and  well  within  the  borders  of  peace- 
ful Lorraine,  lay  a  little  village — Domremy ;  and  few  modern 
maps  give  any  place  to  this  insignificant  hamlet,  the  birthplace 
and  early  home  of  the  greatest  heroine  of  military  history.  The 
world  knows  her  as  Joan  of  Arc,  her  parents  had  named  her 
simply  Jeannette.  Of  no  one  woman  has  more  been  written, 
said  and  sung.  She  has  been  the  theme  of  historians  for  four 
centuries.  Some  have  striven  to  rob  her  of  her  humblest  vir* 


JEANNE  OF  ARC  TO  THE  RESCUE.  233 

tues.  Some  have  idealized  her  as  a  saint.  Some  describe  her 
as  a  rude,  uncouth,  unsexed,  middle-aged  woman,  performing  all 
the  menial  stable-work  of  an  hostler  at  an  obscure  country- 
tavern.  Others  give  to  her  the  charms  of  early  youth,  of  mai- 
denly grace  and  intellectual  beauty,  and  deny  that  her  occupa- 
tion had  ever  been  anything  but  that  of  a  shepherdess.  But  one 
and  all  admit  that  truth,  virtue  and  courage  distinguished  her 
throughout  her  eventful  life.  It  is  hard  to  select  from  the  mass 
of  authority  the  just  estimate  of  her  character ;  but,  even  Eng- 
lish historians,  who  have  the  strongest  reasons  for  making  her 
out  anything  but  the  saint  others  would  have  us  believe,  admit 
the  utter  purity  of  her  martyred  life.  The  days  of  chivalry  were 
not  dead  in  England.  Never  was  woman  more  devotedly  wor- 
shipped, more  loyally  defended,  more  reverently  held  than 
under  knightly  Edward  the  Third,  when  noble  Philippa  of 
Hainault  shared  his  throne  and  commanded  the  homage  of  all 
manhood.  Yet  never  was  woman  more  brutally  insulted,  more 
hideously  tortured  than  humble  Joan  of  Arc  by  knights  and 
clergy  of  the  realm,  not  a  century  after  Philippa  had  taught 
them  to  revere  the  very  name  of  woman.  It  is  their  own  fault 
if  we  will  believe  her  as  the  French  believed  her :  all  youth,  all 
innocence,  all  perfect ;  and  there  are  not  lacking  writers  of  sturdy 
old  England,  who  gladly  yield  to  her  name  all  that  was  claimed 
for  it. 

Her  youth  had  been  all  piety  and  purity  of  soul ;  she  was 
marked  for  her  gentle  devotion  to  the  sick  and  the  distressed. 
She  was  known  by  her  devotion  to  the  services  of  the  church, 
the  fervor  of  her  religion.  Hours  of  her  every-day  life  were 
spent  in  the  open  fields,  her  only  companions  her  flocks  and  her 
trusty  dogs.  She  was  ever  dreamy,  emotional,  susceptible. 
Her  own  home  was  far  removed  from  the  track  of  war,  had 
escaped  all  ravages  ;  but  the  talk  of  all  comers  was  of  the  wrongs 
and  sufferings  of  France,  of  the  outrages  of  the  hated  English. 
She  could  think  of  nothing  else.  Angels  came  to  her  in  her 
dreams ;  heavenly  voices  spoke  to  her  at  her  daily  vigils ; 
visions  appeared  to  her  under  the  waving  trees :  all  exhorted 
her  to  go  to  the  rescue  of  France.  It  was  the  will  of  God  that 


234  ORLEANS. 

she  should  save  her  native  land.  How?  She  knew  not,  but 
heaven  would  guide,  and  go  she  must.  Then  came  tidings  of 
the  siege  of  Orleans,  of  the  desperate  straits  of  the  dauphin's 
party  to  whom  she  and  her  neighbors  were  devotedly  attached. 
Then  the  heavenly  voice  adjured  her  to  go  to  the  court,  assure 
the  young  king  that  God  himself  had  appointed  her  the  instru- 
ment by  means  of  which  the  English  should  be  driven  from 
France,  and  he,  the  king,  should  be  crowned  in  state  at  Rheims, 
whither  she  would  conduct  him. 

Despite  her  parents'  anger  she  left  her  home,  appeared  before 
the  French  commandant  at  Vaucouleurs,  where,  at  first  repulsed, 
she  won  upon  the  religious  feelings  of  the  soldier  to  such  an  ex- 
tent that,  on  his  own  responsibility,  though  urged  and  aided  by 
all  the  populace,  who  had  become  inspired  with  her  fervor,  he 
sent  her,  with  an  armed  escort,  the  long  journey  of  three  hun- 
dred miles  through  a  hostile  country  to  the  court  of  Charles, 
at  Chinon.  It  really  seemed  as  though  divine  influences  her- 
alded and  guarded  her  journey.  Her  fame  went  before  her, 
spread  like  wild-fire  over  the  land :  "A  virgin  comes  from  the 
East — a  virgin  sent  from  heaven  to  rescue  our  land  from  the 
destroyer."  Even  the  English  speedily  heard  the  rumors. 
Their  religion  was  the  same  as  that  of  the  French.  The  mi- 
raculous was  as  possible  in  the  minds  of  the  one  as  the  other, 
and  crowds  thronged  along  the  road,  and  stronger  grew  her 
escort  every  day. 

Arrived  at  Chinon,  she  was  admitted  to  speedy  audience  with 
the  well-nigh  hopeless  dauphin.  In  order  to  test  her  claims  to 
divine  guidance  and  inspiration,  all  of  which  had  preceded  her, 
it  was  arranged  that  she  should  be  summoned  before  a  crowded 
court ;  that  the  king  himself  should  appear  dressed  as  one  of  his 
nobles,  and  in  no  way  distinguishable  from  them  among  whom 
he  was  to  stand.  She  entered,  threw  one  quick  glance  around, 
then,  unhesitatingly,  singled  him  out,  stepped  quickly  to  him 
and  dropped  upon  her  knee. 

"  My  king,  heaven  sends  me  to  drive  the  English  from  your 
land,  and  to  lead  you  to  your  crown  at  Rheims,  for  you  are  to 
be  God's  vice-gerent  in  France." 


INTENSE   EXCITEMENT.  235 

Instantly  the  report  went  abroad  that  the  holy  maid  had  rec- 
ognized the  king  by  a  miracle ;  then,  that  she  had  demanded  a 
certain  sacred  sword,  kept  in  the  Church  of  St.  Catharine,  at 
Fierbois,  which  she  could  never  have  seen,  yet  accurately  de- 
scribed. Certain  it  is,  that  the  dauphin  was  amazed  at  her  con- 
fidence, her  zeal,  and  her  great  intelligence.  But  other  ordeals 
were  tried.  She  was  rigorously  questioned  by  the  clergy ;  then 
by  parliament  at  Poictiers ;  and  whether  she  succeeded  in  con- 
vincing these  learned  men  of  the  divinity  of  her  mission  or  not, 
it  is  beyond  question  that  the  impression  produced  was  most 
powerful.  Every  day  had  added  to  the  wonderful  story.  It 
had  flown  from  mouth  to  mouth,  growing  with  every  repetition, 
and  already  so  powerful  was  the  faith  of  the  people  that  here, 
indeed,  was  the  God-ordained  instrument  of  their  relief,  that 
king,  clergy,  parliament,  even  the  noble  dames  of  the  court 
united  in  an  enthusiastic  welcome.  Jeanne  la  Pucelle  became 
the  heroine  of  France. 

No  time  was  to  be  lost.  She  shrank  from  and  declined  all 
ovations  and  banquets  tendered  her.  She  spent  hours  in  soli- 
tary prayer  and  meditation  while  awaiting  the  day  on  which  she 
could  set  forth,  and  then,  clad  in  a  magnificent  suit  of  glistening 
white  armor,  and  mounted  on  a  spirited  black  charger,  she  left 
Chinon  for  the  camp  at  Blois. 

All  the  court  assembled  to  bid  her  God-speed ;  clergy  and 
nobles  crowded  to  her  side.  She  greeted  all  with  gentle,  modest 
grace ;  her  very  mien  was  purity ;  her  face,  unhelmeted,  shone 
with  intelligence  and  spirit ;  her  voice  was  low,  soft  and  grave, 
yet  she  sat  her  horse  with  the  consummate  ease  of  one  ever 
accustomed  to  the  saddle ;  perhaps  it  was  this  that  made  the 
English  call  her  hostler. 

At  Blois  had  been  gathered  a  little  remnant  of  an  army,  under 
Dunois  (now  recovered  of  his  wound),  La  Hire  and  Xaintrailles, 
and  with  this  force  it  was  arranged  that  the  Maid  should  march 
to  the  relief  of  Orleans,  now  wildly  impatient  for  her  coming. 
But  first  she  proceeded  to  organize  her  command.  All  military 
details  she  left  to  her  generals.  Her  sway  was  moral  from  the 
start.  All  abandoned  characters  were  ordered  from  the  camp. 


236  ORLEANS. 

Officers  and  soldiers  were  marched  to  confessional ;  gaming, 
foul  language  and  profanity  were  promptly  punished.  Chap- 
lains and  priests  were  assigned  to  the  army,  and  at  every  halt 
an  altar  was  set  up  and  the  sacrament  administered.  She  her- 
self spent  hours  in  prayer,  or  in  attentions  to  the  sick  and 
wounded. 

On  the  25th  of  April  the  Maid,  with  her  little  army  and  her 
own  brilliant  retinue,  which  the  dauphin  had  insisted  upon  her 
having,  set  out  from  Blois.  On  the  night  of  the  28th  she  was 
in  Orleans,  unopposed.  The  English  most  unaccountably  made 
no  attempt  to  stop  her,  and  their  negligence  is  only  explained 
by  their  chroniclers  by  the  statement  that  they  had  ceased 
scouting  the  neighborhood  some  time  before,  and  only  kept 
watch  on  the  town  itself;  and  further,  that  on  the  night  of  the 
28th  there  was  a  furious  rain-storm. 

Early  on  the  morning  of  April  29th,  with  Dunois  at  her  side, 
the  Holy  Maid  rode  through  the  crowded  streets  of  the  city. 
She  was  clad  in  her  brilliant  armor,  her  light  battle-axe  was  at 
her  side,  her  sacred  sword  hung  upon  her  left,  her  lance  was 
wielded  with  easy  grace,  while  before  her  was  borne  the  beautiful 
white  banner  which  soon  became  inseparable  from  her  every  move- 
ment. It  was  of  costly  satin,  richly  embroidered  in  gold  with 
fleur-de-lis,  and  bearing  the  words  "  JHESUS  MARIA."  Following 
in  her  train  were  her  chaplain,  her  esquires  and  heralds ;  and 
around  her,  pouring  from  every  house,  thronged  the  enthusiastic 
people.  They  knelt  about  her  as  she  addressed  them,  bidding 
them  be  of  good  cheer,  to  put  their  trust  in  God  who  would 
soon  deliver  them  from  their  enemies.  She  herself  then  rode 
directly  to  the  cathedral,  where  a  solemn  Te  Deum  was  chanted. 
This  was  the  woman  whom  the  English  were  now  execrating  as 
an  emissary  of  the  devil,  but  the  people  of  Orleans  believed  her 
an  angel  sent  from  heaven. 

And  now  came  the  time  for  action.  The  English  were 
astounded  at  the  news  of  her  presence  in  the  city,  and  for  a  few 
days  seemed  paralyzed.  Profiting  by  their  stupor,  the  Maid 
sent  word  to  hurry  in  some  needed  provision-trains,  and  they 
were  not  even  molested  by  the  besiegers.  An  old  prophecy 


"GO   IN   PEACE,  ENGLISHMEN."  237 

was  revived,  that  a  virgin  from  Lorraine  was  to  save  France ; 
and  the  English  were  to  the  full  as  superstitious  as  the  French. 

She  had  sent  written  messages  and  heralds  to  the  besiegers, 
calling  upon  them,  in  the  name  of  God,  to  give  up  the  cities  they 
had  taken,  and  to  fall  back  from  France ;  but  her  messages  were 
received  with  disdain.  Unwilling  to  shed  blood,  the  gentle 
woman  now  determined  to  make  a  personal  appeal  before  re- 
sorting to  arms. 

The  Tourelles  were  only  a  short  distance  from  the  southern- 
most ramparts  of  Orleans.  They  were  still  held  by  the  English. 
Indeed,  one  of  the  highest  chiefs'  and  noblest  of  their  knights, 
Sir  William  Gladsdale,  was  there  in  command.  The  ringing 
notes  of  a  trumpet  on  the  walls  of  Orleans,  sounding  a  parley, 
called  him  hastily  to  the  top  of  the  tower,  followed  by  many  of 
his  officers. 

On  the  opposite  battlement  there  appeared  a  slender  form, 
clad  in  spotless  armor,  and  the  uncovered  head,  with  its  long, 
jet  black  hair,  its  fair,  sweet  face,  was  that  of  a  woman.  All 
was  stilled  as  the  soft,  girlish  voice  came  floating  across  the 
ruined  bridge :  "  Go  in  peace,  Englishmen  ;  in  heaven's  name  I, 
Jeanne  la  Pucelle,  bid  you  go.  The  God  we  both  worship  warns 
you  to  leave  these  walls  and  France.  Safe  conduct  attends  you 
if  you  leave,  shame  and  woe  if  you  remain." 

Every  tone,  every  word  and  gesture  breathed  of  purity  and 
gentleness,  of  earnest  piety.  It  is  inconceivable  that  her  brief 
harangue  should  have  excited  aught  but  courtesy  and  respect, 
but  to  the  shame,  to  the  utter  disgrace  of  English  knighthood, 
Sir  William  himself  first  bade  her  go  back  to  the  stable  where 
she  belonged ;  then  added  words  so  foul,  so  full  of  brutal, 
beastly  insult,  that  in  amaze  and  shame  the  poor  girl  burst  into 
tears ;  and  then  the  other  English  gentlemen,  truckling  to  the 
example  of  their  leader,  burst  into  a  chorus  of  ribald  jests, 
under  which  she  sank  back  from  the  wall,  terrified  and  utterly 
overcome. 

There  was  no  more  thought  of  mediation.  Bidding  her  sol- 
diers  strike  hard  and  strike  home,  Joan  of  Arc  gave  the  word  to 
attack  the  most  available  point  on  the  English  line  of  circum- 


238  ORLEANS. 

vallation.  It  was  chosen  at  the  bastille  of  St.  Loup.  Dunois 
led  the  assault  in  person,  but,  wishing  to  spare  her,  had  not  noti- 
fied the  Maid  of  the  hour.  She  was  at  home — at  prayer,  when 
the  noise  of  the  conflict  reached  her.  She  instantly  ordered  her 
horse,  and  in  a  few  moments,  banner  in  hand,  was  spurring  to 
the  gates.  There  she  met  the  soldiers  streaming  back.  They 
had  been  sternly  repulsed  with  severe  loss,  but  at  sight  of  hef 
and  her  sacred  banner,  halted,  rallied  and,  led  on  by  the  Maid 
herself,  renewed  the  assault.  Superstition  must  have  unnerved 
the  garrison  of  St.  Loup  this  time,  for  it  was  taken  by  storm 
almost  instantly,  and  the  English  were  put  to  the  sword. 

Fancy  the  triumph,  the  wild  excitement,  the  renewed  adora- 
tion of  that  emotional  populace  at  this  marvellous  success.  The 
battle  once  over — her  first  battle-field — all  the  scene  of  carnage 
and  suffering  proved  too  much  for  the  gentle  nature  of  the  girl, 
She  is  said  to  have  fainted  at  the  sight  of  the  pools  of  blood, 
and  to  have  spent  the  entire  night  in  prayers  for  the  souls  of  the 
stain. 

Two  days  afterward  Dunois  and  La  Hire,  with  a  strong  at- 
tacking force,  suddenly  crossed  the  Loire  in  boats  and,  with  the 
Holy  Maid  again  leading,  charged  and  carried  by  escalade  the 
two  strong  bastilles  of  St.  Jean  de  Blanc  and  Augustius.  This 
time  there  was  no  repulse  at  all,  but  the  Maid  was  slightly 
wounded  in  the  heel.  Again  the  enthusiasm  of  the  soldiers  was 
unbounded.  The  Tourelles  was  now  the  only  fortification  held 
by  the  English  south  of  the  Loire,  but  it  was  by  far  the  strong- 
est and  most  difficult  of  assault,  yet  it  was  determined  to  strike 
while  the  iron  was  hot,  and  before  it  could  be  reinforced. 

At  daybreak  on  the  /th  of  May,  a  selected  body  of  troops,  all 
of  whom  had  attended  mass  and  confessional  and  received  abso- 
lution, were  ferried  across  the  Loire.  They  numbered  about 
2,500,  and  were  led  by  La  Pucelle  herself.  In  a  few  moments 
they  had  surrounded  the  tete-du-pont  which,  with  the  Tourelles, 
was  held  by  Gladsdale  and  the  very  best  and  bravest  of  the 
English  army.  Here  ensued  a  terrible  battle,  both  sides  fight- 
ing with  determined  valor,  the  Holy  Maid  leading  on  her  men 
and  cheering  them  with  her  words. 


JOAN   OF   ARC   WOUNDED. 


THE   MAID   WOUNDED.  239 

Attempting  to  scale  the  wall  by  means  of  a  ladder,  she  became 
the  mark  of  an  English  archer,  who,  bending  over,  sent  an  arrow 
whizzing  into  her  shoulder.  Bleeding,  stricken,  faint,  she  reeled 
and  fell  backward  into  the  ditch,  and  a  terrible  panic  seized  the 
French.  With  wild  cheering  the  word  was  passed  among  the 
English  that  the  Maid  was  killed,  and  a  rush  was  made  to  obtain 
her  body.  But  in  their  retreat  the  French  had  borne  her  with 
them  far  to  the  rear,  where  presently  she  revived,  and  with  her 
own  hands  drew  out  the  arrow.  Then,  smiling  despite  her  pain, 
she  bade  them  rest,  eat  and  drink,  and  be  ready  to  renew  the 
attack,  for,  said  she,  "  By  my  God!  you  shall  soon  enter  there." 
Then  after  a  while,  with  her  banner  before  her,  she  led  them  to  a 
new  assault,  assuring  them  that  the  instant  that  banner  touched 
the  wall  they  would  scale  the  parapet.  The  English,  aghast  at 
her  apparent  resurrection,  made  a  fainter  resistance.  Then  fresh 
troops  from  within  the  city  laid  planks  across  the  broken  arches 
of  the  bridge  and  assailed  the  Tourelles  from  the  north.  Joan 
with  her  banner  touched  the  southern  wall  and  the  garrison, 
unable  to  defend  both  sides  at  once,  gave  way.  The  French 
swarmed  up  the  scaling  ladders,  Joan  among  the  foremost,  and 
the  first  man  she  met  was  the  knight  commander  who  had  so 
foully  insulted  her.  He  was  hastening  back  from  the  bridge- 
head to  the  defence  of  the  Tourelles,  when  she  with  her  men 
came  pouring  over  the  wall.  "  Surrender  to  heaven,"  she  cried  ; 
"  you  have  cruelly  wronged  me,  but  I  pity  your  soul.  Sur- 
render— "  but  at  that  instant  a  cannon  shot  carried  away  the 
planking  beneath  his  feet.  Stunned  and  helpless  he  fell  into  the 
dark  waters  underneath,  and  the  brave  Sir  William  Gladsdale,  as 
staunch  and  valiant  a  soldier  as  England  ever  sent  forth,  and  as 
true  a  knight  until  he  stained  his  lips  with  that  foul  retort, 
drowned  like  a  cur  in  sight  of  the  woman  he  had  insulted. 

And  now  with  Les  Tourelles  once  more  their  own,  all  Orleans 
went  wild  with  joy.  Services  were  held  in  all  the  churches.  It 
was  as  much  as  the  gentle  Maid  could  do  to  prevent  the  over- 
joyed people  from  worshipping  her  as  they  would  a  saint.  Bon- 
fires, illuminations,  and  even  a  banquet  were  indulged  in. 
Couriers  were  sent  off  to  Charles  at  Chinon  with  the  glorious 


240  ORLEANS. 

tidings.  Even  were  strong  reinforcements  to  come  to  the  Eng- 
lish now — what  mattered  it?  Under  her  divine  leadership 
Orleans  could  overthrow  the  world. 

But  it  was  a  bitter  night  in  the  English  camp.  All  was  dread, 
all  was  vague  uneasiness.  Superstitious  fears  were  aroused. 
Supernatural  powers  were  in  league  with  France,  said  the 
soldiers,  and  they  had  lost  all  heart.  Talbot,  their  best  and 
bravest  leader  on  the  northern  side,  urged  a  retreat,  and  early 
on  the  morrow,  to  the  joy  of  Orleans,  the  last  English  forts  were 
seen  in  flames,  and  their  armies  slowly  falling  back  to  the  north- 
ward. Eagerly  the  soldiers  clamored  to  be  led  in  pursuit,  but 
the  Maid  refused.  It  was  Sunday.  They  were  allowed  to  gov 
in  peace,  while  she  and  her  followers  rendered  humble  thanks 
to  God  for  their  great  deliverance.  The  siege  of  Orleans  was 
raised. 

And  now  the  wave  of  English  invasion  that  had  threatened 
to  engulf  all  France  had  first  been  broken  on  the  banks  of  the 
Loire  and  then  began  to  recede.  Six  thousand  gallant  men  had 
been  sacrificed  around  the  walls  of  the  old  city  and  all  in  vain. 
The  haughtiest  nation  on  earth  was  falling  back  before  a  woman. 
It  was  all  very  well  to  say  that  God  or  the  devil  was  at  her  back. 
She  was  their  conqueror,  and  they  could  make  no  stand  against 
soldiers  led  by  that  mystical  white  banner.  Following  rapidly 
she  again  defeated  them  at  Jergean,  where,  though  knocked 
senseless  for  a  moment,  she  never  left  the  fight,,  and  found  as 
her  chief  prisoner  the  high-born  Earl  of  Suffolk,  late  com- 
mander of  the  besiegers  of  Orleans.  Then  came  the  recapture 
of  Troyes.  Then  a  superb  victory  in  open  field  at  Patay,  on  the 
1 8th  of  June  (how  the  English  paid  it  back  on  that  same  day 
of  that  same  month  at  Waterloo).  Here  two  more  splendid 
soldiers,  Talbot  and  Scales,  became  her  prisoners,  while  a  third, 
Sir  John  Fastolffe,  charged  with  leading  the  retreat  by  his  irate 
monarch,  was  deprived  for  a  time  of  that  dearly  prized  honor 
awarded  in  those  days  only  to  twenty-five  of  the  most  valiant 
soldiers  of  the  realm — the  Order  of  the  Garter. 

And  now  the  Maid  of  Orleans,  as  she  has  ever  since  been 
called,  returned  to  the  dauphin  whom  she  had  so  eminently  and 


THE   KING   CROWNED.  241 

faithfully  served.  One-half  her  promise  to  him  had  been 
redeemed  within  three  months — the  complete  relief  of  Orleans. 
She  had  still  to  see  him  crowned  at  Rheims,  and  within  another 
three  months  this,  too,  was  accomplished. 

With  pomp  and  ceremony  and  all  the  sacred  rites  of  the 
Romish  Church,  with  the  Holy-  Maid  and  her  blessed  banner 
by  his  side,  this  man  born  and  made  and  saved  of  women  was 
anointed  King  of  France,  Defender  of  the  Faith  ;  and  Joan  of 
Arc,  kneeling  before  him  and  embracing  his  royal  and  shaky 
knees,  shed  tears  of  pure  and  humble  joy  at  this  consummation 
of  her  great  mission.  No  doubt  of  its  genuineness  ever  entered 
her  mind.  It  was  accomplished,  and  now  in  all  humility  she 
begged  permission  to  lay  aside  her  warlike  garb,  and  return  to 
her  rustic  home,  her  peaceful  avocations  and  her  prayers. 

But  they  would  not  let  her  go.  France  was  not  yet  free.  The 
hated  Duke  of  Bedford  still  held  Paris,  and  strong  forces  of 
English  were  in  Normandy.  All  neighboring  France  hastened 
to  avow  its  allegiance  to  fortunate  King  Charles  the  Seventh, 
and  large  armies  were  being  gathered  to  drive  out  the  de- 
tested islanders.  No  !  the  Maid  of  Orleans  must  complete  the 
work  she  had  so  admirably  begun,  and  royal  would  be  her 
reward. 

And  so,  as  though  still  hearing  her  Heavenly  Voices,  she  went 
back  to  the  army,  served  bravely  and  zealously  in  the  attack  of 
several  strong  places,  was  severely  wounded  before  the  walls  of 
Paris,  and  then  the  army  of  King  Charles,  mostly  volunteers, 
concluded  to  disband  and  go  home  while  the  forces  of  Bedford 
and  the  Burgundians  were  gaining  strength.  At  Compeigne  the 
wounded  Maid  was  taken  prisoner  by  the  exultant  Burgundians, 
who  not  knowing  exactly  what  to  do  with  her,  sold  her  for 
lavish  English  gold  to  the  Duke  of  Bedford. 

Some  black  deeds  of  wrong  and  oppression  have  stained  the 
fair  fame  of  the  great  English  nation,  but  blackest,  foulest  of  all, 
was  the  humiliation,  the  ignominy,  the  indignities,  indecencies, 
suffering,  trial,  tortures  and  death  at  the  stake  to  which  this  poor, 
stricken,  friendless  girl  was  condemned  by  them.  They  carried 
her  to  Rouen — far  from  possible  rescue,  even  had  the  craven  king 
16 


242 


ORLEANS. 


she  made, dare  attempt  such  a  thing,  and  he  failed  her  utterly; 
he  never  so  much  as  made  the  feeblest  protest.  She  had  been  an 
honorable,  chivalrous,  merciful  enemy.  England  loaded  her 
with  chains  and  curses ;  denied  her  the  rites  of  the  church 
that  was  her  life,  and  burned  her  to  death  in  the  market-place 
at  Rouen,  May  30,  1431.  So  perished  the  Maid  of  Orleans. 

After  this  it  is  pleasing  to  record  that  the  cause  of  England  in 
France  went  rapidly  to  pieces.  They  were  whipped  on  several 
fields.  The  Duke  of  Bedford  died  the  following  September,  and 
their  hold  on  all  points  south  of  the  channel  was  soon  lost  to 
them  entirely. 


MONUMENT  TO  JOAN  OF  ARC  IN  ROUEN. 

(Erected  on  the  spot  where  she  was  burnt.) 


CONSTANTINOPLE. 

1453- 

.OUNDED,  as  is  believed,  almost  on  the  site 
of  ancient  Byzantium,  which  itself  was  three 
times  besieged,  the  city  of  Constantinople 
occupies,  from  a  military  or  strategical 
standpoint,  a  position  which  is  unrivalled 
in  its  importance.  There  is-  no  scope  in 
these  merely  descriptive  sketches  for  a  dis- 
cussion of  its  vast  political  value.  The 
"  Eastern  Question  "  is  one  which  the  states- 
men of  Europe  will  probably  wrangle  over  until  the  millennium  ; 
but  the  western  powers  of  Europe  have  always  jealously  watched 
any  and  every  attempt  on  the  part  of  Russia  to  possess  herself 
of  the  key  to  the  straits  of  the  Bosphorus.  When  told  that  his 
once  ally  and  sworn  friend,  the  Tsar  Alexander  of  Russia,  de- 
sired to  gain  it,  Napoleon  the  Great  excitedly  sprang  to  his  feet, 
saying,  "Constantinople!  Never — it  is  the  empire  of  the  world." 
For  all  time  since,  it  has  seemed  far  better  to  let  this  historic 
city  remain  in  the  hands  of  the  infidel  Turks  than  that  Russia 
should  have  it ;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  Russia  would  never 
consent  to  its  becoming  the  property  of  any  western  power  of 
Europe. 

Naturally  this  valuable  position  has  been  the  scene  of  frequent 
and  desperate  fighting.  Beside  the  three  sieges  of  ancient 
Byzantium,  history  tells  us  of  no  less  than  five  similar  afflictions 
that  have  fallen  on  the  modern  city,  the  once  proud  capital  of 
the  Eastern  Empire  of  Rome,  the  seat  and  court  of  the  first 
Christian  Emperor  Constantine.  The  savage  Huns  assailed  it 
in  559,  but  were  terribly  beaten  by  the  great  soldier  Belisarius. 

(243) 


244  CONSTANTINOPLE. 

An  Asiatic  tribe  assailed  it  in  670  and  were  beaten  back  with 
loss.  Repeating  the  experiment  two  years  later,  they  were  even 
more  roughly  handled.  Then  in  1203  came  the  great  siege  of 
the  Crusaders  during  their  fifth  attempt  upon  the  strongholds  of 
the  Saracens.  But  greatest  of  all,  most  important,  most  lasting 
in  its  results,  was  the  fifth  siege  of  Constantinople  proper,  and 
this  is  the  one  which  it  is  proposed  briefly  here  to  describe. 
It  was  the  siege  of  1453. 

For  eight  hundred  years  the  followers  of  the  prophet  under 
their  many  titles,  Mussulmans,  Saracens,  Mohammedans,  even 
those  of  infidels,  or,  briefly,  Turks,  had  been  waging  war  against 
the  Christian  nations  of  Europe.  Sometimes  attacking,  some- 
times defending,  they  had  at  last  succeeded  in  establishing  them- 
selves firmly  in  northern  Africa,  western  Asia,  and  portions  of 
Turkey  in  Europe,  and  were  now  in  a  position  to  resume  the 
offensive.  Their  first  aim  was  Constantinople,  which  they  had 
been  eagerly  watching  for  years. 

The  once  proud  capital  was  in  a  state  of  decline.  It  had  still 
an  immense  population,  but  its  vigor  was  gone.  It  was  no 
longer  the  heart  of  the  Eastern  Empire.  It  stood  now  on  the 
outer  edge  of  Christendom,  a*  great  walled  city,  still  presided 
over  by  an  emperor  bearing  the  same  name  as  him  who  founded 
it ;  but  Roman  energy,  manhood,  wisdom,  all  seemed  gone ;  an 
indolent,  sensual  and  dreamy  race  had  grown  up  in  place  of 
the  old  populace.  They  were  now  mainly  Greeks,  and  a  Greek 
form  of  the  Catholic  religion  had  taken  root  in  Constantinople, 
which  soon  resulted  in  the  establishment  of  the  Greek  Church 
as  opposed  to  that  of  Rome. 

Finding  from  the  preparations  of  the  Turks  all  along  the 
straits  of  the  Bosphorus  and  the  Dardanelles  as  well  as  to  the 
west,  that  trouble  threatened  his  exposed  capital,  the  Emperor 
Constantine  sent  to  Rome  for  aid.  He  had  as  a  garrison  five 
or  six  thousand  utterly  unreliable  soldiers,  taken  from  the  very 
dregs  of  the  people.  He  received  some  support,  it  is  true,  from 
a  small  contingent  of  European  troops  under  the  Genoese  Jus- 
tinian, but  these  were  all  the  defenders  he  could  call  upon  for 
a  population  utterly  incapable  of  defending  itself.  Presently  he 


BESIEGED   BY   SULTAN   MOHAMMED    II.  245 

learned  that  the  Turks  were  building  a  formidable  castle  on  the 
Bosphorus,  and,  still  more  alarmed,  he  called  upon  his  wealthy 
men  to  subscribe  funds  for  raising  troops  and  putting  the  walls 
and  armament  in  a  condition  for  defence,  but  the  easy-going 
Greeks  would  not  rouse  themselves  to  any  effort.  Rome  would 
help  them  out,  they  said,  and  a  grand  crusade  would  be  inau- 
gurated in  their  defence.  Cardinal  Isidore  hastened  from  Rome  to 
look  into  the  situation.  A  union  of  the  two  churches  was  sug- 
gested as  a  preliminary  move.  The  cardinal  held  service  in  the 
Church  of  St.  Sophia  according  to  the  ritual  of  Rome,  and  the 
whole  population  stormed  at  him  with  abuse.  He  had  come  to 
help  them,  but  they  declared  they  would  rather  see  the  infidels 
in  St.  Sophia  than  the  hat  of  a  Romish  cardinal. 

Naturally,  no  help  came  from  Rome  after  that,  and  Con- 
stantinople was  left  to  fight  her  own  battle.  It  came  soon 
enough. 

Sultan  Mohammed  II.  was  at  the  head  of  the  great  Mussul- 
man nation,  with  his  capital  at  Adrianople.  He  had  spent  two 
years  in  preparation,  and  now,  with  400,000  men,  he  marched 
upon  the  doomed  capital.  Most  of  these  troops  were  nothing 
but  slaves,  newly  conquered  people,  for  whom  he  had  use,  as 
will  be  seen.  His  reliable  soldiers  were  some  30,000  light  cav- 
alry and  60,000  foot.  With  these  he  brought  the  most  ponder- 
ous and  powerful  artillery  the  world  had  yet  seen.  The  Greeks 
had  refused  employment  to  a  Hungarian,  who  had  offered  to 
build  gun-carriages  and  manufacture  cannon  for  them ;  so  he 
went  further,  -and  found  an  eager  patron  in  Mohammed,  The 
sultan  asked  him  if  he  could  make  a  gun  powerful  enough  to 
breach  the  walls  of  Constantinople,  which  were  of  solid  masonry. 
Assured  that  he  could,  orders  were  given  at  once.  A  foundry 
was  established  at  Adrianople,  and  the  most  extraordinary  gun 
ever  known  was  turned  out  in  three  months.  "  Its  bore  was 
twelve  palms,  and  it  was  capable  of  throwing  a  ball  or  stone 
weighing  six  hundred  pounds."  When  it  was  tested,  notifica- 
tion was  sent  all  over  the  neighboring  country,  so  as  to  prevent 
panic.  The  explosion  shook  up  everything  within  a  radius  of 
twenty  miles,  and  the  ball  was  thrown  over  a  mile  and  buried 


246  CONSTANTINOPLE. 

itself  deep  in  the  ground.  Thirty  wagons  linked  together 
formed  the  travelling-carriage  of  this  monster;  sixty  horses 
drew  it,  and  two  hundred  men  walked  by  its  sides  to  keep  it 
from  rolling  off.  Two  hundred  and  fifty  men  went  before  to 
clear  and  level  the  way,  and  it  took  two  months  to  drag  it  one 
hundred  and  fifty  miles. 

Besides  this  Goliath  of  a  gun,  the  Hungarian  cast  for  the  sul- 
tan several  smaller  ones,  what  we  would  call  two-hundred 
pounders,  for  such  was  the  weight  of  the  shot  they  threw.  It 
was  with  an  immensely  powerful  siege-train,  therefore,  that  he 
appeared  before  the  walls  of  Constantinople,  marching  so  as  to 
completely  encircle  them  by  land. 

At  the  same  time  his  fleet  appeared  at  the  Dardanelles — two 
hundred  and  fifty  sail ;  and  though  great  iron  chains  barred  their 
way,  it  is  affirmed  that,  with  a  degree  of  energy  and  engineering 
skill  that  proved  a  complete  surprise  to  the  Christians,  he  suc- 
ceeded in  one  night  in  drawing  eighty  of  his  vessels  around  the 
chains  and  launching  them  above.  It  took  six  miles  of  greased 
planks  and  an  immense  force  of  men,  but  the  feat  was  accom- 
plished, and  on  the  following  day  the  galleys  were  floating  in 
the  harbor  of  Constantinople. 

And  now,  while  his  army  hemmed  in  the  city  from  the  west,  and 
his  fleet  anchored  under  the  walls  on  the  side  of  the  Bosphorus, 
the  young  sultan  (he  was  only  twenty-three)  set  to  work  build- 
ing his  breaching  batteries.  For  the  first  time  in  military  his- 
tory solid  masonry  was  to  be  made  to  crumble  under  the  mis- 
siles of  the  artillery.  The  siege  was  opened  about  the  second 
week  in  April,  and  by  the  end  of  that  month  every  point  of  the 
walls,  some  twelve  miles  in  circumference,  was  covered  by  the 
enclosing  lines. 

Small  as  was  the  garrison,  Constantine  was  brave.  The 
Genoese  leader,  Gian  Justiniani,  was  a  skilled  soldier,  and  his 
two  thousand  countrymen  proved  worth  their  weight  in  gold. 
The  Turks  built  batteries  on  the  side  of  the  Bosphorus,  but  it 
was  a  long  time  before  they  got  their  guns  into  position;  mean- 
time they  resorted  to  the  expedient  of  mining  and  blowing-  up 
the  walls,  but  here  they  were  foiled  by  the  vigilance  of  the 


A   GENERAL  ASSAULT  ORDERED.  247 

Greeks.  Once  thoroughly  convinced  of  their  danger,  the  people 
seem  to  have  behaved  for  a  time  with  great  spirit.  They  confi- 
dently expected  the  coming  of  a  relieving  army  from  Hungary, 
under  Hunyadi.  Countermines  were  dug,  the  Turks  driven  off; 
vigorous  sorties  were  made  in  the  night  time,  and  so  well  did 
they  fight  that,  it  is  said,  Mohammed  at  one  time  seriously 
thought  of  giving  up  the  project 

By  this  time,  however,  the  siege-guns  were  well  at  work,  and, 
being  planted  only  a  short  distance  away  from  the  walls,  began 
to  knock  huge  breaches  into  the  masonry.  Mohammed,  there- 
fore, determined  not  to  go  without  one  grand  effort.  First, 
however,  he  proposed  terms  to  Constantine. 

Ever  since  1366  the  Turks  had  virtually  held  all  the  country 
around  Constantinople  and  up  the  valleys  of  the  Danube  to  the 
borders  of  Hungary.  Adrianople,  on  the  Maritza,  about  one 
hundred  miles  west  of  the  Bosphorus,  was  their  great  city.  "  I 
desire  to  spare  Constantinople,"  was  the  sultan's  message  to  the 
emperor.  "  Bombardment  and  assault  can  only  result  in  its 
utter  destruction.  Give  up  to  me  the  Peloponnesus  and  I  will 
raise  the  siege  and  leave  you  and  your  capital  in  peace." 

Constantine  replied  that  he  would  rather  be  buried  in  its 
ruins ;  and  a  general  assault  was  ordered  for  the  following  day. 

There  were  some  twenty  gates  to  be  defended  besides  the 
breaches  that  had  been  made  in  the  walls,  and  the  garrison  well 
knew  that  it  would  call  for  all  their  strength  and  valor.  Both 
Christian  and  infidel  prepared  themselves  by  religious  ceremo- 
nies for  the  ordeal,  and  at  three  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  the 
29th  of  May  the  grand  attack  began. 

It  was  the  custom  of  the  Turks  to  send  in  their  prisoners  of 
war  in  large  numbers  among  the  first  assailants  of  a  fortified 
position.  Not,  of  course,  prisoners  from  the  people  whom  they 
were  then  fighting,  but  those  of  other  nations  or  tribes  brought 
from  a  distance.  The  theory  was  that,  inspired  by  promises  of 
liberty  and  reward  if  they  were  successful,  and  closely  watched 
to  prevent  treachery,  these  poor  creatures  would  fight  desper- 
ately. If  they  succeeded,  well  and  good;  the  Turks  would 
then  pour  in  unopposed  upon  their  tracks.  If  they  failed,  the 


248  CONSTANTINOPLE. 

Turks  sustained  no  loss,  and  the  dead  bodies  served  to  fill  up 
the  ditches  and  moats,  while  the  garrison  itself  must  be  more  or 
less  wearied  by  its  efforts,  and  therefore  all  the  less  able  to  with- 
stand a  genuine  attack  hours  later. 

Some  200,000  of  these  involuntary  volunteers  seem  to  have 
been  employed,  therefore,  on  this  assault  in  force,  beginning  at 
the  earliest  peep  of  day  on  that  warm  May  morning.  For 
hours  the  savage  battle  raged ;  the  ships  and  sailors  and  the 
guns  on  the  Bosphorus  side  making  vigorous  play  to  keep  the 
garrison  occupied  while  the  main  attack  went  on  north,  west 
and  south.  Driven  in  to  the  assault,  with  whip  and  sword,  the 
poor  "  allies  "  were  butchered  front  and  rear.  AH  the  merciless 
engines  of  defence  that  had  been  conspicuous  at  Acre  and  at  Or- 
leans were  employed  against  them,  while  the  stern  Janissaries, 
out  of  harm's  way  themselves,  kept  prodding  them  on.  An  in- 
credible number  were  killed,  and  the  faint-hearted  attack  was 
unsuccessful. 

But  it  had  weaned  the  defenders,  and  now  while  the  day  was 
still  young  the  trumpets  rang  out  the  signal  for  the  grand  as- 
sault. Nearly  100,000  fresh  and  disciplined  troops  formed  for 
the  attack ;  the  great  guns  thundered  their  last  salute  to  the 
walls,  the  huge  stones  crashing  in  among  the  rocks  and  timbers, 
sending  splinters  flying  in  every  direction  and  raising  great 
clouds  of  dust ;  the  lighter  guns  swept  the  walls  of  their  de- 
fenders, and  then,  under  cover  of  the  cannonade,  the  Mussulman 
lines  rushed  in.  Some  headed  for  the  now  bloody  and  corpse- 
strewn  gaps  in  the  walls ;  others  boldly  advanced  with  scaling 
ladders.  It  was  the  last  chance  for  Constantine,  and  he  himself 
fought  foremost  at  the  main  breach  against  which  came  the 
brunt  of  the  attack.  The  few  guns  of  the  city  that  could  be 
brought  to  bear  dealt  havoc  among  the  dense  masses  of  the 
Turks,  but  they  could  not  be  worked  fast  enough.  Fire-balls, 
burning  timbers,  rocks  and  ashes  were  hurled  down  on  the  as- 
sailants. Darts,  arrows  and  lances  whizzed  through  the  breaches 
at  the  attacking  columns,  but  those  fiery,  fate-impelled  Janissaries 
stopped  for  nothing.  The  sultan  had  promised  that  the  first 
man  over  the  walls  should  be  made  a  pasha  and  that  bravery 


THE   CITY   TAKEN  AND   PILLAGED.  249 

should  be  rewarded.  He  had  promised  the  pillage  of  the  entire 
city  to  his  army,  bidding  them  spare  only  the  fine  public  build- 
ings. There  was  every  incitement  for  the  brutal  Mussulman 
soldiery,  and  at  last  a  body  of  Janissaries  succeeded  in  reaching 
the  top  of  the  wall.  The  people  made  a  rush  to  drive  them 
back  and  hurl  them  into  the  ditch,  but  they  clung  to  the  ground 
like  bull-dogs,  while  others  of  their  comrades  swarmed  up  the 
ladders  to  their  support.  Soon  they  were  able  to  dash  in  with 
their  scimitars  upon  the  ill-armed  inhabitants  who  confronted 
them,  and  a  few  moments  more  had  sent  them  fleeing  in  terror 
through  the  streets.  Fast  as  the  Janissaries  poured  over  the  wall 
at  this  point  their  officers  led  them  right  and  left  to  attack  the 
gate-guards  in  rear,  and  speedily  through  half  a  dozen  ports 
thus  won,  the  Mussulman  soldiery  came  swarming.  The  flag  of 
the  Crescent  was  raised  on  the  walls,  and,  catching  sight  of  this, 
the  sailors  of  the  fleet  redoubled  their  energies,  and  soon  suc- 
ceeded in  scaling  a  high  tower  on  the  harbor  side.  Then  Con- 
stantine,  looking  about  him  in  wild  despair,  saw  that  all  was  over 
with  his  capital.  The  people  who  would  not  heed  his  warnings 
were  doomed  to  a  terrible  fate.  He  threw  himself  among  the 
defenders  at  the  nearest  gate,  'and  bravely,  desperately  fighting, 
there  received  his  death-wound,  just  as  Zagan  Pasha  with  his 
sailors  came  swarming  over  the  eastern  wall.  The  Empire  of  the 
East,  which  had  existed  eleven  hundred  and  forty-three  years, 
went  down  with  Constantine,  for  in  half  an  hour  the  Turk  was 
master  of  the  capital. 

Of  the  horrors  that  followed  it  is  useless  to  speak.  Resisting 
men  were  butchered ;  others  simply  herded  into  slave-pens  for 
the  time  being.  Women  were  everywhere  given  up  to  outrage 
or  death  ;  children  were  slain  as  useless  and  in  the  way.  Pillage, 
plunder  and  rapine  ran  riot  for  the  promised  three  days  and 
nights,  then  Mohammed  sternly  bade  it  cease.  Riding  through 
the  blood-stained  streets  on  his  white  charger,  he  himself  re- 
stored order  and  discipline.  Those  prominent  citizens  who  had 
escaped  with  their  lives  were  brought  before  him,  and,  to  their 
amaze,  were  sent  back  to  their  homes  to  build  up  anew  their 
fortunes  under  Mussulman  protection.  To  many,  restoration  was 


250 


CONSTANTINOPLE. 


made  of  such  of  their  property  as  could  be  identified  in  the  spoil. 
To  all,  Mohammed  held  out  inducements  to  remain  and  restore 
the  commerce  and  prosperity  of  the  great  city  which  he  assured 
them  was  to  be  made  his  capital.  Even  their  religion,  it  was 
promised,  should  be  left  them,  and  in  this  way  the  conqueror 
succeeded  in  re-establishing  almost  immediately  the  arts  of  peace 
in  the  great  city  he  had  won. 

Forty  thousand  men  perished  in  the  siege.  Sixty  thousand 
among  the  poorer  inhabitants  were  made  prisoners  and  driven 
off  to  do  elsewhere  the  work  of  the  Mussulmans.  Masters  of 
Asia  and  Africa,  they  had  now  won  the  proudest  capital  of  East- 
ern Europe,  the  command  of  the  gateway  to  the  Black  Sea,  the 
shores  of  southern  Russia  and  the  mouth  of  the  Danube.  Of 
all  their  conquests  this  was  the  most  important  and  most  lasting, 
for  it  endures  to  this  day,  and  well  might  the  young  sultan  be 
named,  as  he  was  then  named,  Mohammed  Bujuk — The  Great. 


SIEGE  OF  CONSTANTINOPLE. 


Plate  III. — Arms  and  Accoutrements 


to  i8th  Centuries. 


i.   Pistolet,  i8th  Century. 

25,  26.   Cavalry    Casque,     isth 

46.  Hand  Grenade. 

2.  Carbine,  I7th         " 

Century. 

47.  BombShell. 

3.   Espingole. 
4.  Matchlock  Gun. 

27.  Hussar  Cap,  i8th  Century. 
28.  Chasseur  Cap,  i8th     " 

48.  Prussian  Cannon,  i8th  Cen- 
tury. 

5.  Gun  Rest. 

29.  Sappeur  Cap,      ' 

49.   Priming  Rod. 

6.   Marrocain. 

30.  Russian  Grenadier  Cap,  1  8th 

50,  51,  52.  War  Rockets. 

7.  Flint  Lock,  i8th  Century. 
8.   Battle-Axe. 

Century. 
31.  French      Headpiece,      isth 

53.  54.  55-  Storming  Pikes. 
56.   Danish  Cannon,  year  1713. 

0.  Hussite  Mace. 

Century. 

57.  Powder  Cask. 

10.  Lance. 

32.  Shako. 

58.  Swiss  Cannon,  isth  Cent'y. 

11.  Hussite  Mace. 

33.  Loading  Shovel. 

59.  English  Howitzer,  i8th  " 

12.  Halberd. 

34.  Wiper. 

60.  Halberdier,  isth               " 

13.  Hussite  Mace. 

35.  Ramrod. 

61,  62,  63.    Swords,    isth    and 

14.  Halberd. 

36.   Priming  Fork. 

i6th  Centuries. 

T5.  Battle-Axe. 
16.  Cabasset,  i6th  Century. 

37.  German    i2-Pounder,    year 
1650. 

64.  Bayonet,  i8th  Century. 
65.  Armor,  isth        -  " 

17.  Italian  Hat,  i8th     " 

38.   Herisson. 

66.  Powder  Flask. 

18.  Hessian  Cap,  i8th  " 

39.  Mortar,  i6th  Century. 

67.  Bullet  Mould. 

19.  Cabasset,  isth          " 

40.    Round  Shot. 

68.  Powder  Flask. 

20.  Polish  Hat,  i8th     "                i  41.  Shrapnel  Shot. 

69,  70,  71.  Sword,  i7th  and  i8th 

21.  Dragoon  Hat.                              42.   Fire  Ball. 

Centuries. 

22.  Cossack  Cap,  i8th  Century.     43.  Chain  Shot. 

72.  Sabre. 

23.  Swiss  Infantry  Hat.                   44.  Bar         " 

73.  Spanish   Arquebusier,    i6th 

24.  English  Cavalier  Hat. 

45.  Round  " 

Century. 

PLATE   III.   ARMS   AND   ACCOUTREMENTS  15TH   TO  18TH   CENTURIES. 
(Famous  and  Decisive  Battles.) 


LEIPSIC. 


1631. 

HE  THIRTY  YEARS'  WAR  comes  next  in 
chronological  order  on  the  list  of  great  events 
in  military  history.  It  began  in  a  religious 
struggle,  originally  between  the  German 
Protestants  and  their  Roman  Catholic  country- 
men. Austria  and  Spain  were  gradually 
drawn  in  on  the  Catholic  side  and  were  allies 
throughout,  generally  under  the  name  of  the 
Imperialists,  against 'various  antagonists.  It 
began  in  1618  and  lasted  until  1648,  and  during  that  time  some 
of  the  most  illustrious  names  in  soldierly  chronicles  achieved 
their  greatest  prominence  and  their  undying  renown.  Among 
these  Gustavus  Adolphus,  Wallenstein,  Tilly,  Montecuculi,  Tu- 
renne  and  Conde  were  the  most  celebrated  ;  and  of  the  incessant 
fighting  going  on,  whole  volumes  larger  than  this  might  easily 
be  written.  The  greatest  battles  were  those  of  Prague,  Leipsic, 
Lutzen  and  the  second  affair  at  Nordlingen,  but  space  will 
permit  the  description  of  only  two  or  three  of  the  battles  of 
even  so  renowned  a  war  as  this. 

The  theatre  of  operations  was  pretty  much  all  over  Germany 
and  Bohemia  from  the  Rhine  to  the  Oder,  though  occasionally 
the  Austrian  dominions  were  invaded. 

Ferdinand  II.  of  Styria  had  stamped  out  the  Protestant  religion 
in  his  native  province.  The  Protestant  Elector-Palatine,  Fred- 
erick V.,  was  chosen  King  of  Bohemia,  and  was  then  driven  out 
by  the  Emperor  of  Austria.  The  Duke  of  Bavaria  and  the 
Princes  of  the  League  joined  forces  with  Ferdinand  II.  The 
Protestants  generally  took  up  arms  for  Frederick,  and  the  Im- 

(251) 


252  LEIPSIC. 

perialists  opened  the  ball  by  overwhelming  victories  won  by 
Maximilian  and  Tilly  at  Prague,  Dessau  and  Lutter.  The  Protes- 
tant cause  was  hopeless  unless  outside  aid  should  come,  and  had 
Ferdinand  been  at  all  politic,  there  would  have  been  no  danger 
of  that,  but  his  head  was  turned  with  his  marked  success.  He 
offended  even  his  own  friends  and  allies,  and  speedily  succeeded 
in  giving  mortal  offence  to  Gustavus  Adolphus,  King  of  Sweden, 
and  a  new  and  very  different  phase  was  taken  by  the  war  when 
this  vigorous  young  monarch  decided  to  lend  his  aid  to  the 
cause  of  his  Protestant  neighbors  across  the  Baltic. 

Gustavus  Adolphus  was  born  in  Stockholm  Castle,  December 
9th,  1594.  He  was  trained  with  the  utmost  care,  and  with  strict 
discipline  of  mind  and  body.  He  spoke  German,  French,  Italian 
and  Latin  with  fluency  when  a  mere  boy,  and  understood  Eng- 
lish, Spanish,  Polish  and  Russian  ;  while  his  favorite  studies  were 
historical,  and  those  which  dealt  with  the  art  of  war.  He  grew 
tall,  strong  and  hardy,  and  was  of  a  religious  temperament  from 
his  boyhood.  In  1604  he  was  elected  Crown  Prince  of  Sweden, 
and  when  just  eighteen  became  king.  Wars  with  Russia  and 
Poland  early  occupied  his  attention  and  developed  his  martial 
talents ;  but  during  an  interval  of  peace,  just  before  becoming 
involved  with  the  latter  nation,  he  thoroughly  reorganized  his 
army  and  wrote  his  celebrated  articles  of  war. 

Gustavus  Adolphus  was  at  once  the  regenerator  of  ancient 
military  discipline  and  the  father  of  that  which  is  maintained  to 
this  day.  More  than  this :  he  was  the  great  innovator  of  his 
century.  He  made  more  changes,  brought  about  more  improve- 
ments, and  did  more  to  advance  the  art  of  war  than  all  the  other 
leaders  of  his  time  combined ;  and  Napoleon  says  he  was  one 
of  the  eight  great  generals  of  the  world. 

Briefly  it  may  be  said  that  in  restoring  disciplined  order  to 
the  movements  of  his  armies,  he  adopted  the  elasticity  of  the 
Roman  system  in  preference  to  the  solidity  of  the  Greek.  In 
other  ways,  too,  he  copied  after  the  Romans.  He  fortified  his 
camp  at  night,  and  the  most  rigid  discipline, was  exacted,  espe- 
cially among  guards  and  sentinels.  His  articles  of  war,  150  in 
number,  began  with  injunctions  for  the  cultivation  of  reverence  for 


NEW   TACTICS  OF  GUSTAVUS.  253 

religion  in  the  army.  Divine  service  was  celebrated  daily. 
Duels  were  stopped,  profanity,  gambling,  immorality  of  every 
kind  checked,  and  pillage  of  captured  towns  placed  under  proper 
restrictions. 

It  was  in  his  reorganization,  however,  that  Gustavus  Adolphus 
made  the  most  radical  blows  at  existing  systems.  Fire-arms  had 
long  since  come  into  common  use,  and  at  the  time  of  the 
Thirty  Years'  War  all  the  European  infantry  were  accustomed 
to  "  matchlocks."  On  the  continent,  infantry  regiments  were 
from  two  to  three  thousand  strong — very  unwieldy  bodies ; 
Gustavus  reduced  his  to  1,008  men  each,  exclusive  of  officers, 
eight  companies  (126  men)  to  the  regiment.  They  were  divided 
into  musketeers  (576),  and  pikemen  (432).  The  former  carried 
the  matchlock  (which  Gustavus  greatly  lightened  during  the 
Polish  war,  and  which  was  very  soon  superseded  by  the  flint- 
lock), and  a  short  curved  sword.  The  helmet  was  the  mus- 
keteer's only  defensive  armor.  The  pikeman,  however,  had  hel- 
met, cuirass  and  thigh-pieces,  and  carried  a  sword  or  else  a  light 
axe  besides  the  pike,  which,  improved  by  Gustavus,  was  made 
of  aspen,  poplar  or  good  fir,  tipped  with  highly  tempered  steel. 
In  charging,  the  pike  was  held,  like  the  sarissa  of  old,  with  both 
hands,  left  hand  in  front.  In  resisting  charge  of  cavalry,  the 
butt  rested  against  the  right  foot,  the  left  hand  steadied  it,  point 
at  height  of  the  breast  or  neck,  while  the  soldier  held  his  drawn 
sword  or  axe  in  the  right  hand.  Gustavus  drew  up  his  infantry 
six  deep,  reducing  the  depth  from  ten  ranks,  as  was  the  formation 
in  other  armies. 

The  cavalry  under  the  young  King  of  Sweden  had  to  undergo 
many  changes.  He  was  the  first  to  organize  (in  1625)  the 
hitherto  independent  troops  into  regiments,  eight  troops  of  66  or 
72  men  (half  the  usual  size  for  the  troop  of  those  days)  form- 
ing a  regiment,  which,  not  exceeding  575  men,  was  easily 
handled  by  a  skillful  officer.  The  imperial  cavalry  of  the  Ger- 
man army  was  formed  (under  Wallenstein)  ten  deep  for  cuiras- 
siers, six  for  light  cavalry.  Count  Tilly  reduced  this  to  eight 
and  five  respectively,  but  Gustavus  went  still  further.  His 
cavalry  at  first  formed  four  deep,  but  soon  reduced  even  that  to 
three. 


254  LEIPSIC. 

And  it  was  Gustavus  who  first  taught  cavalry  the  true  princi- 
ples of  charging.  The  continental  system  seemed  to  be  for  the 
regiment  to  ride  up  at  sharp  trot  or  gallop,  until  close  to  the 
enemy,  when  the  first  line  would  fire  its  pistols ;  if  the  enemy 
broke,  the  charge  was  continued.  If  not,  the  line  rode  off 
right  and  left,  and  the  second  Ime  whirled  up  and  repeated  the 
performance ;  and  if  the  enemy  did  not  break  by  the  tfme  the 
third  line  had  tried  it,  the  attempt  was  abandoned.  Gustavus 
taught  his  cavalry  to  fire  as  they  approached,  but  never  to  waver 
or  halt ;  to  draw  swords  at  once  and  charge  home,  and  depend  on 
the  shock  and  the  keen  edge  of  the  weapon. 

But  it  was  in  field-artillery  Gustavus  made  the  greatest  change. 
He  found  it  very  clumsy  and  heavy,  difficult  to  move.  He  made 
it  comparatively  light  and  effective,  first  by  the  introduction  of 
"  leather  guns,"  and  afterwards  by  very  lightly  cast  guns  of  iron 
or  bronze.  The  "  leather  guns  "  were  made  of  a  light  copper 
tube,  strengthened  by  snugly  fitting  bars  of  iron  of  the  same 
length  riveted  to  it  by  heavy  rings.  This  was  tightly  wound 
with  strong  cord  cemented  with  coatings  of  mastic,  and  the 
whole  covered  by  a  leathern  jacket.  Two  men  could  carry  it, 
and  a  very  tough  little  field-piece  it  made.  They  soon  got 
heated  in  firing,  however,  and  were  discarded  after  Leipsic. 
Gustavus  Adolphus  introduced  the  system  of  having  some  light 
guns  in  each  heavy  field-battery,  because  the  small  guns  could 
keep  up  a  rapid  fire,  and  when  in  retreat  could  be  kept  back  to 
play  upon  the  pursuers,  while  the  large  guns  were  being  drawn 
out  of  harm's  way. 

As  yet  uniforms  for  regiments  had  not  been  generally  adopted 
in  the  Swedish  army  except  for  the  Life  Guards,  but  in  1627  the 
king  had  the  doublets  stained  or  dyed  with  different  colors  for 
each  division,  while  the  regiments  were  named  the  blue,  green, 
red  or  yellow,  from  the  color  of  the  standard  of  each. 

Such  were  the  main  points  introduced  by  Gustavus  Adolphus 
into  military  organization  in  the  seventeenth  century.  In  1624 
the  military  force  of  Sweden  was  reckoned  at  36,000  foot  and 
4,400  horse. 

The  Thirty  Years'  War  was  twelve  years  old  when  the  King 


GUSTAVUS   INVADES   THE   EMPIRE.  .         255 

of  Sweden  decided  to  take  a  hand.  German  writers  are  prone 
to  say  that  grasping  ambition  led  him  into  it.  But  the  Germans 
themselves  implored  his  aid,  and  it  was  not  until  Catholic 
aggressions  had  made  the  war  "  the  common  concern  of  Europe 
and  mankind,"  that  he  invaded  the  empire.  He  could  bring  but 
a  small  army  with  him,  but  it  was  disciplined  and  well  trained. 
Eleven  regiments  of  foot  and  two  of  cavalry  embarked  with  him 
from  Sweden.  Other  regiments  that  had  been  on  duty  in 
Poland  were  ordered  to  meet  him.  He  took  with  him  thirty- 
six  field-guns  (12  and  24-pounders)  and  some  heavy  "batteries 
of  position,"  44-pounders,  and,  with  a  force  not  exceeding  15,000 
men,  he  landed  on  the  island  of  Usedom,  on  the  coast  of  Pome- 
rania,  on  Midsummer  Day,  1630.  His  first  move,  after  devout 
thanks  and  prayers  to  the  Almighty,  was  to  get  control  of  the 
mouths  of  the  Oder.  Then  a  treaty  was  made  with  the  Duke 
of  Pomerania,  who  furnished  some  infantry  (the  White  Brigade) 
and  a  money  contribution.  Then,  8,000  reinforcements  having 
reached  him  from  Prussia,  he  advanced  boldly  into  the  interior, 
brilliantly  outmanoeuvred  and  whipped  the  Imperialists  near 
Rostock  (to  the  vast  astonishment  of  the  Italian,  Savelli,  who 
led  them),  captured  Gartz  and  Greiffenhagen,  driving  the  Impe- 
rialist army  before  him;  and,  early  in  1631,  Frankfort-on-the- 
Oder  was  in  his  possession. 

All  this  had  been  accomplished  by  rapid  and  brilliant  march- 
ing and  fighting,  with  a  very  small  army  compared  to  the  forces 
under  control  of  the  Imperialists  (Wallenstein  alone  had  100,000 
men) ;  and  the  name  of  Gustavus  Adolphus  began  to  be  looked 
upon  with  dread  and  respect.  By  the  end  of  February,  1631,  in 
the  space  of  eight  months,  he  had  taken  eighty  cities  and 
strongholds  in  Pomerania  and  Mecklenburg. 

And  now  the  Imperialist,  General  Tilly,  with  a  strong  force, 
set  out  to  put  a  stop  to  this  damaging  array  of  successes  for  the 
Protestant  cause.  He  laid  siege  to  the  city  of  Magdeburg,  car- 
ried it  by  assault,  and  forever  tarnished  his  reputation  by  the 
frightful  scenes  of  pillage  and  slaughter  which  he  permitted  at 
the  expense  of  the  inhabitants.  Gustavus  reached  the  Elbe  too 
late  to  relieve  the  city,  but  not  too  late  to  punish  Tilly.  The 


256  LEIPSIC. 

latter,  with  26,000  men,  ventured  to  attack  the  King  of  Sweden 
in  his  intrenched  camp,  where  the  garrison  was  only  16,000,  but 
the  lesson  should  have  opened  his  eyes.  Unused  to  defeat,  it 
was  with  rage  that  Tilly  saw  his  troops  scattered  in  disorderly 
flight,  leaving  hundreds  of  their  number  dead  upon  the  ground. 
Their  next  meeting  was  before  the  city  of  Leipsic,  which  Tilly 
menaced  with  an  army  of  40,000  men. 

Leipsic  lies  in  the  northwestern  corner  of  Saxony,  near  a 
branch  of  the  river  Saal.  Several  small  villages  surrounded  it, 
and  near  one  of  these,  Breitenfeld,  from  two  to  three  miles  north 
of  the  city,  the  army  of  Tilly  was  encamped.  The  city  had  sur- 
rendered to  him  and  now  lay  to  his  right.  The  troops  of  the 
Protestants  were  still  on  the  eastern  side  of  the  Elbe  awaiting 
negotiations  between  the  King  of  Sweden  and  the  Duke  of 
Saxony.  Gustavus  Adolphus  had  nearly  20,000  men  at  Wit- 
tenberg, on  the  Elbe.  The  Saxon  army,  about  the  same 
strength,  was  at  Torgau.  Leipsic,  Wittenberg  and  Torgau 
formed  a  triangle,  which,  though  not  equilateral,  was  so  nearly 
so  that,  had  Tilly  possessed  the  vim  and  brilliancy  which  had 
been  reputed  to  him  as  characteristics  of  his  generalship,  he 
could  easily,  in  two  days'  short  marches,  have  thrown  his  35,000 
on  either  one  of  these  forces,  and  the  Saxons  at  least  would  have 
been  utterly  whipped ;  but  for  some  unaccountable  reason  Tilly 
held  back,  permitted  an  alliance  to  be  made  between  the  King 
of  Sweden  and  the  Duke  of  Saxony,  and,  on  the  4th  of  Septem- 
ber, their  armies  advanced  from  the  Elbe  and  united  at  Diiben, 
on  the  Mulda,  only  nine  miles  northeast  of  Leipsic.  On  the 
6th  of  September  they  halted  in  full  view  of  the  position  of 
Tilly,  and  camped  for  the  night. 

With  a  little  less  than  40,000  men  apiece,  the  two  most  re- 
nowned generals  of  the  day  were  about  to  grapple  in  a  battle 
that  each  felt  must  be  decisive.  If  anything,  Tilly  had  the 
greater  reason  for  confidence.  He  had  faith  in  the  devotion  and 
valor  of  all  his  troops,  and  was  going  to  fight  on  the  defensive. 
Gustavus  Adolphus,  with  good  reason,  distrusted  the  stability 
of  the  Saxons,  "  his  left  arm,"  and  would  be  compelled,  he  saw, 
to  take  the  initiative. 


CONFIDENCE   OF   TILLY.  257 

Running  north  and  south,  though  more  nearly  northwest  to 
southeast,  was  a  range  of  heights,  at  the  upper  end  of  which 
stood  Breitenfeld,  and  beyond  that  the  little  village  of  Linden- 
thai.  Tilly  placed  not  only  his  "  batteries  of  position  "  on  these 
heights,  but  also  his  light  guns,  while,,  in  one  long  line,  from 
opposite  Lindenthal  down  to  the  southward,  stretched  his  infan- 
try and  cavalry — infantry  in  the  centre,  cavalry  on  the  flanks, 
in  accordance  with  the  old  Spanish  system.  Furstenburg  com- 
manded his  right  wing.  The  hot-headed  Pappenheim  led  the 
left.  Tilly  himself  commanded  the  centre.  He  had  no  reserves 
except  perhaps  some  artillery  supports ;  no  second  line  but  his 
guns.  He  seems  to  have  placed  his  whole  reliance  on  fighting 
on  the  defensive,  ten  deep.  The  range  of  heights  was  at  their 
backs,  and  the  guns  were  to  fire  over  their  heads. 

Against  this  position,  advancing  from  the  northeast,  came  an 
equal  number  of  soldiery,  marching  in  two  columns :  Swedes  to 
the  northward,  Saxons  to  the.  south.  They  crossed  the  little 
stream  of  the  Lober,  where  Pappenheim  made  an  absurd  attack 
with  2,000  cuirassiers  (contrary  to  the  orders  of  Tilly),  and  was 
easily  brushed  off  by  the  Swedes ;  and,  about  noon  on  the  /th 
of  September,  1631,  the  army  of  Gustavus  Adolphus  formed 
line  with  calm  deliberation  before  the  waiting  host  of  the  Impe- 
rialists. Here  again  Tilly  seems  to  have  let  slip  another  oppor- 
tunity. Had  he  attacked  in  force  while  the  formation  was  going 
on,  which  he  could  readily  have  done,  an  easy  victory  might 
have  been  his;  but  Tilly  seems  to  have  had  but  one  idea:  to  wait 
and  be  attacked,  then  pound  his  adversary  to  pieces. 

Never  before  had  the  practised  eyes  of  the  Imperialists,  with 
all  their  years  of  experience  in  war,,  witnessed  such  a  formation 
as  that  of  the  Swedish  army  on  this  memorable  day.  The  Saxon 
Duke  had  asked  as  a  favor,  that  his  troops  should  be  inter- 
mingled with  those  of  Sweden-,  but  the  king  had  promptly  de- 
clined. "  They  are  not  accustomed  to  our  discipline,"  said  he, 
and  so  the  Saxons  constituted  by  themselves  the  left  wing  of 
the  army,  opposite  the  long  line  of  Fiirstenburg.  The  entire 
army  of  Gustavus  was  drawn  up  in  two  lines,  with  a  strong  re- 
serve for  each  wing  and  for  the  centre.  He  himself  took  com- 
17 


258  LEIPSIC. 

mand  of  the  first  line  of  the  right  wing,  where  his  bravest  and 
staunchest  cavalry  was  stationed,  with  a  few  battalions  of  muske- 
teers dispersed  at  intervals  among  the  squadrons.  To  the  left  of 
the  king  and  slightly  advanced  was  the  main  infantry  line.  The 
regiments  were  not  deployed  in  extended  ranks  as  were  those 
of  Tilly,  but,  with  large  intervals,  were  posted  in  what  we  would 
call  massed  columns,  supported  by  small  detachments  in  simi- 
lar formation  in  rear,  and  some  in  more  dispersed  order,  cover- 
ing the  intervals  in  the  front  line.  All  the  Swedish  artillery  was 
posted  in  front  of  this  centre,  which  was  commanded  by  Teuffel, 
while  on  his  left  were  drawn  up  more  cavalry  and  musketeers 
in  similar  formation  to  those  on  the  right,  and  here  that  staunch 
old  soldier,  General  Horn,  was  in  command.  The  second  line 
of  the  Swedish  army  consisted  of  Baner's  regiments  of  horse, 
supporting  the  king ;  three  battalions  of  infantry,  two  of  cav- 
alry, and  some  reserve  guns  supporting  Teuffel ;  the  entire  line 
being  formed  in  separate  masses  with  intervals  equal  to  those  in 
the  front  line.  The  reserves — cavalry  on  right  and  left,  infantry 
in  centre — were  commanded  by  Hall,  Hepburn  and  Baudissen, 
and  some  Scotch  troops  were  here  placed. 

The  Saxon  wing  on  the  left,  by  orders  from  Gustavus  Adol- 
phus,  adopted  a  similar  formation — Arnheim  being  in  the  centre 
and  the  Elector  of  Saxony  commanding  the  second  line,  but  it 
was  a  new  formation  with  them  and  seemed  to  prove  embar- 
rassing. And  now  for  one  important  particular.  Despite  its 
solidity  and  depth,  the  Imperialist  line  extended  beyond  both 
flanks  of  the  Swedish-Saxon. 

Now,  as  we  stand  here  in  the  suburbs  of  the  little  hamlet  of 
Podelwitz  where  the  army  crossed  the  stream,  let  us  take  a  good 
look  at  this  field.  A  far  more  terrible  battle  is  to  be  fought  in 
this  neighborhood — one  that  will  drive  the  great  Napoleon  in 
retreat,  but  it  will  be  no  more  decisive  in  its  results  than  that 
which  Gustavus  Adolphus  and  Tilly  are  to  fight  this  hot,  dry 
September  day. 

Here  on  gently  rising  ground,  just  west  of  Podelwitz,  we  can 
overlook  the  entire  battle,  and  it  will  be  one  worth  seeing. 
Right  in  our  front,  just  beneath  us,  stand  the  reserves  of  Sweden's 


POSITION   OF   THE  ALLIES.  259 

army,  the  troopers  dismounted  and  at  their  horses'  heads,  the 
infantry  leaning  on  their  pikes  or  matchlocks.  We  are  behind 
the  centre  of  the  right  wing,  and  these  masses  nearest  us  are 
Hepburn's  Scotchmen.  Off  to  the  left  on  line  with  him  are  the 
few  English  under  Hall.  There  were  over  6,000  of  these  fel- 
lows when  they  first  came  across  the  channel  under  Hamilton, 
but  Dutch  black  bread  and  sour  beer  disagreed  with  them  ; 
and  plague,  pestilence  and  famine  have  thinned  them  out  to  a  mere 
shadow  of  their  former  force.  A  winding  road  leads  down  past 
our  left  hand  behind  Hall's  men,  then  sweeps  around  still  further 
to  the  southward  and  finally  turns  abruptly  to  the  west,  crosses 
the  level  plain  and  disappears  through  a  dip  in  the  opposite 
range.  That  road  divides  our  Saxons  from  the  Swedes,  for 
that  is  the  Saxon  army  off  to  the  south.  If  you  look  carefully 
you  will  see  that  they  do  not  stand  out  as  far  to  the  front  as  the 
Swedish  line.  That  ought  not  to  be,  but  there  is  a  low  hill  right 
in  their  midst;  Arnheim  has  taken  it  for  his  position,  and  it 
looks  very  much  as  though  the  Elector  of  Saxony  were  behind 
it.  King  Gustavus  sees  nothing  of  this.  He  places  little  reliance 
on  those  fellows  any  way,  and  is  busy  getting  his  guns  into 
position.  Arnheim,  imitating  the  tactics  of  the  Imperialists,  has 
crowded  his  battery  on  the  little  knoll  where  his  standard  is 
waving,  and  means  to  fire  over  the  heads  of  his  infantry.  Gus- 
tavus is  running  his  guns  well  out  to  the  front  and  centre.  Battery 
after  battery  is  quietly  unlimbering  there  in  front  of  Teuffel.  The 
rest  of  the  army  is  in  position  and  resting  on  its  arms. 

Now  look  across  the  plain.  There  stretches  that  long,  low 
range  of  slopes,  the  entire  crest  black  with  batteries,  the  guns 
run  well  to  the  edge,  the  cannoneers  lounging  beside  their 
pieces.  Just  why  they  so  calmly  spare  us  is  more  than  many 
an  old  soldier  can  understand.  They  ought  to  be  banging  away 
at  this  instant.  Now  too  the  wind  is  rising  and  puffs  of  dust 
whirl  up  from  the  sun-baked  roads  and  fields,  that  soon  gather 
into  dense  clouds  and  come  drifting  down  upon  us.  A  moment 
ago  we  could  see  the  steeples  of  the  little  churches  at  Linden- 
thai  and  Breitenfeld  peering  above  the  range ;  could  plainly  see 
the  dense  tree-tops  of  the  wood  of  Gross  Widderitzch  beyond 


260  LEIPSIC. 

the  plateau ;  could  count  the  standards  in  the  long,  solid  ranks 
of  foot  and  horse  facing  us  across  the  fields.  Now  the  dust- 
clouds  shut  them  out  of  sight  more  than  half  the  time. 

It  is  just  noon.  Suddenly  a  simultaneous  jet  of  flame  and 
roar  of  thunder  breaks  from  the. guns  in  our  front.  Gustavus 
has  opened  fire  on  the  heights.  In  an  instant  every  gun  in 
front  of  Teuffel  is  at  work.  In  another  instant  the  opposite 
crest  leaps  into  flame,  and  the  answer  comes  booming  back  at  us. 
It  is  the  opening  of  the  first  battle  of  Leipsic. 

For  two  mortal  hours,  through  stifling  clouds  of  smoke  and 
dust,  this  cannonade  goes  on,  and  with  the  wind  at  his  back 
Tilly  has  plainly  the  best  of  it.  Gustavus  can  stand  it  no  longer. 
See !  He  with  his  cuirassiers,  the  intermingling  infantry,  the 
whole  right  of  the  front  line,  is  moving  off  northward,  marching 
rapidly  too,  and  Teuffel  has  faced  some  of  his  line  to  the  right 
to  follow,  while  General  Baner's  horsemen  mount  and  slowly 
ride  off  to  the  right  front.  What  does  it  mean  ?  Simply  that 
Gustavus  wants  to  sweep  around  where  the  dust  will  not  blow 
in  his  face,  and,  if  possible,  attack  that  range  from  the  north ; 
take  it  in  flank  where  its  artillery  can  do  him  little  damage, 
planted  as  it  is.  But  Pappenheim's  wing,  all  cavalry,  stretches  out 
beyond  the  extreme  right.  It  is  a  hazardous  move.  The  instant 
that  fiery  soldier  catches  sight  of  it  he  will  swoop  down  upon 
the  flank,  orders  or  no  orders.  Sure  enough,  the  mingled  dust 
and  smoke-cloud  has  raised  for  a  moment,  and  with  tremendous 
cheering  3,000  mail-clad  horsemen  come  spurring  out  across  the 
plain.  A  great  regiment  of  infantry,  2,000  strong,  obliques  to 
the  left  in  support.  There  is  a  broad  gap  between  the  cuirassiers 
of  Gustavus  and  Teuffel's  infantry,  and  straight  for  that  gap  and 
for  those  between  the  troops  of  Swedish  horse,  the  leaders  of 
Pappenheim's  cavalry  are  spurring.  They  know  well  the  valor 
and  prowess  of  the  Swedish  swordsman,  and  have  no  desire  to 
meet  him  hand-to-hand  until  his  array  is  first  broken.  But  look ! 
The  cuirassiers  quickly  wheel  to  the  left  to  meet  the  charge. 
The  little  squares  of  matchlock  men  blaze  with  the  unexpected 
discharge  of  their  heavy  muskets.  Dozens  of  saddles  are  emp- 
tied ;  a  thousand  dragoons,  perhaps,  ride  at  thundering  gallop 


PAPPENHEIM'S   MISFORTUNE.  261 

through  the  broad  gap  and  are  preparing  to  wheel  to  right 
and  left,  and,  madly  exulting  over  their  easy  victory,  about  to 
charge  the  rear  of  the  Swedish  troops,  when — mark  the  skill 
of  Sweden's  tactician! — with  irresistible  impulse  and  flashing 
swords  the  battalions  of  Baner,  the  Swedish  second  line  of 
cavalry,  whirl  in  upon  them.  Two  thousand  Imperial  horse,  two 
thousand  Imperial  infantry,  the  regiment  of  Holstein,  are  caught 
in  a  trap.  Pappenheim,  raging  at  his  misfortune,  calls  off  his 
horsemen  and  forms  again,  charging  a  second,  a  third — indeed, 
he  swears  he  charged  seven  times  on  that  inflexible  right  and 
could  make  no  impression.  Gustavus  simply  holds  back  his 
cuirassiers  until  Baner  and  Baudissen  have  annihilated  the  Duke 
of  Holstein  and  his  men.  A  solid  front  is  maintained  against 
Pappenheim;  he  is  wearing  himself  out  against  it;  has  lost  3,000 
men  already,  and  it  is  barely  four  o'clock.  He  sends  staff-officers 
innumerable,  one  after  another,  begging  Tilly  for  aid,  but  Tilly 
is  doubly  exasperated  at  the  scrape  into  which  his  rash  and  in- 
subordinate  subordinate  has  plunged  him.  He  sees  only  one 
way  to  retrieve  his  fortune,  and  will  need  every  man.  At  least 
he  can  have  some  revenge  on  those  Saxons  and  on  the  Swedish 
left.  They  will  not  attack  him  ;  so,  while  Pappenheim  holds  Gus- 
tavus off  to  the  north,  he  will  demolish  the  left.  All  his  guns 
concentrate  for  a  few  minutes  upon  the  disturbed  and  irresolute 
Saxons,  then  thunder  at  the  Swedish  left,  where  Horn  com- 
mands, then  cease  firing  as  Fiirstenburg's  whole  wing  leaps  to 
the  front,  bearing  down  on  the  Saxons  of  Arnheim,  and  Tilly 
advances  his  right  centre  upon  Horn.  It  is  a  magnificent  ad- 
vance. Arnheim's  six  guns  thunder  harmlessly  at  the  squadrons 
as  they  come  cantering  out  from  under  the  shadows  of  the 
heights,  then  break  into  the  gallop ;  but  long  before  they  get 
within  musket-range  of  the  Saxon  troops  those  raw  levies 
crumble  away  from  the  left  flank,  and  look !  before  Arnheim  can 
check  it,  whole  regiments  are  melting  away  and  come  drifting 
back.  Another  moment  and  the  Imperialist  horse  are  among 
them,  and  then — all  is  rout  and  confusion. 

Foremost  among   the  fugitives   is   the  elector  himself.     He 
never  draws  rein  until  he  gets  to  Eilenburg,  miles  behind  us. 


262  LEIPSIC. 

Only  one  division  stands  :  the  Saxons  of  Arnheim,  next  to 
Horn's  line,  hold  their  ground.  Tilly,  sweeping  forward  in  vehe- 
ment attack  of  the  left  centre,  is  met  by  a  furious  cannonade  from 
all  the  guns  of  Teuffel's  front.  The  whole  line  is  now  wrapped  in 
smoke  and  dust,  so  as  to  be  indistinguishable.  Fiirstenburg,  with 
his  entire  cavalry  force,  has  swept  around  the  Swedish  left  in 
pursuit  of  the  craven  Saxons ;  the  infantry  of  Tilly  have  seized 
the  guns  left  by  Arnheim  on  the  mound,  and  now  are  turn- 
ing them  towards  his  sole  remaining  division,  so  as  to  sweep 
the  Swedish  line.  Things  look  black  at  this  end.  Quickly, 
however,  the  three  battalions  of  Hall  face  to  the  left  and  charge 
the  captors  of  the  guns.  They  in  turn  are  enveloped  and  as- 
sailed by  Fiirstenburg's  returning  troopers.  Hall  himself  is 
killed  and  Collenbach's  regiment  well-nigh  swept  out  of  exist- 
ence. But  by  this  time  all  these  gallant  Scots  of  the  grand  re- 
serve in  the  centre,  Hepburn,  with  Lord  Reay,  and  Ramsay, 
have  marched  down  across  that  now  bloody  road,  and  formed 
line  facing  south,  to  repel  the  new  attack ;  and  Colonels  Lums- 
den  and  Vitzheim  have  formed  their  regiments  on  their  left.  All 
Fiirstenburg's  horsemen  are  now  recalled  from  pursuit,  and  the 
fiercest,  hottest  part  of  the  battle  is  raging  right  here  to  our  left. 
Tilly  watches  it  hopefully ;  Gustavus  is  too  far  off  to  see.  Vic- 
tory is  with  the  latter ;  for,  while  we  have  been  watching  this  des- 
perate struggle  on  our  left,  he  and  his  cuirassiers  have  sent  Pap- 
penheim's  troopers  whirling  in  rout  and  confusion  through  Breit- 
enfeld  and  Lindenthal ;  and  now,  hardly  waiting  to  reform  his 
squadrons,  he  comes  sweeping  down  close  under  the  range  from 
the  north,  taking  the  Imperialist  infantry  in  flank,  while  many 
of  his  adventurous  horsemen,  spurring  up  the  slopes,  are  sabering 
the  men  at  the  silent  guns.  The  news  that  his  left  was  utterly 
routed  reached  Tilly  but  a  moment  before  he  heard  that  his  centre, 
behind  him,  was  broken  and  falling  back  across  the  crest.  But 
here,  around  him  and  to  his  front,  all  is  victory,  or,  at  least,  hope. 
He  can  yet  sweep  those  stubborn  Swedes  back  through  Podel- 
witz.  All  his  remaining  infantry  are  hurried  to  the  front,  as 
now,  for  the  first  time,  he  realizes  the  error  he  made  in  leaving 
all  the  guns  in  the  heights ;  now  they  are  useless ;  worse  than 
that,  in  jeopardy. 


TILLY'S    ARMY   BADLY   BEATEN.  263 

The  bravest  veterans  of  the  Imperial  host  are  here  with  him, 
and  under  Fiirstenburg.  Such  cavalry  as  they  have  met  are  no 
match  for  them.  Now  they  are  pitted  against  those  exasper- 
atingly  cool  battalions  of  Swedish  foot.  Again  and  again  they 
charge  them,  but,  instead  of  reducing  front  and  deepening  their 
files,  the  "  Norsemen "  seem  encouraged  by  their  own  steadi- 
ness ;  they  lengthen  their  lines,  form  only  three  deep,  and  then, 
front  rank  kneeling,  second  rank  bending  low,  and  third  rank 
standing  erect,  they  pour  volley  after  volley  into  the  Imperialist 
squadrons.  Then  Saxon  Arnheim  rallies  his  dragoons,  and  they 
are  hovering  about  the  flanks  of  the  worn-out  cavalry ;  and  now, 
can  it  be  ?  Yes ;  surely,  steadily  the  Swedish  footmen  are  ad- 
vancing, pushing  before  them  the  broken  remnants  of  Tilly's 
lines.  In  vain  he  storms  and  rages,  riding  hither  and  thither : 
he  cannot  check  the  backward  move.  Already  the  cuirassiers  of 
Adolphus  are  hammering  at  his  exposed  left ;  Arnheim  has  swung 
around  against  his  right.  Sweden,  represented  by  its  stalwart 
infantry  under  Teuffel,  is  steadily  pushing  him  back.  Suddenly 
he  hears  the  thunder  of  his  own  guns  on  the  heights  behind  him, 
and  their  missiles  come  tearing  huge  gaps  through  his  gasping 
ranks.  Mortal  man  can  stand  no  more;  the  King  of  Sweden 
has  turned  upon  him  his  own  guns;  the  army  of  Tilly  is  routed, 
and  pursuit  sweeps  it  from  the  field. 

Just  at  sunset  the  last  of  its  once  brilliant  array  backs  through 
the  depression  in  the  ridge  opposite  the  Swedish  centre.  The 
ridge  itself  is  taken ;  the  cavalry  is  fleeing  for  Halle  beyond 
Saxon  territory.  Only  four  organized  regiments  of  veterans  re- 
main, and  these,  throwing  themselves  into  the  forest  back  of  the 
heights,  with  desperate  gallantry  maintain  themselves  there 
against  the  king  himself  until  darkness  puts  an  end  to  the  fight, 
and  the  battered  remnant  is  allowed  to  retire. 

Tilly,  Furstenburg  and  Pappenheim  are  wounded ;  7,000  dead 
and  wounded  Imperialists  are  left  upon  the  field ;  many  are 
prisoners ;  every  gun  is  faken,  and  one  hundred  standards,  the 
proud  colors  of  the  Imperialists,  are  in  the  hands  of  Adolphus, 
and  so  complete  is  the  rout  and  destruction  of  this  dreaded  army 
of  Tilly  that,  while  Pappenheim  can  only  rally  1,400  of  his 


264 


LEIPSIC. 


wing,  Tilly  himself,  at  Halle,  can  muster  not  a  thousand.  The 
Saxons  deservedly  suffered  for  running  as  they  did,  and  lost 
2,000  men ;  but  the  losses  of  Sweden  proper  did  not  exceed  700. 
The  victory,  like  the  disparity  in  losses,  is  simply  overwhelming. 
But  the  moral  effect  of  this  gre,at  battle  is  something  far  more 
serious  than  even  the  annihilation  of  Tilly's  army.  The  prestige 
of  that  vehement  leader  is  gone  forever,  and  he  himself  meets 
his  death  soon  after  at  the  combat  on  the  Lech.  The  hitherto 
invincible  Imperialists  are  utterly  routed  in  fair  fight,  in  open 
field  and  on  chosen  ground,  by  the  "  Snow  King,"  as  they  had 
contemptuously  called  him.  All  Protestant  Germany  rallied  to 
the  standard  of  this  new  Christian  hero,  whose  first  act,  on  dis- 
mounting on  the  hard-won  field  of  Breitenfeld,  was  to  kneel 
amid  the  dead  and  dying,  and  render  thanks  to  God  for  aid  and 
guidance.  To  him  was  now  committed  the  cause  of  Protestantism, 
and  with  it  that  of  the  allies,  who  for  political  reasons  had  joined 
against  Austria  and  Spain.  France  was  Catholic  in  religion, 
and  was  now  disposed  to  look  with  jealous  distrust  upon  the  un- 
limited power  of  a  Protestant  king.  This  led  to  further  compli- 
cations in  the  Thirty  Years'  War. 


LUTZEN. 


1632. 

ITH  the  sword  in  one  hand  and  mercy  in  the 
other,  Gustavus  Adolphus  marched  to  and 
fro  in  Germany  after  his  great  victory  at 
Leipsic.  He  appeared  at  once  as  conqueror, 
judge  and  lawgiver.  Cities  and  fortresses 
opened  their  gates  at  his  approach,  and  the 
standards  of  Sweden  were  planted  along  the 
banks  of  the  great  rivers.  There,  is  no  time 
to  follow  his  victorious  movements.  The 
leaders  of  the  League  were  well-nigh  desperate  when  their  last 
general,  Tilly,  met  his  death-wound  in  contesting  with  the  con- 
queror the  passage  of  the  river  Lech.  They  had  only  one  man 
whose  intellect  and  power  seemed  a  possible  match  for  the  in- 
vincible King  of  Sweden,  and  that  one  man  was  the  very  Wal- 
lenstein  whom  they  had  deposed  and  humiliated  but  a  short 
time  before. 

In  his  retirement  he  was  known  to  have  made  overtures  to 
Gustavus  Adolphus,  asking  a  command  under  his  banners  and 
pledging  him  vehement  support.  Hatred  of  the  powers  that 
had  robbed  him  of  his  high  command  had  turned  Wallenstein 
into  a  traitor.  He  was  a  man  who  could  bear  to  be  second  to 
nobody;  cold,  crafty,  intensely  selfish,  utterly  unprincipled,  en- 
riched to  a  fabulous  extent  by  plunder,  he  was  bound,  even 
among  his  own  people,  either  to  rule  or  to  ruin.  Gustavus 
wisely  hesitated  about  placing  so  unreliable  a  person  in  a  posi- 
tion of  vast  trust  and  power — put  him  off  with  the  plea  that  his 
army  was  too  weak  in  numbers  to  permit  the  assignment  to  him 
of  an  independent  command ;  but  Wallenstein  saw  through  the 

(265) 


266  LUTZEN. 

pretext  and  hated  the  king  accordingly,  and  next  we  find  him  -at 
the  head  of  a  powerful  Imperialist  army.  Doubting  him,  fearing 
him,  the  Emperor  of  Austria  was  reduced  to  the  extremity  of 
restoring  him  to  supreme  command,  as  the  only  means  of 
securing  his  allegiance.  So  long  as  he  was  at  'the  head  of 
affairs,  with  power  at  his  back,  it  made  little  difference  to  Wal- 
lenstein  on  which  side  he  fought.  All  Europe  knew  his  great 
ability,  and  all  Europe  held  its  breath  now  to  watch  the  battle 
of  the  giants,  to  be  fought  between  the  two  most  renowned  sol- 
diers of  the  age — Gustavus  Adolphus  and  Wallenstein,  the  Duke 
of  Friedland. 

After  much  preliminary  marching  and  manoeuvring,  .the 
armies  met  within  a  few  miles  of  the  scene  of  the  great  victory 
over  Tilly,  and  northwestern  Saxony  again  became  the  centre  of 
movement.  Wallenstein,  with  some  17,000  men,  was  encamped 
near  the  little  town  of  Liitzen,  west  of  Leipsic,  and,  on  the  6th 
of  November,  1632,  Pappenheim,  eager  as  ever  for  battle,  was 
hurrying  to  join  him  with  10,000  more. 

With  12,000  foot  and  6,500  horse,  Gustavus  Adolphus,  bid- 
ding adieu  to  his  queen  at  Erfurt,  had  taken  the  field  to  meet 
him.  Sending  forward  his.  gallant  ally,  Duke  Bernhard  of  Wei- 
mar, to  Naumburg,  on  the  Saal,  only  a  day's  march  from 
Liitzen,  he  himself  rapidly  followed,  being  received  by  the  peo- 
ple with  the  acclamation  and  reverence  they  would  have  given 
to  a  superior  being.  On  Sunday,  November  4th,  an  intercepted 
letter  told  him  that  Wallenstein  was  still  encamped  near  Liitzen, 
a  few  miles  farther  to  the  northeast,  and  in  apparent  ignorance 
of  his  coming,  and  that  Pappenheim  was  off  near  Halle,  to  the 
northward.  Liitzen  lay  near  Weissenfels,  and  a  little  river,  the 
Rippach,  lay  between  the  camps  of  the  Imperialists  and  the 
southwest,  the  direction  from  which  Gustavus  must  come. 
Hoping  to  attack  and  crush  Wallenstein  before  Pappenheim 
could  join  him,  the  Swedish  king  pushed  rapidly  forward  the 
very  next  day ;  but,  though  his  celerity  enabled  him  to  seize  the 
little  bridge  across  the  Rippach  after  a  brush  with  a  small  cav- 
alry outpost,  Gustavus  found  the  bridge  so  slight  and  so  narrow 
as  to  require  great  care  and  deliberation  in  crossing.  It  took 


"BE    HERE   AT    DAYBREAK."  267 

till  nightfall  to  land  his  army  on  the  eastern  bank ;  it  was  then 
too  late  to  attack,  and  Wallenstein  made  good  use  of  the  delay. 
Couriers  were  sent  to  Pappenheim  to  come  forward  with  all 
speed.  "  Be  here  at  daybreak  with  every  man  and  gun,"  were 
the  brief  orders,  and  the  letter,  stained  with  the  general's  life- 
blood,  was  found  on  his  body  the  following  night,  showing  how 
well  he  had  obeyed  his  chief.  Anticipating  early  attack,  Wal- 
lenstein established  his  men  in  their  positions,  strengthened 
them  with  earthworks,  hastily  thrown  up,  but  affording  capital 
protection  for  his  musketeers ;  and  during  all  the  night  and  the 
early,  misty  morning,  he  rode  tirelessly  from  'point  to  point, 
leaving  no  stone  unturned  to  make  his  defence  secure.  His 
original  position  had  been  somewhat  "  scattered,"  his  troops 
being  quartered  among  the  hamlets  north  of  and  around  Liitzen ; 
but  a  capital  field  of  battle  presented  itself  to  his  practised  eye 
where  the  great  high  road,  connecting  Leipsic  with  Weissenfels, 
crossed  the  level  plain  from  east  to  west,  passing  through 
Liitzen  on  the  west  end  of  the  plain.  A  winding  canal,  con- 
necting the  Saal  and  the  Elster,  cut  the  high  road  at  right- 
angles,  about  two  miles  east  of  the  village,  and  a  very  gentle  rise 
in  the  ground,  north  of  and  parallel  to  the  road,  formed  an  ad- 
mirable line  for  his  defence.  With  his  right  behind  Liitzen,  his 
left  resting  near  and  protected  by  the  canal,  facing  nearly  south, 
'he  stood  ready  to  meet  his  great  antagonist.  Just  north  of  the 
highway,  where  the  rise  in  the  ground  was  most  marked,  he 
planted  his  battery  of  position.  Farther  to  the  right,  nearer 
Liitzen,  stood  a  few  windmills,  and  beyond  them,  close  on  the 
edge  of  the  high  road,  stood  the  house  of  the  miller.  All  these 
were  speedily  and  skilfully  turned  into  means  of  defence,  for, 
until  Pappenheim  could  reach  him,  Wallenstein  would  be  out- 
numbered. He  had  seven  heavy  guns  in  the  battery  of  position, 
and  fourteen  light  field-pieces  were  placed  in  front  of  the  wind- 
mills. During  the  night,  too,  his  musketeers  deepened  the 
ditch  north  of  the  highway,  and  lined  it  with  a  strong  body  of 
marksmen.  Beyond  all  question,  Wallenstein  had  made  the 
most  of  his  ground.  As  to  the  tactical  disposition  of  his  troops, 
there  is  so  much  dispute  among  historians  that  it  is  hard  to  say 


268  LUTZEN. 

just  how  they  were  drawn  up.  Wallenstein,  with  most  of  the 
infantry  in  very  heavy  masses,  occupied  the  centre ;  the  right, 
supporting  the  windmill  batteries,  was  intrusted  to  Count  Colo- 
redo  ;  the  left,  early  in  the  action,  at  least,  to  Hoik.  By  some 
authors  it  is  claimed  that  his  infantry  was  divided  into  five 
brigades,  four  being  with  him  in  the  centre,  one  on  the  right 
with  Coloredo.  Each  brigade  formed  as  an  independent  square, 
with  projecting  masses  of  pikemen  at  the  four  angles.  Others 
would  indicate  that  the  footmen  of  the  Imperialist  army  had 
been  divided  into  twelve  parallelograms,  somewhat  longer  than 
they  were  deep,  and  that  eight  of  these  were  placed  in  the  front 
line,  the  others  being  held  in  the  second  in  reserve.  The  cav- 
alry, in  accordance  with  time-honored  custom,  occupied  the 
flanks,  and  the  entire  front  was  nearly  two  miles  in  length,  with 
the  highway  about  three  hundred  yards  out  to  the  front.  All 
baggage-wagons  were  sent  off  to  the  rear  of  Lutzen ;  all  ammu- 
nition wagons  were  parked  in  rear  of  the  centre,  and,  to  make 
the  array  as  numerically  formidable  as  possible  in  appearance, 
Wallenstein  caused  all  sutlers  and  camp-followers  to  be  mounted 
and  massed  like  a  large  body  of  reserve  cavalry  in  rear  of  his 
left  wing. 

Immediately  on  crossing  the  Rippach,  King  Gustavus,  riding 
forward,  had  taken  in  the  situation  at  a  glance.  Instead  of 
finding  Wallenstein  unprepared  and  in  small  force  he  saw  that 
he  had  most  skillfully  seized  upon  the  advantages  of  the  ground, 
that  his  force  was  apparently  as  great  as  his  own,  and  that  with 
Pappenheim  only  a  short  march  away  at  Halle,  he  would  be 
sure  of  making  a  junction  in  the  morning.  But  the  stout  heart 
of  King  Gustavus  did  not  fail  him.  There  was  no  way  now  of 
avoiding  the  issue.  The  one  thing  to  do  was  attack  vigorously 
at  the  earliest  break  of  day,  and  trust  to  the  guidance  of  God 
and  the  courage  of  his  men  to  carry  him  through  and  sweep 
the  Imperialists  from  the  ground  before  Pappenheim  could  come 
up.  So,  whatever  may  have  been  his  disappointment,  the  king 
maintained  his  cheery,  buoyant,  hopeful  demeanor,  and  quickly 
deployed  his  men  in  his  favorite  order  of  battle — that  which 
had  been  so  successful  at  Leipsic.  It  was  almost  dusk  when 
the  first  line  was  formed. 


DISPOSITION   OF   GUSTAVUS'    FORCES.  269 

With  his  right  resting  on  the  canal,  his  left  a  little  south  of 
the  town  of  Lutzen,  Gustavus  placed  his  cavalry  and  infantry 
intermingled  in  regiments  and  battalions  some  four  hundred 
yards  south  of  the  highway,  supported  by  the  second  line,  two 
hundred  and  fifty  yards  farther  to  the  rear.  In  the  centre,  eight 
regiments  of  infantry  were  skillfully  drawn  up  in  supporting 
columns  in  the  two  lines,  those  in  front  in  line  of  battle  six  deep. 
The  cavalry  of  both  flanks,  front  line,  three  deep — those  of  the 
rear  lines  and  reserves  in  massed  columns.  Companies  of  mus- 
keteers of  from  50  to  100  strong  were  placed  between  the 
squadrons  on  the  wings.  To  Duke  Bernhard  of  Weimar  was 
intrusted  the  command  of  the  left  wing,  nearly  all  the  German 
cavalry  being  there  stationed.  Count  Nicholas  Brahe  com- 
manded the  solid  infantry  in  the  centre,  the  king  himself  led  the 
Swedes  of  the  right  wing,  and,  while  the  artillery  was  distrib- 
uted all  along  the  front,  the  reserve  in  rear  of  the  centre 
near  the  little  hamlet  of  Chursitz  consisted,  as  at  Leipsic,  of 
the  Scots,  and  was  commanded  by  Henderson.  Of  the  gallant 
Scotchmen  who  had  rendered  him  such  excellent  service  at 
Leipsic  few  were  left.  Hepburn,  Reay  and  Ramsay  were  no 
longer  there,  but  in  his  second  line,  commanding  the  infantry, 
was  a  Swedish  soldier  who  had  won  the  confidence  and  respect 
of  his  master  on  many  an  intervening  field, — General  Knip- 
hausen. 

Late  in  the  evening  the  dispositions  were  completed.  Never, 
perhaps,  did  rival  commanders  pass  the  night  before  desperate 
battle  with  such  complete  realization  of  the  consequences  that 
must  attend  the  coming  struggle.  Each  fully  appreciated  the 
skill  and  courage  of  his  adversary.  Each  felt  that  defeat  meant 
ruin  either  to  the  cause  he  championed,  as  was  the  case  with  the 
king,  or  to  himself,  as  was  the  case  with  cold-blooded  and  cal- 
culating Wallenstein.  The  former  passed  the  night  in  his  car- 
riage, occasionally  conversing  w-ith  some  of  his  generals  as  to 
the  duties  of  the  coming  day,  occasionally  in  silent  prayer. 
The  latter,  gloomy,  stern,  abstracted  and  repellant  as  ever,  took 
counsel  with  no  one,  but  restlessly  moved  to  and  fro,  satisfying 
himself  that  all  was  well.  In  point  of  numbers  engaged 


270  LUTZEN. 

Ltitzen  was  not  the  prominent  battle  of  the  war.     In  point  of 
the  renown  of  its  contestants  it  was  the  battle  of  the  century. 

At  the  first  break  of  day  on  the  chill,  wintry  morning  of  No- 
vember 6th,  1632,  both  armies  were  astir;  but,  to  the  disappoint- 
ment of  the  King  of  Sweden,  a  cold,  thick,  penetrating  fog  had 
lowered  over  the  plain.  Riding  out  towards  the  high  road 
where  his  sentinels  were  posted,  within  stone's  throw  of  the  Im- 
perialist musketeers,  he  fouqd  that  objects  ten  yards  away  were 
mere  blurs,  and  that  it  was  impossible  to  distinguish  the  posi- 
tion of  the  guns  on  the  northern  slope.  This  would  never  do. 
It  was  necessary  that  he  should  be  able  to  see  the  entire  field, 
and  all  beyond  a  dozen  yards  was  shrouded  in  mystery.  There 
could  be  no  telling  what  might  be  going  on  in  the  enemy's  lines, 
and,  as  his  part  would  be  the  attack,  clear  sight,  at  least,  was  in- 
dispensable. The  sun  rose  but  the  fog  did  not ;  and  in  deep 
anxiety  Gustavus  rode  back  to  his  lines.  He  had  planned  to 
attack  at  dawn,  and  to  finish  the  fight  before  Pappenheim  could 
possibly  come  to  the  rescue.  Now  attack  was  impossible  un- 
less he  trusted  to  blind  luck,  and  that  he  would  not  do.  There 
was  no  help  for  it  but  to  wait  the  lifting  of  the  fog,  which  would 
be  sure  to  follow  the  sun's  climbing  toward  the  zenith.  Mean- 
time, dressed  in  a  plain  buff  coat,  without  armor,  the  king  ap- 
peared before  his  men.  First  he  had  caused  his  chaplain,  Fa- 
bricius,  to  read  prayers  with, him  alone;  then,  out  in  front  of  his 
line,  the  monarch  knelt  and  implored  the  blessing  of  the  Al- 
mighty on  the  issues  of  the  day ;  and  his  soldiers,  catching  sight 
of  him,  struck  up  the  grand  old  Lutheran  hymn,  that  to  this 
day  is  the  stirring  chant  of  the  German  soldier  before  going  into 
action  :  "  Ein'  feste  Burg  ist  unser  Gott " — "  Our  God  is  a  strong 
tower."  Starting  among  the  footmen  of  Brahe  in  the  centre,  it 
was  taken'  up  right  and  left,  and  soon  the  sonorous  voices  of 
thousands  of  bearded  men  blended  in  the  ringing,  majestic 
melody,  and  the  morning  air  resounded  with  the  swelling 
chorus.  The  king  himself,  when  the  notes  had  died  away,  led 
them  in  another  hymn ;  then,  mounting,  he  rode  among  and  ad- 
dressed them.  To  his  Swedes  he  said :  "  My  brave  and  beloved 
subjects,  yonder  is  the  enemy  you  have  sought  so  long,  not 


GUSTAVUS    ADDRESSES   HIS   ARMY.  271 

now  sheltered  by  strong  ramparts,  nor  posted  on  inaccessible 
heights,  but  ranged  in  fair  and  open  field.  Advance  then,  by 
God's  help,  not  so  much  to  fight  as  to  conquer.  Spare  not  your 
blood,  your  lives,  for  your  king,  your  country,  your  God ;  and 
the  present  and  eternal  blessing  of  the  Almighty,  and  an  illus- 
trious name  throughout  the  Christian  world,  await  you.  But  if, 
which  God  forbid,  you  prove  cowards,  I  swear  that  not  a  bone 
of  you  shall  return  to  Sweden." 

Then  he  rode  over  to  the  left,  among  the  Germans  of  Duke 
Bernhard :  "  My  brave  allies  and  fellow-soldiers,"  he  said  to 
them,  "  I  adjure  you  by  your  fame,  your  honor  and  your  con- 
science ;  by  the  interests  temporal  and  eternal  now  at  stake ; 
by  your  former  exploits,  by  the  remembrance  of  Tilly  and  the. 
Breitenfeld,  bear  yourselves  bravely  to-day.  Let  the  field  before 
you  become  illustrious  by  a  similar  slaughter.  Forward!  I  will 
be  this  day  not  only  your  general,  but  your  comrade.  I  will 
not  only  command  you,  I  will  lead  you  on.  Add  your  efforts 
to  mine.  Extort  from  the  enemy,  by  God's  help,  that  victory 
of  which  the  chief  fruits  will  be  to  you  and  your  children.  But, 
if  you  shrink  from  the  contest,  remember  that  religion,  liberty, 
all,  will  be  lost,  and  that  by  your  remissness." 

Both  Swedes  and  Germans  responded  to  his  addresses  with 
cheers  and  every  evidence  of  enthusiasm  and  devotion ;  but  it 
was  evident  that  the  king  was  deep.ly  sensible  of  the  utter  sol- 
emnity of  the  ordeal  before  him,  and  again — this  time  aloud — 
he  invoked,  before  his  troops,  the  blessing  of  heaven  on  their 
efforts. 

And  still  that  damp,  depressing  fog  clung  to  the  ground.  It 
was  ten  o'clock.  Gustavus,  riding  restlessly  to  and  fro,  had  not 
eaten  a  mouthful.  He  was  all  impatience  for  the  fog  to  raise. 

At  last,  it  must  have  been  towards  noon,  a  light  breeze  began 
to  sweep  over  the  scene.  The  sun,  swinging  around  to  the 
south,  began  to  make  itself  felt  on  the  backs  of  the  Swedish 
army,  and,  between  wind  and  sun,  the  fog  slowly  lifted,  rolled 
away  northward,  and  first  the  trees  along  the  highway  became 
visible ;  then  the  dry,  deserted  roadway ;  then  the  heads  of  the 
skirmishers  in  the  ditch  beyond;  then  the  turf  of  the  level 


272  LUTZEN. 

ground  still  farther  north ;  then  the  slopes,  the  black  muzzles 
and  mud-covered  carriages  of  the  guns,  the  alert  forms  of  the 
cannoneers ;  then  the  mounted  squadrons,  the  heavy  masses  of 
bristling  infantry,  the  ghostly-looking  windmills  off  to  the  north- 
west, with  the  field-batteries  unlimbered  in  front  of  them ;  then 
the  walls  and  roofs  of  Liitzen  to  the  west,  all  in  a  broad  blaze 
of  flame,  for  Wallenstein  had  set  the  town  afire  to  prevent  a 
Swedish  lodgment  there ;  then  the  open  landscape  and  country 
roads  far  to  the  north,  beyond  the  Imperialist  lines ;  then  clouds 
of  dust  off  towards  Halle — Pappenheim  was  coming.  There 
was  not  an  instant  to  lose. 

Almost  at  the  same  second  the  artillery  of  the  opposing  lines 
burst  into  thundering  and  deadly  salute.  The  Swedish  and 
German  trumpets  sounded  the  charge,  and  in  one  grand,  simul- 
taneous attack,  primitive  as  that  of  the  days  before  Epaminondas, 
the  entire  line  of  Sweden,  "  horse,  foot  and  dragoon,"  swept 
forward.  The  high  road  was  gained  and  crossed  in  an  instant; 
the  skirmishers  in  the  ditch  beyond  scattered  for  their  lives  to 
the  rear.  "  God  with  us,"  was  the  war-cry  of  the  northern  army, 
as  they  scrambled  through  the  wet  and  muddy  trench,  and  re- 
formed lines  on  the  northern  side.  Then,  with  mad  impulse,  the 
German  horsemen  on  the  left,  led  by  Duke  Bernhard,  dashed 
full  at  the  guns  under  the  windmills,  and  the  Swedish  cuirassiers 
on  the  right,  heavy  armed  and  led.  by  the  king  himself,  were 
hurled  at  the  lightly-mounted  Poles  and  Croats  of  the  Imperial- 
ist left.  These  latter  were  overturned  and  sent  scurrying  from 
the  field  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye.  It  looked  for  ten  minutes 
as  though  Sweden  would  march  right  over  the  Imperialist  lines. 
The  battery  of  position  in  the  centre  was  seized  so  suddenly, 
that  Wallenstein  had  not  time  to  advance  his  infantry  to  sup- 
port the  gunners ;  the  next  moment  the  stalwart  footmen  of 
Brahe  were  through  the  battery  and  grappling  hand  to  hand 
with  the  Imperialist  squares.  In  five  minutes'  sharp  fighting, 
such  was  the  rush  and  impetus  of  the  Swedish  charge,  three  foot- 
brigades  of  Wallenstein's  centre  were  overwhelmed  and  borne 
back  upon  the  second  line.  In  absolute  amaze  the  Duke  of 
Friedland  saw  his  left  wing  swept  away,  his  centre  yielding,  his 


WALLENSTEIN   RALLIES   HIS   SURPRISED   FORCES.        273 

right  sorely  pressed.  Verily,  these  hymn-singing  Protestants 
knew  how  to  fight 

But  the  duke  was  brave,  fearless,  energetic.  With  the  rapidity 
of  thought  he  threw  himself  in  rear  of  the  centre ;  ordered  for- 
ward the  brigades  of  the  second  line ;  personally  rallied  and  re- 
stored the  ranks  of  those  that  were  drifting  off  towards  the  north ; 
turned  them  once  more  against  the  enemy  and  launched  them  in. 
The  Swedes  were  already  breathless  with  the  exertion  of  their 
charge  of  half  a  mile  over  hedge,  ditch  and  rough  ground. 
They  were  now  involved  in  a  desperate  hand-to-hand  melee,  and 
suddenly  three  regiments  of  Imperialist  cavalry  came  thun- 
dering down  upon  them  to  the  aid  of  Wallenstein's  rallied  in- 
fantry. Now  Brahe  in  turn  is  overweighted,  hemmed  in,  and 
presently  borne  slowly  back.  The  strong  pikemen  of  both  armies 
are  making  desperate  play  with  their  deadly  weapons ;  there  is 
no  time  for  loading,  and  muskets  are  used  like  battering-rams 
against  the  enemies'  faces.  It  is  a  struggle  in  which  weight  is 
bound  to  tell,  and  now  the  heavy  masses  of  the  Imperialists  are 
pitted  against  the  six-deep  formation  of  the  Swedes.  The  latter 
cannot  help  it ;  they  must  fall  back.  So  too  on  the  extreme  left. 
The  German  cavalry  have  been  unable  to  take  the  guns ;  the  in- 
fantry supports  have  been  most  vigilant ;  all  around  the  wind- 
mills the  ground  is  cut  up  into  little  garden  patches  with  mud 
walls ;  every  patch  is  full  of  marksmen,  and  the  cavalry  attack 
has  been  a  failure. 

Off  on  the  extreme  right  Gustavus  has  carried  all  before  him, 
but  now  he  learns  with  deep  dismay  that  his  centre  is  being 
beaten  back  and  that  his  left  is  gone. 

Leaving  matters  on  that  flank  to  the  care  of  General  Horn, 
the  king  at  once  galloped  to  the  west  just  as  his  infantry  were 
being  driven  back  through  the  heavy  battery  they  had  so  lately 
captured.  He  had  ordered  Colonel  Steinbock  with  his  regiment 
of  cuirassiers  to  follow  him,  but  the  king's  horse  outran  them 
all,  and  he  was  practically  the  only  mounted  officer  who,  dash- 
ing in  among  the  retreating  footmen,  seemed  to  be  striving  to 
check  the  move.  Keen  eyes  among  the  Imperialists  marked  the 
commanding  form,  and  noted  how  the  Swedish  soldiers  halted 
18 


274  LUTZEN. 

and  faced  them  again  as  this  tall  horseman  rode  among  the  ranks, 
eagerly  shouting  and  waving  his  sword.  "  Pick  off  that  man  " 
was  the  order,  and  in  an  instant  the  king  became  the  target  of 
an  hundred  musketeers ;  a  bullet  tore  through  his  arm,  shatter- 
ing the  bone  and  causing  the  mangled  limb  to  hang  by  the 
quivering  muscles  and  flesh.  A  cry  of  consternation  went  up 
among  the  Swedes — "  The  king  is  hit ! "  and,  though  faint  with 
agony,  he  laughs  and  cheers  them  on,  but  the  blood  is  gushing 
in  streams  from  his  wound;  he  grows  fainter  and  reels  in  his 
saddle.  By  this  time  Duke  Albert  of  Lauenburg  has  reached 
him  and  others  of  his  staff.  "  Lead  me  to  the  rear,"  he  whispers 
to  the  duke ;  "  but  take  me  around  to  the  right — not  through  the 
lines  or  they  will  think  'tis  worse  than  it  is."  The  infantry  are 
still  retiring  as  the  duke  leads  his  royal  master,  now  weak  and 
failing,  hurriedly  along  the  front.  Then  comes  another  merci- 
less volley ;  the  king  reels  again  over  his  saddle-bow ;  a  shot  has 
pierced  him  through  and  through.  "  Save  yourself,"  he  orders 
his  friend;  "  I  am  gone,"  and  at  that  instant  a  squad  of  Imperialist 
cavalry  dash  upon  them  and  the  king  is  left — alone.  The  duke 
spurs  to  the  rear  for  aid ;  the  king,  surrounded  by  assailants, 
receives  several  other  wounds  and  pitches  lifeless  from  his  saddle. 
Another  moment  and  the  royal  charger,  riderless  and  covered 
with  blood,  tears  along  the  Swedish  lines  and  the  dismal  story 
is  known.  Gustavus  Adolphus  is  killed. 

And  now,  instead  of  dispiriting  them,  the  sight  of  the  gory 
saddle  seemed  to  inspire  the  entire  army  with  renewed  fervor 
and  energy.  Bernhard  of  Weimar  at  once  assumed  command. 
The  entire  line  again  advanced,  and  this  time  the  windmill  bat- 
teries were  seized,  held,  and  turned  eastward  so  as  to  enfilade 
the  Imperialist  line.  The  Germans  had  really  won  the  key- 
point  of  the  battle.  The  Swedish  infantry,  both  lines  now,  with 
the  Duke  of  Weimar  and  Kniphausen,  fought  their  way  over  the 
field  and  a  second  time  captured  the  heavy  battery.  Then  the 
shots  of  the  artillery  reached  the  Imperialist  ammunition  wagons 
in  rear  of  the  centre,  and  these  began  to  ignite  and  explode  with 
great  uproar  arid  damage.  All  was  over  with  Wallenstein ;  his 
whole  line  was  in  full  retreat,  when,  suddenly,  the  dust-clouds 


PAPPENHEIM   ARRIVES.  275 

that  had  been  marked  by  Gustavus  Adolphus  an  hour  before  far 
off  to  the  north  came  sweeping  upon  the  field.  Pappenheim, 
with  all  his  cuirassiers  and  dragoons,  dashed  upon  the  wearied 
Swedes;  all  that  was  gained  was  in  jeopardy.  Five  minutes  ago 
the  battle  was  won  by  Sweden ;  now  there  was  no  telling  who 
would  be  the  victor. 

Again  Wallenstein  rallied  his  infantry  and  brought  them  back 
into  line.  Again  the  Imperialist  cavalry  reformed  and  endeavored 
to  aid  their  comrades  of  Pappenheim's  division.  As  for  that 
fiery  soldier  himself,  he  had  received  the  order  to  join  Wallen- 
stein only  when  his  troops  were  scattered,  plundering  Halle. 
Never  waiting  for  his  infantry,  he  mounted  his  eight  regiments 
of  horse  and  started  back  towards  Lutzen  early  in  the  morning ; 
met  the  Croats  and  Poles  fleeing  from  the  field  before  General 
Horn;  spent  some  little  time  rallying  them;  then  with  his  own 
fresh  regiments  and  with  these  restored  cavalrymen  he  bore 
down  upon  the  field.  Once  more  the  Swedish  infantry  was 
driven  back  across  the  now  blood-stained  level.  Once  more  the 
heavy  guns  became  the  property  of  their  original  owners.  The 
whole  "  yellow  regiment "  of  the  Swedish  line,  it  is  said,  was 
shot  or  sabred  there,  and,  after  winning  the  utmost  distinction 
during  the  day,  died  almost  to  a  man  around  those  fatal  guns. 
Another  regiment,  the  blue,  was  surrounded  and  literally  hacked 
to  pieces  by  the  Italian  cavalry  under  Count  Piccolomini.'  But 
Sweden  was  indomitable — her  soldiers  would  die  there  as  their 
king  had  died,  but  they  would  not  give  up  the  fight. 

Falling  back  behind  their  own  guns,  they  permitted  the 
artillerists  to  open  on  the  fresh  arrivals  of  Pappenheim.  Then 
Pappenheim  charged  the  guns,  but  was  beaten  back.  Leading 
in  a  second  time,  this  daring  soldier  became  in  his  turn  the  target 
of  the  Swedish  musketeers.  Two  bullets  passed  through  his 
chest;  he  fell  from  his  horse  and  was  borne  dying  from  the  field. 
He  had  been  searching  everywhere  for  the  King  of  Sweden, 
hoping  to  cross  swords  with  the  renowned  monarch.  Now,  as 
he  was  borne  to  the  rear,  they  told  him  that  the  king  was  killed. 
"  Tell  the  Duke  of  Friedland,"  he  said,  "  that  I  lie  without  a 
hope  of  life,  but  that  I  die  happy  since  I  know  that  the  implacable 
enemy  of  my  religion  has  fallen  on  the  same  day." 


276  LUTZEN. 

With  the  fall  of  Pappenheim  the  last  hope  of  the  Imperialists 
departed.  Brave  as  he  unquestionably  was,  Wallenstein  lacked 
the  magnetism  that  enables  the  leader  to  control  the  soldier  in 
moments  of  panic  or  peril.  The  cavalry  on  the  left  again  gave 
way  before  the  Swedish  cuirassiers ;  the  infantry'  of  the  centre 
reformed  in  support  of  the  central  guns,  and,  in  the  right  wing, 
Coloredo,  Gotz,  Terzky  and  Piccolomini  rallied  and  aligned  their 
regiments ;  but  now  the  Swedish  lines  were  formed  for  a  last 
effort.  To  replace  the  yellow  and  blue  regiments,  which  were 
already  practically  annihilated,  the  infantry  of  the  second  line 
was  called  to  the  front,  and,  for  the  third  time,  the  footmen  of 
Sweden  advanced  across  the  highway.  The  struggle  over  the 
guns  was  long,  bloody  and  desperate  ;  but,  as  the  sun  went  down, 
Wallenstein  saw,  with  dumb  dismay,  that  his  men  were  incapa- 
ble of  further  effort.  The  seven  heavy  guns  of  the  centre  were 
for  the  third  and  last  time  taken  and  held  by  the  soldiers  of 
Sweden.  Pappenheim's  infantry,  six  fresh  regiments,  came  up 
about  nightfall,  but  the  battle  was  over. 

Beyond  all  doubt  the  victory  was  with  the  army  of  Sweden. 
They  had  lost,  it  is  true,  their  good,  and  generous  and  gallant 
king ;  the  first  general  of  the  seventeenth  century  had  perished 
on  the  field ;  the  only  conqueror  who  could  be  merciful  and  just, 
that  the  world  had  yet  known,  lay  stripped  and  slain  among  the 
bodies  of  his  faithful  soldiers,  but  the  victory  was  his — and  theirs. 
Wallenstein  decamped  that  very  night  and  fled  to  Leipsic,  and 
thither,  the  next  day,  his  army  straggled.  Abandoning  every 
gun,  abandoning  their  colors,  they  made  their  way  after  him,  a 
whipped  and  dejected  multitude. 

Yet,  no  sooner  had  Wallenstein  become  assured  of  the  death 
of  Gustavus  Adolphus,  than  he  claimed  the  victory,  sent  couriers 
and  officers  to  the  emperor  announcing  triumphant  success ; 
caused  Te  Deums  to  be  sung  in  the  cathedrals,  and  assumed  all 
the  triumphant  bearing  of  a  conqueror;  but  his  sudden  evacua- 
tion of  Leipsic  and  Saxony,  on  hearing  that  the  Duke  of  Wei- 
mar meant  to  assail  him  again,  pricked  the  bubble  of  his  reputa- 
tion, and  the  star  of  his  wavering  fortune  set  forever.  Duke 
Bernhard  marched  into  Leipsic  a  victor.  Wallenstein,  again 


GUSTAVUS  AND   WALLENSTEIN    CONTRASTED.  277 

suspected  of  treason  to  the  crown,  died  at  the  hand  of  assassins 
within  fifteen  months  of  his  last  battle.  He  had  no  friends ;  he 
left  none  to  mourn  him.  He  was  a  man  who  had  lived  for  self 
alone,  and,  though  brave  and  resolute  to  the  last,  it  was  the 
bravery  of  desperation. 

On  the  other  hand,  Gustavus  Adolphus,  the  soldier  of  his 
century,  the  statesman,  scholar  and  Christian,  died  universally 
lamented:  even  his  enemies  were  powerfully  moved.  His  body 
was  brought  with  reverent  care  to  Weissenfels,  thence  to  Wit- 
tenberg, and  finally,  with  great  pomp  and  ceremony,  was  con- 
veyed to  Sweden,  where,  on  the  i8th  of  June,  1634,  long  after 
the  death  of  Wallenstein,  the  honored  remains  were  consigned 
to  the  grave.  He  had  died  in  the  flower  of  his  age,  in  the  midst 
of  an  eventful  and  most  honored  life,  in  the  heart  of  what  would 
have  been  his  greatest  victory. 

For  a  time  after  Liitzen,  it  looked  as  though  the  death  of 
Gustavus  would  be  a  blow  from  which  the  Protestant  cause 
could  not  rally ;  but  the  genius  of  the  Swedish  chancellor,  Oxen- 
stiern,  and  the  brilliancy  of  his  generals,  kept  the  enemy  at 
bay.  We  have  no  exact  figures  of  the  losses  at  Liitzen ;  some 
9,000  men  were  known  to  have  been  killed,  all  told,  and  it  is 
probable  that  the  casualties  were  very  equally  divided.  The  list 
of  wounded  or  contused  in  the  Swedish  army  included  pretty 
much  every  survivor,  so  desperate  had  been  the  fighting. 

But  Austria  was  emboldened  to  new  efforts,  now  that  the 
dreaded  king  was  out  of  the  way ;  and  in  less  than  two  years 
Bernhard  of  Weimar,  with  a  strong  army  of  Germans,  Saxons 
and  Swedes,  was  terribly  defeated  by  the  Imperialists  at  Nord- 
lingen,  September  6th,  1634.  Then  Saxony  lost  heart  and  made 
peace  at  Prague  with  Austria,  by  the  terms  of  which  the  Luther- 
ans abandoned  the  struggle  with  her  and  became,  with  Saxony, 
allies  of  Austria.  This  left  the  German  Calvinists  to  their  fate, 
and  so  complicated  the  questions  of  the  war  that,  in  order  to  re- 
tain for  his  country  the  possessions  won  by  Gustavus  Adolphus, 
Oxenstiern  diplomatically  turned  over  the  direction  of  the  war 
to  Cardinal  Richelieu,  of  France.  Now  it  was  no  longer  Pro- 
testant against  Catholic,  but  France,  Sweden  and  North  Ger- 


278  LUTZEN. 

many  against  Austria,  Spain  and  Italy;  with  Saxony,  Bohemia 
and  the  Palatinate  alternately  trampled  under  foot  by  both  par- 
ties. Nor  was  there  much  concert  of  action.  The  troops  of 
Sweden,  under  General  Baner,  were  retained  in  North  Germany, 
making  occasional  dashes  to  the  south,  to  the  great  alarm  of 
Austria.  Duke  Bernhard  reorganized  his  army,  and  was  fight- 
ing independently  along  the  Rhine  in  hopes  of  winning  Alsace 
for  himself;  and  two  great  soldiers,  Turenne  and  Conde,  were 
leading  the  armies  of  France  against  the  allies  on  the  German 
frontier  and  in  Spain. 

The  Imperialist  party  had  the  best  of  the  fight  for  some  time 
after  Nordlingen,  for  the  features  of  the  war  were  now  entirely 
changed  and,  happily,  entering  on  their  last  phase ;  but  the  pro- 
ject of  invading  France  was  defeated  by  the  energy  of  the 
Swedes  under  Baner,  who  kept  the  Austrians  incessantly  em- 
ployed in  Bohemia  and  Silesia,  and  won  a  great  battle  from 
them  at  Wittstock  (October  4th,  1636).  Then  came  a  series  of 
fights  in  which  Sweden  was  uniformly  successful,  and  two  more 
marked  victories  at  Breitenfeld — which  thus  became  distinguished 
a  second  time — and  Yankowitz  added  to  the  lustre  of  her  arms. 

On  the  Rhine,  however,  Duke  Bernhard  fared  badly,  and  at 
last  the  great  French  generals,  Conde  and  Turenne,  came  to  his 
rescue,  and  drove  the  leaguers  back  into  Bavaria — winning  at 
Nordlingen,  August  3d,  1645,  the  battle  which  virtually  termi- 
nated the  struggle,  and  the  peace  of  Westphalia  ended  the 
Thirty  Years'  War. 


VIENNA. 

1683. 

'IENNA,  the  beautiful  capital  of  the  Empire  of 
Austria,  lies  on  a  level  plain  surrounded  by  a 
circle  of  low  hills  and  traversed  by  the  river 
Danube.  Its  name  is  taken  from  a  sluggish 
stream,  the  Wien,  which  flows  under  the  walls 
into  an  arm  of  the  great  river  that  separates  the 
city  from  the  suburb  of  Leopoldstadt  on  the 
northeast.  From  its  geographical  position  and 
its  political  importance,  the  city  has  been  sub- 
jected to  several  sieges,  and  has  been  the  scene  of  many  a  great 
conference  and  treaty  of  peace  between  the  various  European 
powers ;  but  for  years  of  its  early  existence  it  lay  in  the  track 
of  every  horde  of  barbaric  invaders,  and  after  the  establishment 
of  Mussulman  power  in  Eastern  Europe  it  was  incessantly 
threatened  by  the  Turks.  These  people  besieged  it  in  strong 
force  in  1529,  but  it  was  gallantly  defended  and  they  were 
driven  back  with  great  loss.  Then,  during  the  Thirty  Years' 
War,  the  troops  of  Sweden  several  times  came  within  alarming 
proximity  to  its  walls,  but  without  attack.  Then  came  a  brief 
respite,  and  finally  in  1683,  nearly  forty  years  after  the  close  of 
the  long  and  disheartening  war  in  which  the  empire  had  been 
engaged,  there  came  a  siege  that  well-nigh  wiped  it  out  of  ex- 
istence. 

Leopold  I.  was  Emperor  of  Austria.  He  had  been  crowned 
King  of  Hungary  in  1654,  but  had  to  fight  for  his  possessions 
with  the  Turks,  in  which  contest  his  general,  the  same  Monte- 
cuculi  who  had  won  such  distinction  in  the  Thirty  Years'  War, 
gained  a  great  victory  over  the  infidels  at  St.  Gothard,  on  the 

(279) 


280 


VIENNA. 


Raab,  and  from  that  time  the  sultan  had  been  busily  preparing 
his  revenge. 

In  1683  the  grand  vizier,  Kara  Mustapha,  marched  with  an 
immense  army  and  powerful  train  to  lay  siege  to  Vienna,  and 
humble  it  and  its  master  in  the  dust.  Leopold  stood  not 
upon  the  order  of  his  going,  but,  with  his  family,  court  and 
thousands  of  inhabitants,  he  went  at  once.  The  country  was 
filled  with  fugitives,  carts  and  plunder,  and  the  Turks,  falling 
upon  the  hindermost,  slaughtered  or  made  captive  as  they  saw 
fit  On  the  /th  of  July  they  drew  their  lines  around  the  city 
and  leisurely  proceeded  to  reduce  it.  So  secure  did  the  vizier 
feel  against  counter-attack  on  his  great  army  that  he  disdained 
to  fortify  his  camps. 

Vienna,  with  its  strong  fortifications,  its  artillery,  magazines 
and  public  buildings,  had  been  confided  to  the  charge  of  the 
Count  de  Staremberg,  a  thorough  theoretical  soldier.  He  burned 
the  suburbs  outside  the  walls,  so  as  to  clear  the  way  for  his  guns, 
and  then,  with  a  garrison  of  perhaps  15,000  effectives,  he  set 
about  the  task  of  defending  the  capital  against  probably  five 
times  that  many.  Staremberg's  garrison  was  largely  made  up 
of  citizens  and  the  students  of  the  university,  armed  and  enrolled 
for  the  emergency.  His  regular  troops  did  not  exceed  10,000. 
Mustapha  had  three  hundred  guns  and  a  brave,  devoted  and 
war-trained  army,  strong  enough  in  numbers  to  entirely  encircle 
the  city  and  to  send  a  "  corps  of  devastation  "  40,000  strong  to 
kill,  burn  and  destroy  through  Hungary,  Silesia  and  Moravia. 
This  force  with  its  roving  commission  was  very  successfully  met 
and  parried  .by  the  Duke  of  Lorraine  with  30,000  men ;  but  he 
had  been  early  driven  away  from  supporting  distance  of  Vienna, 
and  could  render  no  actual  assistance  to  the  garrison  after  the 
first  few  days  of  the  siege. 

The  Turks  broke  ground  for  their  first  trenches  in  the  suburb 
of  St.  Ulric,  on  the  i/j-th  of  July,  about  fifty  yards  from  the  ditch 
which,  partly  dry,  partly  flooded,  extended  around  the  walls. 
Their  first  breaching  batteries  were  speedily  planted  and  a  storm 
of  solid  shot  was  poured  upon  the  masonry.  Staremberg  was 
grievously  wounded  at  the  very  outset  by  a  heavy  fragment  of 


THE   CITY   INVESTED.  281 

stone,  but  refused  to  rest  or  turn  over  the  command.  He  was 
the  soul  of  the  defence,  cheering,  animating,  encouraging  every- 
where. By  July  22d  the  Turks  had  worked  their  way  up  to 
the  palisading,  which  the  garrison  could  defend  only  with  sword 
and  with  scythes  fastened  to  long  poles,  but  they  fought  so  vig- 
orously and  well,  that  not  until  the  7th  of  August  did  the  be- 
siegers succeed  in  winning  the  counterscarp.  Then  came  the 
work  of  digging  their  way  down  into  the  ditch  in  face  of  a  sharp 
fire  from  the  parapet.  They  here  resorted  to  tunneling,  for  the 
besieged,  though  short  of  powder  and  hand-grenades,  found  an 
inventive  genius  in  the  Baron  de  Kielmansegg,  who  not  only 
made  a  very  fair  powder,  but  manufactured  shells  out  of  stiff 
clay,  that,  dropped  and  exploded  among  the  burrowing  Mussul- 
mans, worried  them  infinitely  and  greatly  retarded  their  work. 
Once  in  the  ditch  the  Turks  resorted  to  their  specialty — mining. 
They  had  utterly  destroyed  the  walls  in  many  places  a  century 
before,  and  hoped  again  to  ruin  them  now.  Provisions  were  run- 
ning short,  ammunition  was  scant  and  poor,  disease  was  thinning 
the  ranks  of  the  defenders,  and  when  the  22d  of  August  came,  it 
was  conceded  that  they  could  not  hold  out  more  than  three  days. 
Most  of  the  cannon  were  broken  or  dismounted.  The  walls 
were  honey-combed,  the  foundations  shattered  by  mines.  The 
situation  was  critical  in  the  last  degree,  and  Staremberg,  vainly 
imploring  aid  from  the  Duke  of  Lorraine,  wrote  him  that  not 
another  instant  could  be  lost  if  Vienna  was  to  be  saved.  But  so 
secure  was  the  Turkish  leader  of  his  prize  and  the  rich  plunder 
that  awaited  him,  that  he  refrained  from  assault,  confidently  ex- 
pecting the  city  to  capitulate,  and  never  dreaming  of  interference 
from  outside. 

But  in  his  flight  and  refuge  Leopold  had  appealed  for  aid  to 
the  only  man  then  living  who  was  a  terror  to  the  Tartar,  John 
Sobieski,  King  of  Poland.  Rich  and  powerful  Austria  begged 
this  little  monarchy  to  come  to  the  rescue  of  the  empire  and  the 
Christian  world;  and,  at  the  head  of  25,000  veteran  troops, 
Sobieski  started.  He  had  to  march  nearly  six  hundred  miles 
the  winding  way  he  came,  but  on  the  5th  of  September  he  was 
crossing  the  bridge  of  Tuln,  fifteen  miles  above  Vienna.  His 


232  VIENNA. 

cavalry  were  superbly  mounted,  uniformed  and  equipped;  his 
infantry  were  in  rags  and  tatters.  The  people  looked  aghast  at 
their  poverty-stricken  appearance,  but  Sobieski  laughed  it  off. 
"  Those  fellows,"  said  he,  "  have  taken  an  oath  to  wear  no 
clothes  except  those  of  the  enemy.  In  the  last  war  they  were 
all  dressed  as  Turks."  And  his  hardy  soldiers  seemed  to  de- 
light in  the  joke.  On  September  7th  the  army  of  Poland  had 
joined  that  of  Germany,  and  the  united  forces  were  now  74,000 
strong.  Four  sovereigns  were  among  the  leaders — Sobieski  of 
Poland,  Maximilian  of  Bavaria,  John  George  III.  of  Saxony,  and 
Charles  V.,  Duke  of  Lorraine.  To  the  first-named  was  accorded 
the  command-in-chief,  for  he  was  already-recognized  as  the  finest 
soldier  then  in  the  ranks  of  war.  Sobieski  lost  no  time  in  or- 
ganizing his  forces.  He  well  knew  the  desperate  condition  of 
affairs  in  Vienna,  and  that  he  could  not  too  soon  appear  before 
the  walls  to  the  relief  of  the  suffering  garrison.  Two  days  were 
spent  in  assigning  the  various  brigades  and  regiments  to  appro- 
priate commanders,  and  in  instructing  his  generals  in  the  plan 
of  operations.  Then,  on  the  Qth  of  September,  the  army  pushed 
forward  to  force  their  way  over  the  broken  and  rugged  heights 
that  intervened  between  them  and  Vienna,  dragging  their  artil- 
lery with  them.  So  difficult  a  task  did  this  prove  that  the  Ger- 
mans gave  it  up  and  left  their  guns  behind ;  but  the  Polanders, 
better  disciplined  and  far  more  determined,  dragged  theirs  over 
rock  and  ravine,  and,  after  two  days'  vehement  exertion,  suc- 
ceeded, on  the  night  of  September  nth,  in  bringing  twenty- 
eight  guns  to  the  brow  of  the  heights  overlooking  the  plain  of 
Vienna ;  and  these  were  all  that  Sobieski  could  count  on  for  the 
assault  of  an  army  in  position,  that  by  this  time  amounted  to 
nearly  200,000  men.  The  march  had  been  most  tortuous  and 
difficult ;  the  defiles  were  steep,  crooked  and  narrow,  and,  had 
the  grand  vizier  possessed  the  first  elements  of  military  science, 
he  would  have  seized  the  passes,  where  a  few  hundred  deter- 
mined men  could  have  beaten  back  thousands ;  but,  in  stupid 
over-confidence,  he  allowed  them  to  come  on,  and,  at  dawn  on 
the  morning  of  the  I2th  of  September,  the  army  of  Sobieski, 
then  70,000  strong,  swept  down  upon  him. 


SOBIESKI   TO  THE   RESCUE.  283 

They  had  reached  the  crest  of  the  Calemberg  on  the  previous 
evening,  and  signalled  their  coming  to  the  well-nigh  exhausted 
defenders.  Then,  without  delay,  the  general-in-chief  set  about 
the  disposition  for  the  morrow.  To  his  own,  the  Polish  army, 
was  assigned  the  extreme  right  of  the  line,  under  the  command 
of  General  Sublonowski.  The  troops  of  Bavaria  and  Saxony 
were  posted  on  the  left  wing,  under  their  own  princes.  The 
Austrians,  under  the  Duke  of  Lorraine,  occupied  the  centre ; 
while  a  fourth  corps,  under  the  Prince  of  Waldeck,  was  ex- 
tended well  over  to  the  left,  to  feel  its  way  along  the  Danube 
and  hasten  into  the  city  if  the  besiegers  were  driven  back.  Each 
division  was  formed  in  four  lines,  the  reserves  being  massed  be- 
hind the  centre  of  each,  and  forming  the  fourth  line.  A  redis- 
tribution of  the  guns  was  made,  and  they,  with  the  infantry,  were 
placed  in  the  front  line  of  the  entire  army.  The  cavalry  were 
placed  in  the  second  line,  with  orders  to  move  forward  and 
occupy  the  intervals  between  the  infantry  brigades  as  soon  as 
they  got  well  down  upon  the  plain. 

Sobieski,  from  the  heights  of  the  Calemberg,  had  carefully 
reconnoitered  the  position  of  the  Turks.  "That  vizier  is  an 
ignorant  fellow,"  said  he ;  "  we  shall  beat  him." 

Two  hours  before  dawn  he  and  some  of  his  principal  officers 
attended  religious  services  and  partook  of  the  holy  sacrament. 
Then,  at  the  first  break  of  day,  rolling  their  guns  by  hand  before 
them,  the  allied  troops  slowly,  steadily  advanced.  Almost  at 
the  same  instant  one-half  the  Turkish  army  began  a.  vigorous 
assault  on  the  walls  of  Vienna,  the  other  half  marched  forward 
to  meet  Sobieski. 

Close  under  the  heights  the  ground  was  cut  up  into  vineyards, 
ravines  and  ridges.  The  cavalry  of  the  Turks,  which  had  ad- 
vanced with  great  spirit,  were  met  by  fierce  discharges  from  the 
guns  which  they  strove  in  vain  to  reach,  and  at  length,  thrown 
into  confusion  by  the  rapid  fire  and  the  broken  nature  of  the 
ground,  they  broke  and  galloped  back  in  much  disorder.  While 
they  were  being  rallied,  some  of  the  Turkish  generals  led  for- 
ward the  infantry  to  the  foot-hills,  and  then  began  to  breast  the 
heights  against  the  slowly  descending  allies.  All  at  once  the 


284 


VIENNA. 


guns  of  Sobieski  ceased  their  thunder,  and  with  one  accord  the 
bristling  lines  of  infantry  marched  out  beyond  them ;  then,  with 
mighty  shout,  pikemen  and  musketeers  came  charging  down  the 
slopes  at  the  irregular  masses  of  the  Turks.  It  was  a  dashing 
and  impetuous  assault:  the  Moslems  could  make  no  stand  what- 
ever against  it.  Back  they  went,  through  the  ravines  and  vine- 
yards, closely  pressed  by  the  cheering  allies,  and  at  last  they 
were  forced  fairly  and  squarely  out  upon  the  open  plain.  Here 
Sobieski  and  his  generals  halted  their  men,  rapidly  aligned  the 
battalions,  opened  well  out  to  the  right  and  left;  while,  in  prompt 
obedience  to  their  instructions,  the  glittering  regiments  of  the 
cavalry  came  trotting  down  in  their  tracks,  and  rapidly  ranging 
up  into  line  in  the  intervals  between  the  brigades.  At  the  same 
time  willing  hands  were  at  work  on  the  guns,  and  by  noon  they 
were  once  again  in  position  in  front  of  the  line  of  battle,  ready 
to  reopen  their  thunder.  Thus  far  everything  had  gone  admira- 
bly with  the  allies.  Now  they  were  to  fight  upon  the  level,  and 
here  the  wild  Turkish  horsemen  would  have  a  better  chance  to 
show  their  mettle. 

Meantime  things  had  gone  badly  with  Kara  Mustapha.  The 
grand  assault  on  the  walls  had  been  repulsed  with  heavy  loss. 
The  besieged,  animated  by  the  sight  of  their  coming  comrades, 
fought  with  great  valor  and  determination.  Then  he  was  dis- 
mayed by  the  ease  with  which  his  troops  had  been  whipped  back 
from  the  heights  by  the  German  infantry,  and  now,  thoroughly 
alarmed,  as  he  marked  the  gallant  and  spirited  bearing  of  the 
Polish  lancers  as  they  rode  up  into  line,  their  bright  banneroles 
waving  and  flashing  in  the  sunlight,  he  hastily  sent  orders  to 
concentrate  the  entire  army  on  the  plain  to  face  the  allies,  and, 
in  much  excitement,  strove  to  establish  his  lines  in  effective 
order.  The  Pasha  of  Diarbeker  was  assigned  to  command  his 
right  wing;  the  Pasha  of  Buda  the  left.  The  vizier  himself  was 
in  rear  of  the  centre  with  the  generals  of  the  Janissaries  and 
Spahis  to  assist  and  advise  him.  All  the  time  his  infidel  hordes 
were  keeping  up  a  deafening  chorus  of  shouts  and  yells.  They 
distrusted  their  leader;  had  no  respect  for  his  ability,  and,  al- 
though in  overwhelming  force,  were  nervous  and  uneasy  about 


THE  TURKS  UTTERLY  DEFEATED          285 

the  safety  of  their  camps  in  rear,  where  many  of  them  had  left 
the  women  and  children  of  their  families.  And  now  the  vizier 
committed  an  act  of  savage  cruelty  and  vengeance.  He  had  a 
large  number  of  prisoners  of  all  ages  and  conditions ;  some  his- 
torians put  the  number  at  30,000.  He  ordered  his  Tartars  to 
put  them  all  to  death,  and  the  inhuman  mandate  was  as  brutally 
carried  out. 

On  the  side  of  the  allies  all  was  disciplined  silence.  In  per- 
fect composure  the  lines  were  accurately  dressed ;  the  army  en- 
joyed a  brief  resting  spell ;  then  at  length  Sobieski,  sabre  in 
hand,  rode  out  to  the  front  of  the  centre  and  gave  the  signal. 
Sudden  as  the  flash  of  their  own  guns  six  splendid  regiments  of 
Polish  cavalry  leaped  forward  to  the  charge,  and  with  bared 
sabres  and  quivering  lances  bore  down  on  the  very  centre  of  the 
Turkish  position.  In  vain  footman,  Janissary  and  Spahi  braced 
themselves  for  the  shock  and  struggled  to  hold  their  ground 
against  them ;  these  northern  horsemen  rode  through  or  over 
everything  and  everybody,  and,  never  drawing  rein,  overturned 
the  very  squadrons  that  surrounded  and  guarded  the  vizier  him- 
self. The  Spahis  rallied  and  fought  bravely,  but  the  vizier  turned 
his  back  and  fled  for  safety,  followed  by  his  great  retinue  of  at- 
tendants and  courtiers.  The  Janissaries  then  fought  without 
their  usual  spirit.  The  Tartars  broke  and  ran  for  the  camp  in 
search  of  such  booty  as  they  could  lay  hands  on.  In  front  of 
the  camp  the  vizier  once  more  attempted  to  rally  and  form  his 
lines,  but  by  this  time  the  entire  army  of  Sobieski  was  charging 
home  upon  them  and  the  soldiers  would  rally  for  nobody,  much 
less  for  a  man  who  had  set  the  example  of  luxury  and  effeminacy 
in  camp,  and  cowardice  in  battle.  By  three  o'clock  in  the  after- 
noon the  whole  Mussulman  army,  abandoning  its  vast  encamp- 
ment, was  in  disorderly  flight  eastward  down  the  valley  of  the 
Danube,  pursued  and  sabred  by  the  Polish  cavalry.  The  siege 
of  Vienna  was  raised  in  good  earnest. 

That  night  the  army  of  Sobieski,  advancing  in  disciplined 
order,  bivouacked  on  the  plain  around  the  abandoned  camp,  while 
eager  greetings  passed  between  their  officers  and  those  of  the 
brave  defenders  of  the  city.  Vienna  could  not  have  held  out 
another  day,  and  knew  it  well. 


286  VIENNA. 

Early  on  the  I3th  of  September  the  rich  camp  of  the  Orientals 
was  thrown  open  to  the  plunder  of  the  soldiery.  A  horrible 
sight  met  their  view  in  the  vast  number  of  dead,  slain  by  order 
of  the  vizier  on  the  previous  day,  and  the  corpses  of  Turkish 
women  and  children,  butchered  by  husbands  and  fathers  because 
they  could  neither  take  them  with  them  in  their  flight,  nor  could 
they  bear  to  leave  them  to  the  possible  ill  treatment  of  the  con- 
querors. The  amount  of  money  and  valuables  left  behind  by 
Kara  Mustapha  in  his  panicky  flight  is  simply  incalculable. 
The  Germans  and  Poles  were  made  rich.  King  John  Sobieski 
wrote  to  his  wife :  "  The  grand  vizier  has  made  me  his  heir, 
and  I  have  found  in  his  tents  to  the  value  of  many  millions  of 
ducats." 

And  so,  with  very  little  loss  of  life  among  his  army,  Sobieski 
of  Poland  had  saved  the  Empire  of  Austria..  It  was  a  crowning 
and  decisive  victory.  The  losses  of  the  Turks  were  so  great 
in  life,  treasure  and  military  property  that  the  lesson  proved 
most  salutary.  They  fell  back  to  their  own  provinces  in  the 
East,  and  henceforth  abandoned  all  attempts  upon  the  Christian 
capitals  and  strongholds  up  the  Danube. 

Had  Vienna  been  taken  by  the  Turks  it  would  perhaps  have 
been  held  as  Constantinople  has  been  held.  Its  churches  would 
have  become  pagan  mosques,  and  the  followers  of  Islam  would 
have  occupied  the  heart  of  a  populous  and  wealthy  country. 
Powerless  to  help  himself,  the  emperor  had  called  in  Sobieski. 
Him  the  people  of  Vienna  welcomed  and  honored  as  they  would 
a  deliverer  from  Heaven.  Entering  the  city  he  was  overwhelmed 
with  their  acclamations,  praises  and  gratitude.  He  could  barely 
force  his  horse  along  the  streets.  He  was  their  deliverer — their 
hero.  They  forgot  their  own  monarch  who  had  abandoned 
them.  They  saw  only  Sobieski.  Gallant  Staremberg  came  to 
hail  him  as  their  preserver.  The  soldiers  called  him  leader  and 
liberator.  He  was  the  central  figure  of  popular  acclaim  and 
enthusiasm.  Poland  had  saved  Austria.  The  first  part  of  the 
old  fable  of  the  lion  and  the  mouse  had  been  enacted. 

But  there  it  ended.  Once  safe  and  restored  to  his  capital,  a 
haughty  nod  was  the  sole  reward  the  emperor  vouchsafed  the 


INGRATITUDE  OF  AUSTRIA. 


287 


king,  and,  when  dissension  and  strife  over  its  elective  monarchy 
arose  in  Poland  soon  after,  three  powerful  and  jealous  neighbors 
took  advantage  of  the  snarl  to  pounce  upon  and  divide  up  the 
little  kingdom  amongst  them,  and  Austria,  who  owed  her  life  to 
Poland,  was  the  most  rapacious  and  cruel  of  her  plunderers. 
Poland,  stifled  and  strangled  by  the  hand  she  raised  from  the 
dust,  is  no  longer  a  nation. 


Bishop  Kolonitsch.     Count  Staremberg.     Sobieski.     Elector  of  Saxony.     Elector  of  Bavaria. 
"  THE   GALLANT  STAREMBERG   CAME  TO    HAIL   HIM   AS   THEIR   PRESERVER." 


NARVA. 

1700. 

NDER  Gustavus  Adolphus,  Sweden  had  be- 
come renowned  as  the  most  scientific  fight- 
ing nation  in  Europe.  The  skill,  discipline 
and  valor  of  the  Swedish  troops  were  uni- 
versally admitted  to  be  superior  to  anything 
yet  developed  in  Christendom.  The  de- 
scendants of  Gustavus  Vasa  bade  fair  to 
increase  the  limits  and  power  of  the  king- 
dom, but  when  he  died  at  Liitzen,  the  greater 
Gustavus  left  no  son  to  take  his  throne.  His  daughter,  prevail- 
ing upon  the  states  of  Sweden  to  elect  her  cousin,  son  of  the 
Count  Palatine,  in  her  place,  abdicated  and  went  to  live  in  Rome. 
Charles  Gustavus  X.  proved  a  soldierly  and  ambitious  ruler,  but 
he  too  died  y6ung ;  his  son  Charles  XI.,  a  warrior  like  his  pre- 
decessors, then  came  to  the  throne,  married  the  daughter  of  the 
King  of  Denmark,  and  of  this  marriage  there  was  born  on  the 
morning  of  June  17,  1682,  the  most  extraordinary  ruler  yet  ac- 
credited to  Sweden,  and  one  of  the  most  brilliant,  distinguished 
and  extraordinary  men  the  world  ever  saw.  This  was  the  soldier 
Charles  XII. 

The  death  of  his  parents,  when  he  was  a  mere  boy,  left  him 
for  a  time  in  the  hands  of  guardians,  but,  when  only  fifteen  years 
of  age,  the  young  prince  demanded  and  received  recognition  as 
King  of  Sweden.  Like  the  great  Gustavus,  he  was  an  earnest 
student  of  history  and  of  military  works ;  a  fine  linguist  and  a 
fair  scholar  in  other  branches ;  but  for  all  manner  of  bodily  and 
athletic  exercises  he  early  manifested  the  strongest  liking.  He 
was  an  accomplished  horseman  before  his  tenth  year,  and  had 
learned  all  the  drill  of  the  soldier.  The  hero  of  his  boyish  ad- 
(288) 


CHARLES   XII.   CROWNED.  289 

miration  was  Alexander  the  Great,  whose  career  his  own  was 
to  so  strongly  resemble. 

Charles  XII.  was  crowned  King  of  Sweden  on  the  24th  of 
December,  1697,  being  then  sixteen  years  old.  His  kingdom 
embraced  much  that  is  now  Russian  territory  east  of  the  Baltic, 
and  the  most  valuable  portion  of  Pomerania  and  the  duchies  of 
Bremen  and  Verden.  His  army  and  navy,  thanks  to  the  care 
and  wisdom  of  his  father,  were  both  in  great  discipline  and  effi- 
ciency, while  the  treasury  of  Sweden  was  far  richer  than  it  ever 
had  been.  With  everything  in  his  favor,  therefore,  Charles  began 
his  reign,  but  it  would  have  been  better  for  him  and  for  Sweden 
could  he  have  remained  three  years  longer  at  his  studies. 

The  moment  he  became  ruler  of  Sweden  and  master  of  his  own 
movements,  King  Charles  threw  aside  books  and  maps  and  gave 
himself  up  to  a  life  of  exciting  field-sports,  and  for  nearly  two 
years  his  time  was  spent  in  bear  and  boar  hunting.  He  rarely 
appeared  at  the  councils  of  his  ministers,  and  when  he  did,  it  was 
only  to  sit  cross-legged  on  the  table,  scowling  at  one  after  an- 
other as  they  spoke  of  matters  of  national  importance  which  he 
did  not  understand.  The  ambassadors  of  foreign  nations  in 
their  private  letters  reported  him  to  be  a  man  of  mean  capacity, 
and  this  opinion  of  him  soon  spread  throughout  Sweden.  At 
this  time  he  was  fond  of  dress  and  high  living,  but  for  women  he 
cared  nothing  at  all.  The  one  prominent  characteristic  which 
ought  to  have  given  his  advisers  an  inkling  of  the  strength  of 
character  that  lay  under  this  mask  of  laziness  and  indifference, 
seemed  to  have  been  almost  unnoticed.  His  promise,  his  word, 
was  better  than  a  bond.  From  first  to  last  Charles  the  Twelfth 
was  the  soul  of  integrity ;  and  a  liar,  a  cheat  or  a  swindler  he 
hated  from  his  inmost  soul. 

Against  this  indolent  young  monarch,  dreamily  secure  in  his 
kingdom  under  the  terms  of  the  peace  of  Ryswick,  three  pow- 
erful neighbors  combined  in  secret.  First  was  his  own  cousin, 
Frederick  IV.,  King  of  Denmark;  the  second  was  Augustus, 
King  of  Poland ;  the  third,  and  by  long  odds  the  most  powerful 
and  dangerous,  was  Peter  the  Great,  Tsar  of  Russia,  then  known 
as  Muscovy. 
19 


290  NARVA. 

The  enmity  of  the  first  grew  out  of  the  hatred  always  existing 
between  the  Danes  and  Swedes,  and  a  family  quarrel  springing 
from  the  indignities  heaped  by  King  Frederick  upon  the  Duke 
of  Holstein,  brother-in-law  to  Charles  of  Sweden.  The  jealousy 
of  the  second,.  King  Augustus  of  Poland  (whose  court  was 
eclipsed  in  splendor  only  by  that  of  Louis  XIV.  of  France),  was 
excited  by  the  growing  power  and  importance  of  Sweden,  and 
was  readily  fanned  into  insidious  hatred  by  the  renegade  Patkul, 
who  had  escaped  a  death  sentence  by  flight,  and  was  now  taking 
refuge  at  the  Polish  court  and  doing  all  in  his  power  to  incite  the 
king  to  war  against  the  country  from  which  he  was  exiled.  The 
ready  co-operation  of  the  third,  the  great  ruler  of  Russia,  was 
easily  secured.  He  was  building  up  a  noble  empire  of  his  own, 
had  extended  his  dominions  to  the  Sea  of  Azof  on  the  southeast 
by  victories  over  the  Turks,  and  now  he  needed  the  lands  on  the 
shores  of  the  Baltic  which,  though  occupied  by  the  very  people 
who  were  closely  allied  by  blood  to  his  subjects,  were  held  by 
Sweden.  These  three  monarchs  secretly  formed  their  combina- 
tion to  ruin  Charles  XII.  and  rob  his  kingdom  of  all  its  posses- 
sions east  and  south  of  the  Baltic. 

The  news  reached  the  capital  at  Stockholm  none  too  soon,  and 
great  was  the  consternation.  There  was  not,  at  that  moment,  a 
general  of  any  note  or  experience  in  the  Swedish  army,  and  the 
ministers  were  dismayed.  The  king  was  off  boar-hunting  when 
the  tidings  came  to  him  that  the  Saxons  (Augustus  of  Poland 
was  also  Elector  of  Saxony)  had  invaded  his  province  of  Livonia. 
Instantly  he  hurried  to  Stockholm,  summoned  his  council,  and 
arose  before  them  to  speak.  They  listened  with  amazement  that 
rapidly  gave  way  to  respect.  They  saw  in  their  king  a  new  man, 
young,  but  strong  and  resolute. 

"  Gentlemen,"  said  he,  "  I  am  resolved  never  to  begin  an  un- 
just war,  nor  ever  to  finish  a  just  one  but  by  the  destruction  of 
my  enemies.  My  resolution  is  fixed.  I  will  attack  the  first  that 
declares  against  me ;  and  after  having  conquered  him,  I  hope  I 
shall  be  able  to  strike  terror  into  the  rest." 

From  that  moment  the  whole  character  of  the  king  seemed 
changed.  He  was  now  just  eighteen  years  old.  He  abandoned 


DENMARK    HUMBLED.  291 

once  and  for  all  the  garb  of  the  court,  and  appeared  in  the  rough 
service  dress  of  the  army,  a  dress  that  was  his  invariable  cos- 
tume from  that  time  forth  to  his  dying  day.  The  long-skirted, 
single-breasted,  snug-fitting  frock-coat  of  coarse  dark  blue  cloth, 
with  rolling  collar  and  copper  buttons :  not  a  star,  not  an 
"  order,"  not  an  ornament  upon  breast  or  shoulder ;  huge  jack- 
boots coming  way  above  the  knee,  and  gauntlets  reaching 
almost  to  the  elbow.  These  were  now  the  features  of  the  royal 
toilet.  He  had  been  fond  of  the  pleasures  of  the  table.  Now  he 
banished  wine  from  his  board  and  became  an  advocate  of  total 
abstinence,  while  his  daily  bread  was  ordered  of  the  simplest, 
coarsest  character.  What  was  good  enough  for  his  soldiers  was 
good  enough  for-  him.  His  constitution  was  robust,  his  frame 
tall,  well-knit  and  hardened :  he  was  in  admirable  physical  trim 
for  a  sharp  campaign,  and  with  the  histories  of  Alexander  and 
Caesar  fresh  in  his  memory,  he  placed  himself  at  the  head  of  his 
troops  and  launched  out  on  his  career  as  a  soldier — a  career  that 
proved  the  wildest,  strangest,  most  romantic  and  adventurous, 
perhaps  the  maddest,  of  any  monarch  ever  known. 

On  the  8th  of  May,  1700,  Charles  XII.  left  his  capital,  Stock- 
holm, to  take  the  field.  He  never  saw  it  again.  In  a  few  days 
more,  leaping  into  the  surf  in  his  impatience,  sword  in  hand,  the 
young  king  landed  on  Danish  soil  and  led  his  men  against  Co- 
penhagen. "  What  noise  is  that  ?  "  he  asked  of  Major  Stuart, 
who  was  at  his  side.  "  It  is  the  whistling  of  the  enemy's  bullets, 
Sire,"  was  the  answer.  "  Good  !  "  said  Charles ;  "  henceforth  that 
shall  be  my  music"  and  so  it  proved.  In  less  than  six  weeks  he 
had  wrested  a  treaty  of  peace.  The  King  of  Denmark  had  been 
pounced  upon  and  humbled  before  his  allies  could  come  to  his 
aid. 

And  now  the  King  of  Poland  with  a  formidable  army  was 
assailing  Riga,  capital  of  Livonia;  and  the  Tsar  of  Muscovy,  with 
100,000  men,  was  marching  westward  to  join  his  confederates. 
Riga  was  superbly  defended  by  an  old  Swedish  general,  Count 
D'Alberg,  and  Augustus  could  accomplish  nothing  there,  while 
the  King  of  Sweden  was  left  free  to  turn  his  entire  attention  to 
the  coming  host  of  Peter  the  Great. 


292  NARVA. 

On  the  first  of  October,  1700,  the  Muscovite  army  halted 
before  Narva.  This  little  town  had  been  founded  by  Waldemar 
in  the  thirteenth  century,  and  though  lying  only  ninety-five 
miles  west-southwest  of  St.  Petersburg,  was  still  a  Swedish  port, 
ten  miles  inland  from  the  gulf.  It  was  in  bitter  cold  wintry 
weather,  but  both  Sweden  and  Russia  were  accustomed  to  war  at 
such  seasons,  and,  despite  the  extreme  inclemency  of  the  weather, 
their  movements  went  on. 

Bitterly  as  the  young  King  of  Sweden  felt  against  his  kins- 
man, Frederick  of  Denmark,  and  exasperated  as  he  was  against 
Augustus  of  Poland,  he  regarded  both  as  too  small  game  for 
his  arms ;  more  than  that,  he  was  doubly  incensed  against  the 
Tsar  of  Russia,  for  at  the  very  moment  when  this  monarch  was 
plotting  against  him,  with  the  Kings  of  Poland  and  Denmark, 
three  ambassadors  from  St.  Petersburg  were  still  at  Stockholm, 
"  who  had  lately  sworn  to  the  renewal  of  an  inviolable  peace." 
Charles  XII.  was  a  man  of  his  word,  and  duplicity  aroused  his 
intense  ire.  He  absolutely  passed  by  Augustus  and  his  armies, 
after  his  phenomenal  invasion  and  humiliation  of  Denmark.  He 
was  all  eagerness  to  meet  this  renowned  ruler  of  Russia,  no 
matter  how  many  men  he  might  have,  and  teach  him  a  lesson— 
and  he  did  it.  Unfortunately  for  himself  and  for  Sweden,  he  did  it 
with  such  ease  that  from  that  time  forth  he  had  no  just  concep- 
tion of  the  power  and  resources  of  his  rival,  and  the  startling 
victory  he  won  at  Narva  was  the  absolute  introduction  to  his 
subsequent  reverses. 

Peter  the  Great,  who  had  learned  shipbuilding  in  Holland  and 
England  as  an  apprentice,  who  had  fathered  all  the  arts  of  peace 
introduced  in  Russia  at  this  time,  and  who  had  enjoyed  but  lit- 
tle opportunity  of  studying  the  arts  of  war,  now  found  himself  in 
the  field  with  a  large  army  of  untrained,  but  most  docile  and 
obedient  Russian  soldiers.  Placing  a  German  officer,  the  Duke 
de  Croi,  in  chief  command,  he  himself  served  with  the  rank  of 
lieutenant,  saying  that  he  wished  to  learn  that  profession  as  he 
had  his  trade,  practically.  Nevertheless  he  had  learned  in  his 
travels  far  more  than  his  nobles  knew,  and  it  was  he  who  super- 
intended the  laying  out  of  the  camp  around  Narva,  the  digging 


PREPARATIONS   OF   PETER.  293 

of  the  trenches,  and  the  establishment  of  field  fortifications  to 
defend  them  from  assault  from  without,  which  he  felt  sure  would 
soon  come.  None  of  the  Russian  officers  had  any  practical 
knowledge  of  the  art  of  war  as  now  practiced  in  western  Europe. 
The  only  instructed  regiments  were  those  commanded  by  Ger- 
man officers,  who  had  been  bought  into  the  service  by  Peter  the 
Great.  The  rest  of  the  vast  army,  according  to  Voltaire,  were 
"barbarians,  forced  from  their  forests,  and  covered  with  the 
skins  of  wild  beasts ;  some  armed  with  arrows,  and  others  with 
clubs.  Few  of  them  had  fusees ;  none  of  them  had  ever  seen  a 
regular  siege ;  and  there  was  not  one  good  cannoneer  in  the  en- 
tire army." 

Peter  the  Great  is  said  to  have  had  one  hundred  and  fifty  guns 
in  the  trenches  against  Narva  and  never  to  have  made  a  breach ; 
while  from  the  rude  and  hastily  improvised  fortifications  of  the 
little  city  there  came  such  an  accurate  and  death-dealing  fire 
from  the  guns,  that  whole  ranks  were  mowed  down.  Baron  de 
Hoorn,  the  commandant  of  Narva,  had  not  one  thousand  Swed- 
ish regulars ;  yet  the  Russians  hammered  away  at  him  for  ten 
weeks  and  never  gained  a  point. 

On  November  5th  the  tsar  learned  that  the  King  of  Sweden 
had  sailed  across  the  Baltic  with  two  hundred  transports ;  had 
landed,  and,  with  less  than  twenty  thousand  men,  was  marching 
to  the  relief  of  Narva.  Peter  had  then  eighty  thousand  in  the 
trenches;  but  he  knew  the  relative  merits  of  the  two  armies;  he 
knew  that  only  by  an  overwhelming  force  could  he  hope  to  beat 
such  troops  as  those  of  Sweden,  and  he  ordered  that  another 
corps  of  30,000  men,  then  at  Pleskow,  should  come  to  him  with 
all  haste.  Then  he  did  a  thing  that  in  any  one  but  Peter  the 
Great  might  have  been  misunderstood.  He  left  his  army  in 
charge  of  de  Croi,  and  he  himself  went  to  hasten  the  march  of 
the  30,000,  hoping  to  surround  and  hem  in  the  King  of  Sweden. 

The  latter  had  landed  at  Pernau,  on  the  Gulf  of  Riga,  and, 
with  4,000  horse  and  only  4,000  infantry — all  who  could  keep 
up  with  him — he  had  made  a  rapid  march  to  Revel.  In  order 
to  meet  and  check  him,  the  Russian  commander  resorted  to  the 
following  odd  disposition  of  his  force :  The  main  body  remained 


294  NARVA. 

in  the  trenches  besieging  Narva ;  but  some  30,000  troops  were 
planted  across  the  Revel  road,  about  three  miles  west  of  Narva. 
A  mile  farther  to  the  west  20,000  were  posted  across  the  path ; 
and  still  farther  out,  towards  the  coming  Swedes,  was  an  ad- 
vanced guard  of  5>°°°  nien. 

It  was  with  only  8,000  soldiers  that  Charles  XII.  suddenly 
appeared  before  this  outpost.  He  attacked  without  an  instant's 
delay,  and  with  such  force  and  impetuosity,  that  the  Russians 
ran  in  terror  and  confusion.  They  came  flocking  down  the  road 
and  across  the  fields  toward  the  second  line  in  such  dismay  and 
disorder,  that  the  officers  of  the  20,000  post  were  certain  that  an 
overpowering  force  of  Swedes  must  be  at  their  backs,  and  gave 
the  order  to  retire.  Orderly  at  first,  this  retreat  speedily  became 
a  mad  rush  for  the  rear.  Twenty-five  thousand  men  ran  like 
sheep  before  eight  thousand,  and  by  far  the  greater  number  had 
not  even  seen  the  pursuers.  Not  until  safe  within  their  intrench- 
ments  did  the  Russians  halt,  and  at  last,  having  overthrown  line 
after  line,  post  after  post,  the  Swedish  army  drew  up,  breathless 
and  tired  out,  in  front  of  an  enemy  ten  times  its  strength. 

The  situation  was  enough  to  "  demoralize "  an  old  soldier, 
but  it  seemed  only  to  inspire  this  young  warrior.  "  My  eight 
thousand  Swedes,"  said  he,  "  can  drive  a  hundred  thousand  Rus- 
sians," and,  never  heeding  the  "  croaking  "  of  one  or  two  of  his 
generals,  Charles  ordered  the  instant  attack  of  the  Russians.  It 
was  perhaps  the  best  thing  to  be  done^  under  the  circumstances. 
They  had  not  had  time  to  discover  his  numerical  weakness ;  they 
were  all  in  confusion  and  disorder.  He  could  gain  little  or  noth- 
ing by  delay ;  they  could  gain  everything.  "  With  the  aid  of 
God,"  was  his  watchword,  as  just  at  noon  on  the  3Oth  of  No- 
vember, 1700,  Charles  of  Sweden  dared  to  attack  an  army  in 
position,  intrenched  and  having  one  hundred  and  fifty  cannon, 
when  he  had  but  that  handful — eight  thousand  men. 

For  a  few  moments  his  light  guns  blazed  away  at  the  Rus- 
sian intrenchments ;  then,  with  a  blinding  snow-storm  at  their 
backs  and  greatly  aiding  them,  by  concealing  their  lack  of  sup- 
ports, with  fixed  bayonets  the  Swedish  infantry  rushed  in, 
Charles  himself  leading  and  directing  the  attack  against  the 


FIERY   IMPETUOSITY  OF   CHARLES.  295 

right  of  the  Muscovite  line,  where  he  hoped  to  find  his  enemy, 
the  tsar,  and  measure  swords  with  him.  But  Peter  was  far  away 
from  the  field,  and  all  ignorant  of  the  lesson  his  troops  were 
learning  at  such  cost.  Early  in  the  attack  a  spent  bullet  struck 
the  King  of  Sweden,  but  lodged  in  the  folds  of  his  heavy  black 
neck-cloth  and  did  no  harm.  Then  his  horse  fell  dead  under 
him ;  he  leaped  upon  another,  saying,  laughingly,  "  These  fellows 
make  me  go  through  my  exercise,"  then,  with  drawn  sword, 
dashed  in  to  the  extreme  front.  For  half  an  hour,  perhaps,  the 
Russians  stood  firm  against  this  first  attack,  then  broke  and  ran 
back  in  confusion  upon  their  reserves,  and  it  was  found  impossi- 
ble to  rally  them.  For  two  hours  longer  the  lines  were  de- 
fended against  the  Swedes,  but  the  king  rode  to  and  fro  urging 
his  men  with  such  fiery  impetuosity,  that  they  were  nerved  to 
unusual  exertions,  and  at  last,  seeing  conclusive  indications  that 
the  Russians  were  breaking,  he  led  forward  his  slender  but  dis- 
ciplined line  in  gallant  assault,  and  in  another  moment  the 
Swedish  infantry  were  swarming  over  the  works.  Then  Charles 
placed  himself  at  the  head  of  his  horsemen  and  rode  in,  charging 
the  reserves,  sabring  the  fugitives.  This  proved  too  much  for 
the  Russian  right ;  it  broke  in  utter  consternation  and  fled  for 
the  bridge  crossing  the  river  Narva,  closely  pursued  by  the 
dragoons.  The  bridge  broke  under  its  weight  of  crowding 
fugitives  and  let  them  down  into  the  stream,  where  many  were 
drowned ;  but  a  large  number,  cut  off  from  escape,  took  refuge 
among  the  nearest  buildings,  and,  under  direction  of  their  offi- 
cers, strove  to  resume  the  defensive ;  but  the  king's  dragoons 
were  among  them  in  an  instant;  three  prominent  generals,  Dol- 
gorouky,  Goloffkin  and  Federowitz,  finding  themselves  sur- 
rounded and  cut  off,  and  learning  that  the  king  himself  was 
heading  their  assailants,  asked  to  be  led  before  him,  and  there 
laid  their  swords  at  his  feet.  No  sooner  was  this  done  than 
Duke  de  Croi,  believing  the  Swedes  to  be  in  great  force,  and 
finding  that  his  undisciplined  soldiers  would  stand  no  longer, 
came  forward  and  surrendered,  causing  30,000  men  to  lay  down 
their  arms. 

These  distinguished  officers  in  their  humiliation  and  defeat 


296  NARVA. 

expected  to  be  treated  with  harshness  by  the  Swedish 
On  the  contrary,  he  received  them  with  quiet  courtesy,  directed 
his  officers  to  entertain  them  as  guests,  gave  immediate  orders 
that  the  subalterns  and  the  rank  and  file  should  be  shipped 
across  the  Narva  and  set  free.  In  this  way  he  had  managed,  by 
nightfall,  to  rid  himself  of  some  40,000  enemies. 

During  this  eventful  day  of  November  3Oth,  therefore,  the 
young  King  of  Sweden  had  terribly  beaten  an  army  in  position, 
and  had  sustained  a  loss  of  only  six  hundred  men ;  while  in  the 
defence  of  their  trenches  the  Muscovites  had  lost  eight  thousand. 
Many  more  had  been  drowned  in  attempting  to  escape  over  the 
bridge  of  the  Narva;  but  there  was  still,  standing  at  bay,  a  force 
of  30,000  men  under  General  Wade,  and,  if  they  only  knew 
it,  it  was  in  their  power  to  annihilate  the  little  army  of  Sweden. 
But  King  Charles  rapidly  gathered  in  the  abandoned  artillery 
in  the  trenches,  and  strengthened  the  position  he  had  taken 
between  the  camp  and  the  city;  then  calmly  lay  down  on  the 
ground  for  a  few  hours  sleep,  intending  at  daybreak  to  fall  upon 
Wade  and  complete  his  work ;  but,  at  two  o'clock  in  the  morn- 
ing, there  came  a  messenger  from  that  general.  He  had  heard 
of  the  courtesy  and  kindness  with  which  his  brother-officers  had 
been  treated  ;  he  saw  no  hope  of  holding  out  until  the  tsar  could 
come  to  his  relief,  and  he  begged  for  himself  the  same  terms 
that  had  been  accorded  his  comrades-in-arms.  Awakened  from 
his  sleep  the  king  received  the  message.  "  Tell  him,"  said  he, 
"  to  march  forward  at  dawn  and  cause  his  command  to  lay  down 
their  arms  and  colors,  and  I  will  listen  to  him."  Then  he  re- 
sumed his  nap.  But  at  daybreak  he  and  his  men  were  in  readi- 
ness, and,  in  the  bitter  wintry  morning  of  December  1st,  thirty 
thousand  Russian  soldiers,  officers  and  men,  bareheaded,  as  they 
conceived  to  be  their  proper  mien,  and  with  humiliation  mingled 
with  gratitude,  laid  down  their  arms,  their  flags,  their  swords 
before  the  body-guards  of  the  King  of  Sweden.  The  subalterns 
and  men  were  instantly  marched  off  across  the  Narva,  leaving 
their  officers  and  leaders  behind,  and  in  this  extraordinary  man- 
ner had  Charles  XII.  defeated,  disarmed  and  dismayed  an  army 
that  could  have  swept  him  out  of  existence  had  it  realized  its 
power. 


CHARLES'    GREATEST   TRIUMPH. 


297 


Narva  was  a  glory  to  Sweden.  The  people  went  wild  over 
the  wonderful  achievement  of  their  young  king  and  their  brave 
army.  They  naturally  supposed  that  such  a  victory  was  only  a 
prelude  to  conquests  more  glorious;  but  the  real  results  of 
Narva  were  the  very  opposite.  To  Russia  it  was  a  blessing  in 
disguise.  The  great  tsar  quickly  saw  that  he  must  learn,  then 
teach  his  people,  the  art  of  war ;  and  he  lost  not  a  moment.  As 
for  Charles  XII.,  this,  his  greatest  triumph,  was  his  worst  defeat. 
It  undermined  his  judgment  and  made  his  subsequent  career 
simply  madness.  Let  us  follow  him  to  Pultowa. 


CHARLES   XII.   RELIEVING  NARVA. 


PULTOWA. 

1709. 

LL  Europe  was  amazed  at  the  victory  of  Charles  XII. 
at  Narva.  The  man  who  took  the  most  practical 
and  philosophical  view  of  the  matter  was  Peter 
the  Great.  "  These  Swedes,"  said  he,  "  will  teach 
us  to  fight,"  and,  wisely  determining  to  avoid 
meeting  his  confident  young  adversary  in  the 
field,  until  his  army  was  in  condition  to  make  its 
numbers  felt,  the  Tsar  of  Russia  busied  himself 
in  reorganizing  and  instructing  his  land  forces.  For  this  pur- 
pose he  induced  many  German  officers  to  come  to  Russia  as 
instructors  and  drill-masters.  He  entered  into  a  new  league 
with  the  King  of  Poland,  by  the  terms  of  which  it  was  agreed 
that  50,000  Saxon  and  German  soldiers  should  be  sent  to 
Russia  to  serve  in  the  pay  of  the  tsar,  while  50,000  Muscovites 
were  to  be  drafted  into  the  Polish  army  to  learn  there  the  art  of 
war.  The  King  of  Sweden  lost  no  time  in  breaking  up  this 
arrangement,  which,  had  it  been  carried  out,  would  have  been 
fatal  to  his  interests  ;  but  he  could  not  interfere  with  the  system 
of  instruction  and  improvement  that  was  at  once  begun  through- 
out the  Russian  army. 

Particular  attention  was  paid  to  the  artillery  and  cavalry. 
Churches  were  required  to  give  up  their  bells  to  furnish  the 
necessary  gun-metal,  foundries  were  built,  and  guns  of  excel- 
lent model  and  workmanship  were  speedily  turned  out.  Peter 
organized  regiments  of  dragoons,  soldiers  taught  to  fight  either 
mounted  or  afoot,  and  his  hardy  peasantry,  with  their  little  Cos- 
sack horses,  made  capital  material  for  this  particular  branch  of 
(298) 


TIRELESS   ENERGY   OF   PETER.  299 

the  cavalry  arm.  He  established  the  Russian  hussars,  modeled 
after  those  of  Poland,  the  most  dashing  and  brilliant  light  cav- 
alry of  Europe,  superbly  mounted  and  equipped ;  and  his  infan- 
try were  now  constantly  schooled  in  the  manoeuvres  and  tactics 
of  the  German  armies.  From  the  day  of  Narva,  Peter  the 
Great  was  bending  all  his  energies  to  the  task  of  putting  a  stop 
to  the  victorious  career  of  Charles  XII. 

The  latter  had  now  launched  out  upon  a  campaign  of  con- 
quest, that  had  for  its  first  object  the  dethronement  of  Augustus, 
King  of  Poland.  He  appeared  before  Riga  in  the  early  spring, 
crossed  the  Duna  in  the  face  of  the  Saxon  army,  whom  he  de- 
feated in  a  spirited  battle,  drove  them  before  him  through  Lithu- 
ania, where  town  after  town  surrendered  as  he  came,  and 
marched  triumphantly  into  Birsen,  where  Peter  and  Augustus 
had  made  their  last  league  only  a  few  months  before.  The 
King  of  Poland  summoned  his  nobles  to  meet  at  Warsaw  and 
decide  the  future  policy  of  the  kingdom ;  and  so  great  was 
the  awe  inspired  by  the  victories  of  Charles  that  they  refused  the 
king  the  support  he  needed,  compelled  him  to  abandon  his 
league  with  Russia,  and  broke  up  in  disorder  in  February,  1702, 
leaving  matters  in  a  worse  state  than  they  were  before. 

Then,  in  his  desperation,  Augustus  resorted  to  another  ex- 
pedient. Augusta  von  Konigsmark,  reputed  to  be  the  most 
beautiful  and  brilliant  woman  in  Europe,  was  his  mistress ;  and 
such  was  his  confidence,  and  her  own,  in  her  powers  of  fascina- 
tion, that  it  was  determined  between  them  that  she  should  go  to 
Lithuania,  and  see  what  feminine  wiles  could  accomplish  with 
the  conqueror.  She  went — and  returned  discomfited.  The 
young  king  refused  to  look  at  or  speak  to  her ;  and  the  next 
news  received  of  him  was,  that  he  was  marching  on  Warsaw, 
which  he  entered  May  5th,  1702 ;  and  Augustus,  finding  himself 
forced  to  fight  for  his  kingdom,  rallied  his  Saxon  troops  and 
met  the  army  of  Sweden  at  Clissau,  on  the  I3th  of  July.  He 
had  24,000 ;  Charles  had  only  half  that  number ;  but  again  the 
latter  carried  all  before  him,  completely  overthrew  the  Saxons, 
and  pursued  Augustus  to  Cracow.  That  winter  he  was  master 
of  all  Poland;  and,  on  the  I2th  of  July,  1703,  the  king  was  de- 


300  PULTOWA. 

throned  and  young  Stanislaus  Leczinsky  chosen  in  his  stead. 
Augustus  managed  to  raise  an  army  and  give  some  further 
trouble ;  but  the  King  of  Sweden  pursued  and  fought  the  Saxons 
with  relentless  vigor.  Stanislaus  was  duly  crowned  in  October, 
1 705,  but  meantime  Peter  the  Great  had  marched  upon  and  cap- 
tured Narva,  and  Charles  XII.,  who  was  having  everything  his 
own  way  in  Poland,  found  that  Russia  was  robbing  him  of  his 
provinces  east  of  the  Baltic.  Determined  to  complete  the  ruin 
of  Augustus,  however,  he  let  Narva  go  and  pushed  on,  and,  to 
the  consternation  of  all  Germany,  now  invaded  Saxony.  It  was 
then  that  he  committed  his  blackest  deed  of  cruelty,  and  a  viola- 
tion of  the  laws  of  nations,  that  has/orever  sullied  his  fair  fame. 
Augustus  yielded  up  to  him  the  person  of  John  Reinold  Patkul, 
the  ambassador  of  Russia,  but  formerly  a  Swedish  subject,  who 
had  been  accused  of  high  treason,  and  the  unfortunate  man  was 
condemned  by  Charles  to  a  terrible  death,  that  of  being  broken 
on  the  wheel.  All  Europe  shuddered  at  the  merciless  revenge 
of  the  Swedish  king,  and,  had  not  England,  Holland  and  Ger- 
many been  at  that  moment  engaged  in  a  fierce  war  with  France, 
it  is  probable  that  the  loud  complaints  of  the  tsar  against 
Charles  would  have  brought  clown  rebuke,  if  not  punishment, 
on  his  head.  But  Sweden  was  winning  new  victories  all  the 
time,  and  the  western  powers  had  too  much  trouble  of  their  own 
to  care  to  become  entangled  with  so  vehement  and  vigorous  a 
fighter  as  the  young  Norseland  king.  Indeed,  it  was  at  this 
very  time  that  England  sent  her  most  accomplished  general, 
courtier  and  diplomat,  John  Churchill,  Duke  of  Marlborough, 
with  instructions  to  visit  Charles  XII.  at  his  camp  at  Altranstad, 
and  secure  for  Queen  Anne  the  assurance  that  Sweden  would 
not  take  up  the  cause  of  France.  Charles  had  already  given  his 
word,  in  1700,  that  he  would  not  interfere  in  the  quarrel  be- 
tween Louis  XIV.  and  the  allies ;  but  Marlborough  was  incapa- 
ble of  understanding  that  any  man,  much  less  a  monarch,  could 
or  should  abide  by  a  promise  when  it  led  to  a  sacrifice  of  his 
own  power  or  interest.  He  went  back  to  England  in  complete 
confidence  that  he  had  found  a  man  who  meant  what  he  said, 
and  with  the  conviction  that  so  far  from  interfering  in  the  affairs 


CHARLES   DREAMS   OF   UNIVERSAL   CONQUEST.  3Q1 

of  Western  Europe,  the  end  and  aim  of  Charles'  ambition  was 
now  the  dethronement  of  Peter  the  Great. 

And  so  it  was.  The  unbroken  series  of  victories  that  had 
attended  him  caused  the  King  of  Sweden  to  believe  that  within 
a  year  he  could  conquer  Russia,  and  then  return  and  become 
the  arbiter  of  European  affairs.  So  confident  was  he  that  he 
was  predestined  to  be  a  second  Alexander  the  Great,  that  at  this 
period  he  sent  officers  into  Asia  and  Egypt  on  secret  expedi- 
tions to  examine  into  the  condition  of  the  armies  and  fortifica- 
tions. He  was  dreaming  of  the  conquest  of  the  world. 

And  now,  in  September,  1707,  with  a  veteran  army  of  43,000 
men,  every  regiment  filled  to  its  maximum,  Charles  XII. 
marched  eastward  from  Saxony,  bent  on  the  overthrow  of  Peter 
the  Great.  In  Poland,  Count  Loewenhaupt  was  awaiting  him 
with  20,000  more  men,  and  in  Finland  there  were  15,000  subject 
to  his  call.  He  had  not  a  doubt  of  victory. 

But  his  advance  was  slow.  It  was  mid- winter  when  he 
crossed  the  Niemen,  and  not  until  June,  1708,  did  he  reach  the 
Beresina,  and  not  one  action  of  importance  had  occurred.  Now, 
however,  came  the  battle  of  Holofzin.  Twenty  thousand  Mus- 
covites were  intrenched  behind  a  morass  and  a  rapid  river; 
Charles  waded  through  the  stream  with  the  water  up  to  his  neck, 
and  leading  alternately  his  cavalry  and  infantry,  attacked  them 
in  their  chosen  position  and  whipped  them  out  of  it — a  gallant 
and  desperate  fight — and  it  seemed  as  though  nothing  could 
withstand  him.  By  this  time  the  tsar  had  given  up  all  idea  of 
defending  his  frontiers,  and  was  rapidly  retiring  towards  Mos- 
cow. On  September  22d  the  Swedes  again  won  a  spirited  com- 
bat at  Smolensko,  on  the  Dnieper ;  and  now  Moscow  lay  only 
two  hundred  miles  away. 

By  this  time  his  army  was  short  of  supplies,  and  his  generals 
ventured  to  urge  the  king  to  wait  for  Loewenhaupt,  who,  with 
20,000  men  and  abundant  provisions  and  ammunition,  was  has- 
tening after  him.  But  Charles  seemed  incapable  of  realizing  the 
possibility  of  defeat  or  danger.  He  not  only  rejected  all  coun- 
sel but,  to  the  utter  consternation  of  his  army,  now  turned  south- 
ward, abandoning  the  high  road  to  Moscow,  and  marching  into 


302  PULTOWA. 

the  heart  of  the  wild,  inhospitable  and  uncultivated  regions 
known  as  the  Ukraine,  whither  he  was  led  by  the  persuasions  of 
that  Mazeppa,  then  Prince  of  the  Cossacks,  whose  wonderful  ex- 
periences as  a  young  man  have  formed  the  theme  of  so  much 
romance.  Mazeppa  promised  to  join  Charles  with  30,000  men 
and  aid  him  in  the  conquest  of  Russia,  and  they  were  to  meet 
on  the  river  Desna.  But  now  the  once  hardy  Swedish  soldiers 
were  dying  by  scores  from  cold  and  hunger,  the  horses  of  the 
artillery  dropped  exhausted  in  their  tracks,  and  dozens  of  guns 
had  to  be  abandoned ;  the  army  lost  its  way  in  the  dense  marshy 
forests,  and  a  march  that  should  have  occupied  only  four  days 
was  strung  out  to  twelve.  They  were  at  the  very  point  of 
starvation  when  they  arrived  at  the  rendezvous  on  the  Desna, 
and  found  Mazeppa  had  failed  them.  Now  misfortunes  crowded 
upon  them  thick  and  fast.  Loewenhaupt,  with  his  priceless  con- 
voy of  wagons,  was  surrounded  and  cut  off  by  the  tsar  himself 
with  an  overwhelming  force.  He  managed  to  cut  his  way 
through  with  5,000  men,  and  eventually  to  join  his  king,  but 
everything  else  was  lost,  and  the  emaciated  army  of  Sweden  was 
now  in  a  terrible  plight.  But  the  courage  and  obstinacy  of  the 
king  seemed  indomitable.  He  marched  on,  even  though  it  was 
December,  and  on  one  day  2,OOO  soldiers,  it  is  said,  "  fell  dead 
with  cold  before  his  eyes." 

At  the  earliest  break  of  spring,  with  but  the  skeleton  of  his 
once  powerful  army,  with  a  mere  18,000  ragged  and  famishing 
men,  the  mad  young  monarch  resumed  his  eastward  march,  and, 
towards  the  end  of  May,  arrived  before  the  walls  of  Pultowa,  a  lit- 
tle city  on  the  river  Vorskla,  at  the  eastern  end  of  the  Ukraine.  A 
large  magazine  and  supply  depot  had  here  been  established  by  the 
tsar,  and  could  Charles  succeed  in  taking  it,  not  only  would  he 
be  able  to  equip  and  feed  his  men,  but  the  way  to  Moscow  would 
be  open.  With  blind  infatuation  he  resolved  upon  the  attempt 
though  the  garrison  was  5,000  strong.  Prince  MenzikofT,  with 
a  formidable  body  of  Cossack  cavalry,  was  hovering  about  his 
flanks,  and  Peter  the  Great  with  a  large  army  was  hastening  to 
the  rescue.  The  lucky  star  of  Sweden  was  setting  in  fire  and 
blood. 


DISPARITY   OF   THE   RIVAL   FORCES.  393 

On  May  27th  the  tsar  with  70,000  men  was  only  a  few  miles 
away.  Charles  rode  forward  to  reconnoitre  them;  his  escort 
had  a  sharp  skirmish  with  their  advance,  and  as  he  was  retiring 
towards  camp  a  carbine  bullet  struck  him  in  the  heel,  shattering 
the  bone.  For  six  hours  he  continued  in  the  saddle  giving  no 
sign  of  his  painful  injury,  until  an  aide  noticed  the  blood  drip- 
ping from  his  boot.  Then  the  surgeons  were  summoned,  and 
the  knife  had  to  be  employed  in  dressing  and  cleansing  the 
ghastly  wound  ;  but  he  bore  the  severe  operation  with  marvellous 
calm,  he  himself  holding  the  injured  leg,  and,  while  the  surgeons 
worked,  giving  his  instructions  for  the  assault  on  the  morrow. 
It  was  the  evening  of  July  7th,  and  the  tidings  that  the  tsar's 
entire  army  was  advancing  upon  him  determined  him  to  meet 
him  in  battle  at  daybreak. 

And  now,  early  on  the  morning  of  the  8th  of  July,  the  two 
rival  monarchs  confronted  each  other.  Charles  of  Sweden, 
with  his  record  of  nine  years  of  unbroken  victory,  was  unable 
to  mount  his  horse ;  his  men  were  weak  and  dispirited ;  all  were 
weighted  down  by  the  consciousness  of  their  isolation  hundreds 
of  miles  from  home,  surrounded,  cut  off,  hemmed  in  by  merciless 
foes — all  were  depressed  but  their  indomitable  king.  Carried  in 
a  litter  he  made  his  appearance  at  their  head,  determined  to  lead 
them  to  the  attack. 

With  four  iron  field-pieces,  16,000  regulars,  and  perhaps  5,000 
local  allies,  the  King  of  Sweden  marched  from  his  camp  south 
of  Pultowa  against  that  of  the  tsar,  who  had  crossed  the  river 
three  miles  west  of  the  town  and  strongly  intrenched  his  camp. 
The  river  here  runs  nearly  eastward  and  sweeps  along  under 
the  northern  walls  of  the  town.  The  Swedish  army  deployed 
facing  north  at  earliest  dawn,  and  was  promptly  met  by  the  great 
array  of  Muscovy.  Far  over  to  the  southeast,  where  the  baggage, 
the  unhorsed  artillery  and  the  scant  supplies  of  Sweden  were 
parked  under  a  strong  guard,  anxious  eyes  watched  the  doubtful 
issues  of  the  day. 

Ail  had  not  been  harmony  among  the  generals  of  Sweden. 
Renschild,  the  field-marshal,  who  was  the  most  skillful  and  ac- 
complished soldier  serving  under  Charles,  cordially  disliked 


304  PULTOWA. 

Count  Piper,  the  king's  minister  and  confidant,  and  no  love  was 
lost  between  him  and  Loewenhaupt.  The  old  unanimity  was 
gone.  Yet  in  the  desperate  strait  in  which  they  found  themselves, 
all  the  generals  strove  to  encourage  and  animate  the  younger  of- 
ficers and  the  rank  and  file  by  recalling  in  spirited  speeches  the 
easy  victory  of  Narva,  and  the  king  himself,  borne  in  his  litter 
at  the  extreme  front,  spoke  cheeringly  and  confidently  to  all. 

Just  at  half-past  four  in  the  morning  the  Swedish  cavalry  un- 
der Slipenbak  came  in  sight  of  the  squadrons  of  Russian  dragoons 
drawn  up  to  the  west  of  the  main  camp.  Strong  redoubts,  lined 
with  field-guns,  were  already  thrown  up  along  their  front,  and 
with  every  moment  the  intrenchments  grew  stronger.  There 
was  not  a  moment  to  lose.  The  king  gave  the  signal,  "  Charge 
and  strike  hard,"  and,  with  all  their  old  fire  and  enthusiasm,  the 
cuirassiers  of  Sweden  thundered  across  the  plain  and  dashed 
pell-mell  among  the  Muscovites.  In  the  vigor  and  fury  of  this 
first  attack  lay  all  the  success  of  the  day.  Though  far  outnum- 
bering their  .opponents,  the  dragoons  of  Russia  could  not  face 
such  headlong  impetuosity.  The  squadrons  reeled,  broke  and 
ran,  and  Charles  of  Sweden  exultingly  shouted  victory.  He  saw 
it  in  his  grasp.  At  midnight  he  had  sent  General  Creutz  with 
5,000  dragoons  by  a  wide  detour  to  get  around  the  right  (west) 
flank  of  the  Russian  lines,  and  with  orders  to  charge  in  force 
the  moment  the  attack  began  in  front.  Now  was  the  time  for 
Creutz  and  his  dragoons  to  make  their  appearance.  But  he 
never  came.  In  the  darkness  of  the  night  he  had  missed  the 
way,  and  now  at  the  instant  when  he  was  most  needed  Creutz 
was  far  away  to  the  west. 

The  tsar  himself  galloped  among  his  cavalry,  and  with  vehe- 
ment voice  and  gesture  checked  their  disorder  and  re-established 
their  lines.  MenzikofT,  their  general,  though  having  three  horses 
killed  under  him,  straightened  out  his  squadrons  and  led  them 
in  for  a  counter  attack.  The  Swedish  horse  were  much  broken 
by  this  time.  The  shock  and  inertia  of  the  charge  were  gone 
and  they  were  borne  backward  by  the  weight  of  foes,  and  their 
general,  Slipenbak,  was  taken  prisoner.  At  this  moment,  too, 
seventy  guns  in  the  intrenchments  belched  their  deadly  missiles 


THE   SWEDES   OVERWHELMED  305 

into  the  retiring  ranks,  and  horses  and  riders  were  rolled  in 
agony  over  the  plain.  All  was  over  with  the  cuirassiers,  who 
had  fought  so  superbly  for  Sweden  in  so  many  spirited  combats. 
And  then,  leaping  over  their  intrenchments,  30,000  Russian  in- 
fantry swarmed  down  upon  the  slender  ranks  of  the  Swedish 
foot.  Charles  saw  that  he  could  not  risk  a  general  engagement 
at  that  point  until  his  cavalry  was  rallied  and  placed  in  position. 
Slowly  therefore  his  lines  fell  back,  keeping  a  steady  front  to 
the  foe,  and  the  king  despatched  messengers  to  hurry  forward 
the  reserves  and  the  guards  left  with  the  camp  and  baggage. 
It  was  now  too  evident  that  every  man  would  be  needed.  The 
Russian  army  was  no  longer  the  disorderly,  undisciplined 
mob  he  had  chased  like  sheep  at  Narva.  Already  had  Peter's 
efforts  prevailed.  Already  had  Sweden  taught  Russia  how  to 
fight. 

Only  too  well :  for  here  with  a  brilliant  stroke  of  genius 
General  Menzikoff  was  sent  around  the  Swedish  right  flank  at 
the  head  of  a  strong  division  of  Russian  cavalry.  Peter  served 
during  the  battle  as  major-general,  apparently  acting  under  the 
orders  of  General  Sheremeto,  but  as  emperor  he  rode  every- 
where and  was  beyond  question  the  leader  of  the  day.  It  was 
he  who  gave  Menzikoff  his  orders,  and  thus  interposed  nearly 
8,000  men  between  the  Swedish  right  and  their  camp  south  of 
Pultowa.  The  reserves  and  camp-guards  hastened  forward  to 
join  Charles  as  ordered,  but  were  pounced  upon,  surrounded 
and  cut  to  pieces  by  Menzikoff,  and  now  with  Creutz  and  his 
5,000  dragoons  lost,  no  one  could  tell  where,  his  reserve  cut  to» 
pieces,  Charles  XII.  found  himself  out  on  the  open  plain  with 
only  about  18,000  available  men  and  four  small  guns,  confront- 
ing and  hemmed  in  by  70,000  with  seventy  cannon.  And  still  he 
would  not  yield,  would  not  despair.  Quickly  forming  his  infantry 
in  two  lines,  with  his  remaining  cavalry  on  the  flanks,  he  pre- 
pared to  resist  the  coming  attack. 

At  nine  o'clock  the  battle  was  resumed,  a  general  cannon- 
ade from  the  Russian  lines  being  the  signal.  Almost  the  first 
shot  killed  the  horses  of  Charles'  litter.  Others  were  put  in. 
Then  a  second  shot  struck  the  litter  itself,  knocking  it  into 
20 


306  PULTOWA. 

kindling  wood  and  hurling  the  wounded  king  with  violence  to 
the  ground.  Still  he  staggered  to  his  feet,  a  rude  litter  carried 
by  men  was  improvised,  and  in  this  he  lay  cheering  and  en- 
couraging his  soldiers,  urging  them  to  stand  fast  against  the  now 
advancing  Russian  lines,  and  never  noting  how  his  bearers,  man 
after  man,  were  being  struck  down  by  the  bullets  whose  whist- 
ling was  the  music  his  mad  soul  loved.  Twenty-one  soldiers, 
one  after  another,  were  killed  while  carrying  their  monarch  on 
that  terrible  morning,  yet  nothing  seemed  to  strike  him.  All 
his  efforts,  all  his  bravery  were  vain.  Mowed  down  by  the 
incessant  discharges  of  the  Russian  guns,  swept  by  the  fire  of 
Russian  musketry,  the  Swedes  were  being  slowly  annihilated, 
and,  at  last,  as  the  enemy  advanced  in  rapid  charge,  the  first 
line  reeled  back  upon  the  second,  and  the  second  gave  way.  In 
ten  minutes  more  the  remnant  of  the  grand  army  of  Sweden, 
that  eight  years  before  was  the  most  disciplined  and  courageous 
of  Europe,  was  in  full  flight.  Prince  Wirtemberg,  gallant 
Renschild  and  other  officers  of  note,  striving  to  rally  their  men, 
were  captured  by  the  enemy.  Menzikoff  stormed  the  well-nigh 
defenceless  camp.  Count  Piper  and  the  officers  of  the  court 
were  taken  prisoners,  and  east  and  west,  right  and  left  over  the 
sterile  plain  of  Pultowa,  Russia  was  reaping  rich  vengeance  for 
the  disgrace  of  Narva. 

The  king  raged,  stormed,  scorned  to  fly,  but  General  Ponia- 
towski  caused  him  to  be  lifted  on  a  horse,  and  with  a  small  es- 
cort, despite  his  struggles  and  protestations,  led  him  from  the 
field.  All  was  over  with  the  army  of  Sweden.  Never  was  vic- 
tory more  decisive.  With  only  five  hundred  followers,  Charles 
XII.  fled  towards  the  Dnieper. 

Of  the  immediate  results  of  the  victory  of  Peter  the  Great  at 
Pultowa,  history  tells  that  all  the  artillery,  baggage,  camp-equi- 
page "  and  six  millions  in  specie  "  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  victors. 
Nine  thousand  Swedes,  Cossack  allies  included,  were  killed — six 
thousand  Swedes  with  all  their  prominent  generals  were  cap- 
tured. The  shattered  divisions  that  escaped  under  Loewenhaupt 
were  pursued  to  the  Boristhenes  (Dnieper),  where  hundreds 
were  drowned  in  attempting  to  cross ;  the  others  were  all  taken 


MISFORTUNE   AND   DEATH   OF   CHARLES.  307 

prisoners,  and  Charles  himself,  now  delirious  with  fever  from  his 
wound,  was  hurried  away  towards  Turkey  by  Poniatowski  and 
Mazeppa,  and  safely  borne  across  the  frontier. 

•But  his  army  was  ruined  and  the  cause  of  Sweden  with  it. 
From  that  time  on  he  seems  to  have  lost  any  mental  balance  he 
ever  possessed.  Five  years  were  spent  in  Turkey  in  efforts  to 
induce  the  sultan  to  place  him  at  the  head  of  an  immense  army 
with  which  to  effect  the  conquest  of  Russia.  Then  came  his 
marvellous  ride  in  disguise  across  Europe  to  Stralsund  on  the 
Baltic,  his  final  return  to  his  kingdom,  the  immediate  attack  on 
Norway,  and  his  death-blow  before  Frederickshall  on  St.  An- 
drew's Day,  December  n,  1718.  A  half-pound  shot  put  an 
end  to  his  adventurous  life  in  his  thirty-seventh  year.  He  had 
reached  the  acme  of  prosperity — the  depths  of  adversity.  He 
had  seen  all  Europe  trembling  before  him,  and  had  starved  in 
darkness  and  disguise  through  cities  which  he  had  conquered 
but  a  short  time  before.  Brave  to  rashness,  firm  to  obstinacy, 
fatalist  to  madness,  he  was  the  author  of  his  own  downfall,  and 
never  could  be  brought  to  realize  it.  His  was  a  career  to  be 
looked  upon  with  wonder — perhaps  admiration,  but  not  to  be 
held  up  for  example. 

Had  he  been  successful  at  Pultowa,  which  could  hardly  have 
been  possible,  his  march  on  Moscow  would  have  been  unim- 
peded, and  Russia  would  have  been  at  his  feet;  but  his  over- 
throw led  to  consequences  simply  incalculable.  Rid  of  his 
nearest,  most  dangerous  and  most  implacable  enemy,  Peter  the 
Great  was  now  at  leisure  to  build  up  and  extend  his  great  em- 
pire. He  made  Russia  the  centre  of  trade  between  Asia  and 
Europe.  He  built  great  military  roads  and  navigable  canals. 
He  founded  cities  and  raised  noble  public  buildings.  He  ex- 
tended his  realm  to  include  and  control  the  ports  of  the  Baltic 
and  the  Black  Seas.  He  called  to  his  empire  men  of  learning 
and  science  from  all  over  Christendom.  He  raised  Russia  from 
a  howling  wilderness  to  the  rank  of  the  greatest  empire  in  Eu- 
rope. "  The  Star  of  the  North  "  had  risen  at  Pultowa. 


BLENHEIM. 

1704. 

T  the  very  time  when  Charles  XII.  was  overthrow- 
ing kings  and  armies  in  Poland,  Saxony  and  Rus- 
sia, a  great  war  broke  out  in  Western  Europe. 
Louis  XIV.,  the  most  illustrious  monarch  that 
had  worn  the  crown  of  France  since  the  days 
when  Charlemagne  was  building  up  his  empire — 
Louis  XIV.,  "  Le  Grand  Monarque,"  as  his  peo- 
ple delighted  to  call  him,  was  in  the  hey-day  of 
his  pride.  Slowly  but  surely  he  had  been  extend- 
ing the  limits  of  his  kingdom  for  nearly  forty  years,  and  now  his 
power  was  so  great  that  the  rival  states  of  Western  Europe  be- 
gan to  look  with  alarm  upon  his  increasing  accessions.  His 
was  a  strong  and  rich  government.  "  Ships,  colonies  and  com- 
merce "  were  supplied  by  his  energy  and  statesmanship.  His 
was  a  strong  and  rich  country,  compact,  united,  easily  de- 
fensible, and  under  his  reign,  Turenne,  Conde  and  Villars  led  the 
armies  of  France  to  invariable  victory,  and  the  genius  of  the 
great  Vauban  fortified  her  frontiers  with  permanent  works  that 
were  unequalled  on  the  face  of  the  earth.  It  was  a  glorious 
epoch  in  the  history  of  the  gallant  nation ;  and  now,  emboldened 
by  a  long  career  of  triumph,  Louis  XIV.  decided  on  the  step 
which  turned  the  tide  and  arrayed  all  Western  Europe  against 
him. 

Charles  II.,  King  of  Spain,  was  slowly  dying,  and  without  an 
heir.  Louis  XIV.  determined  to  secure  for  the  Bourbons  the 
throne  of  Spain  as  well  as  that  of  France,  on  which  they  now 
had  so  firm  a  hold.  The  combination  of  the  two  kingdoms 
under  one  monarch  would  have  made  an  empire  so  formidable 
(308) 


'•THE   GRAND   ALLIANCE."  309 

as  to  instantly  threaten  the  interests  of  all  other  thrones  in 
Europe.  Austria  had  long  held  a  controlling  interest  in 
Spanish  affairs,  and  she  was  the  first  to  take  alarm. 

Louis  XIV.,  when  he  married  the  Infanta  of  Spain,  in  1659, 
formally  renounced  all  right  of  succession  to  the  Spanish  throne. 
Now,  through  his  influence,  the  dying  Charles  named  Philip, 
Duke  of  Anjou,  and  grandson  of  Louis  XIV.,  his  successor ;  and, 
although  the  King  of  France  well  knew  that  a  general  war 
would  be  the  result,  the  instant  the  death  of  Charles  was  an- 
nounced, he  sent  his  grandson  in  all  haste  to  Spain  as  its  king — 
Philip  V. 

William  III.  was  on  the  throne  of  England ;  and  while  Aus- 
tria fumed  and  blustered  over  the  daring  aggression  of  France, 
England  went  to  work  with  stern,  set  purpose.  A  powerful 
league,  soon  known  as  "  The  Grand  Alliance,"  was  formed  under 
the  guidance  of  William  against  the  House  of  Bourbon ;  and 
Austria,  Holland,  England,  many  of  the  German  principalities, 
and  presently  Portugal,  Savoy  and  Denmark  joined  forces  with 
the  avowed  object  of  compelling  France  to  release  her  hold  on 
Spain.  The  death  of  King  William,  in  1702  (March  8th),  de- 
layed matters  but  little.  Queen  Anne  promptly  "  ratified  "  the 
action  of  her  illustrious  predecessor,  and  war  against  Louis  XIV. 
was  formally  declared,  and  the  greatest  soldier  of  his  day,  the 
most  brilliant,  successful  and  superb  conqueror  and  courtier 
England  had  yet  known,  stepped  .forward  as  commander-in- 
chief  of  the  allied  armies  in  the  field. 

John  Churchill,  Duke  of  Marlborough,  was  born  June  24th, 
1650.  He  had  neither  wealth,  power  nor  education  when  he 
became  a  page  of  the  royal  Duke  of  York,  but  secured  his  first 
advancement,  a  commission  in  the  guards,  when  just  sixteen. 
A  captain  at  twenty-two,  he  served  in  the  Netherlands  under 
the  eye  of  that  master  of  the  art  of  war,  Turenne,  and  won  his 
unqualified  praise  by  courage,  brilliancy  and  dash.  A  hand- 
some person,  wonderful  address,  and  the  admiration  and  worship 
of  influential  women  did  the  rest.  He  came  back  to  England  a 
colonel,  became  a  baron  and  general  under  James  II.,  to  whom 
he  professed  undying  loyalty,  and  whom  he  abandoned  without 


310  BLENHEIM. 

the  faintest  scruple  on  the  landing  of  William  of  Orange ;  and 
though  this  latter  honest  and  truth-loving  gentleman  must  have 
despised  the  turn-coat  in  his  heart,  he  had  use  for  his  martial 
ability,  sent  him  into  Ireland  as  Earl  of  Maryborough,  to  reduce 
that  turbulent  populace  to  subjeqtion,  and  then  gave  him  chief 
command  in  the  Netherlands,  where  he  did  splendid  service  in 
the  field,  and  was  speedily  detected  in  treasonable  acts  in  the 
cabinet,  which  led  to  his  arrest  and  confinement  in  the  Tower 
of  London.  But  the  outbreak  of  the  great  war  of  the  Spanish 
succession  called  him  again  to  the  front.  His  wife,  Sarah  Jen- 
nings that  was,  had  unlimited  influence  from  her  earliest  girl- 
hood over  Queen  Anne,  and  secured  his  restoration  to  the  chief 
command.  Godolphin,  the  prime  minister,  was  his  son-in-law, 
and  Lord  Marlborough,  through  these  two,  virtually  ruled  his 
queen.  He  went  forth  to  fight  the  battles  of  England,  beyond 
all  question,  at  home  and  abroad,  her  most  powerful  and  influen- 
tial noble. 

In  1702  Marlborough  drove  the  French  out  of  Guelders,  and 
Queen  Anne  made  him  Duke  of  Marlborough,  the  highest  rank 
he  could  hope  to  attain;  and  in  1703  he  hastened  to  the  sup- 
port of  Austria,  joining  his  brilliant  coadjutor,  Prince  Eugene 
of  Savoy.  In  June,  1704,  he  stormed  the  French  and  Bavarian 
position  at  Donauwerth,  and  on  August  I3th  fought  and  won 
his  most  brilliant  and  magnificent  battle — Blenheim. 

His  long  and  admirably  ^conducted  march,  from  Flanders  up 
the  Rhine,  and  then  eastward  towards  Austria,  has  been  the 
theme  of  many  a  military  writer  for  years  past,  but  space  will 
limit  us  to  the  great  battles  fought  under  his  leadership,  and  of 
these  Blenheim  was  by  long  odds  the  most  decisive. 

Some  thirty  miles  northeastward  of  the  strong  fortress  of  Ulm, 
the  river  Danube  strikes  on  its  left  bank  a  range  of  rocky  and 
precipitous  heights,  that  begin  just  north  of  the  twin-villages  of 
Lauingen  and  Dillingen,  and  end  with  the  cliffs  of  the  Schallen- 
berg  at  Donauwerth,  fifteen  miles  farther  on.  The  southeast  or 
right  bank  is  all  flat  and  uninteresting  along  here,  but  the  other 
side  is  dotted  with  numbers  of  pretty,  home-like  little  coun- 
try towns,  and  intersected  by  numerous  rapid  and  sparkling 


GEOGRAPHICAL   POSITION.  311 

streams  that  rise  among  the  bold  hills  to  the  northwest  and 
come  tumbling  down  to  join  the  Danube.  The  great  high  road 
from  Ulm  to  Donauwerth  stretches  along  parallel  to  the  general 
direction  of  the  river,  and  is  sometimes  crowded  close  to  its  left 
bank  by  the  heights.  After  leaving  Dillingen  it  runs  through 
Hochstadt,  Schweringen  and  Dapfheim,  and  crosses  seven 
streams  in  less  than  ten  miles.  Just  north  of  Hochstadt  are  two, 
whose  banks  are  mere  marshes.  Three  miles  farther  on,  issuing 
from  a  deep  valley  among  the  heights,  is  another  whose  banks 
are  steep  and  sudden ;  this  is  the  little  Nebel.  It  is  only  twelve 
feet  broad  at  its  mouth ;  with  a  good  jumping-pole  almost  any 
school-boy  could,  in  places,  leap  from  one  bank  to  the  other; 
but  it  was  a  troublesome  stream  to  cross  on  the  I3th  of  August, 
1704.  The  high  road  spans  it  a  mile  west  of  its  junction  with 
the  Danube.  Between  the  bridge  and  the  broad  river  were  then 
two  old  stone  mills  run  by  water  power;  beyond  them,  nearer 
the  Danube,  in  the  angle  between  it  and  the  Nebel,  was  a  little 
country  town  with  snug  houses  built  of  stone,  and  the  low  ridge 
on  which  they  huddled  together  was  criss-crossed  with  stone 
fences  and  breast-high  walls.  That  insignificant  town  gave  its 
name  to  one  of  the  most  renowned  and  glorious  victories  in  the 
annals  of  war.  England  went  wild  over  it,  as  well  she  might, 
for  at  Blenheim  the  Britons  rose  to  the  first  rank  among  the 
military  powers  of  Europe. 

There  are  other  little  villages  on  both  banks  of  the  Nebel, 
well  up  into  the  gorge  where  it  rises.  They  are  only  a  mile  or 
two  apart,  for  the  country  is  populous  and  thickly  settled. 
Facing  northeast,  we  have  Blenheim  on  our  right,  near  the 
Danube ;  Oberglauh  in  front  of  us  and  to  the  left  of  the  high 
road,  and  Lutzingen  up  among  the  hills  still  farther  to  our  left 
hand.  Here,  on  the  southwest  bank  of  the  Nebel,  on  the  I2th 
of  August,  1704,  the  army  of  France  was  leisurely  going  into 
camp  along  in  the  afternoon.  In  two  long  lines  its  tents  were 
pitched  from  Blenheim  up  beyond  Lutzingen,  parallel  to  the 
stream  and  nearly  a  mile  behind  it.  Fine  soldiers  had  Marshal 
Tallard  with  him  there — men  who  had  fought  under  the  banners 
of  Louis  XIV.  all  over  Western  Europe,  and  generally  with  great 


312  BLENHEIM. 

success.  Three  distinguished  generals  were  to  head  the  allied 
forces  of  France  and  Bavaria  in  the  coming  fight.  At  least  esti- 
mate their  army  consisted  of  $6,000  men,  divided  into  the  corps 
of  Tallard,  about  22,000  strong;  that  of  Marshal  Marsin,  26,000, 
and  that  of  the  Elector  of  Bavaria,  which  is  estimated  at  from 
8,000  to  12,000  men.  Fifty-six  guns  were  distributed  among 
the  three  corps,  and  when  going  into  camp,  the  first  corps  was 
on  the  right  towards  Blenheim;  the  second  (Marsin),  from  the 
high  road  to  Oberglauh,  in  the  centre ;  the  third,  Bavarian,  on 
the  extreme  left.  A  stronger  position  was  not  to  be  found  any- 
where in  that  part  of  Germany.  The  Danube,  unfordable  every- 
where for  miles,  and  bridged  only  at  Dillingen  and  Donauwerth, 
protected  their  right  flank;  the  rugged,  precipitous  heights 
amply  secured  their  left  against  attack,  and  in  front  was  the 
Nebel  with  its  steep  banks,  yet  boggy,  miry  shores.  Tallard, 
seeing  his  horsemen  getting  in  up  to  their  horses'  bellies  in  mud 
and  mire  while  trying  to  water  them,  concluded  that  between 
Oberglauh  and  the  mills,  that  little  stream  would  prove  an  effec- 
tive barrier  against  cavalry  attack,  and  gave  himself  no  further 
anxiety  on  that  score.  But,  even  while  going  into  camp  that 
August  afternoon,  his  light  horse,  scouting  out  towards  Schwe- 
ringen,  on  the  high  road,  ran  slap  into  the  British  advance- 
guard.  Marlborough  and  Prince  Eugene  were  coming  up  the 
valley  in  search  of  him. 

From  the  moment  of  their  first  interview  at  Mondelsheim  in 

« 

June  of  that  eventful  year,  these  two  great  soldiers  whose  names 
are  linked  with  such  a  career  of  victory,  Marlborough  and 
Eugene,  had  conceived  for  each  other  an  almost  romantic  re- 
gard and  admiration.  Each  seemed  at  a  glance  to  discover  the 
high  spirit  and  soldierly  ability  of  the  other.  It  was  as  though 
they  had  been  made  to  fight  as  allies,  so  complete  and  uninter- 
rupted was  the  understanding  between  them,  so  admirably  did 
they  support  and  strengthen  each  other.  At  the  outset  they  had 
been  much  hampered  by  the  presence  and  interference  of  the  mar- 
grave, Prince  Louis  of  Baden,  but  this  pompous  and  fussy  old 
soldier  had  been  induced  to  undertake  the  siege  of  Ingoldstadt, 
thus  leaving  his  spirited  colleagues  to  their  own  devices.  They 


MARLBOROUGH   AND   EUGENE   IN   COMMAND.  3J3 

had  united  their  commands  by  brilliant  manoeuvring  only  a 
few  days  before,  and  now,  in  high  hope  and  spirits,  were  march- 
ing rapidly  up  the  Danube  in  search  of  the  Frenchmen.  From 
the  church  tower  at  Dapfheim,  on  the  afternoon  of  August  1 3th, 
they  could  see,  five  miles  away,  the  long  lines  of  tents  across 
the  Nebel,  and  their  resolution  was  taken  at  once.  Strong  as 
was  the  position  of  Tallard,  it  was  best  to  attack  him  before  he 
could  make  it  stronger.  A  Prussian  general  who  had  been  long 
familiar  with  the  ground,  and  some  of  Lord  Marlborough's  own 
officers,  seeing  from  the  preparations  that  an  immediate  assault 
was  contemplated,  ventured  to  dissuade  him.  The  French  were 
certainly  4,000,  perhaps  8,000,  more  numerous,  and  had  the 
choice  of  position;  but  the  two  generals  had  discussed  the  whole 
matter  and  made  up  their  minds.  It  was  "  now  or  never,"  for, 
with  Villeroy  and  his  army  advancing  to  the  support  of  Tallard, 
with  the  certainty  of  his  fortifying  the  line  of  the  Nebel  if  he 
were  given  any  time  at  all,  it  was  evident  that  they  must  strike, 
and  strike  at  once. 

"  I  know  the  danger,"  said  Lord  Marlborough,  "  yet  a  battle 
is  absolutely  necessary,  and  I  rely  on  the  bravery  and  disci- 
pline of  the  troops,  which  will  make  amends  for  our  disad- 
vantages." 

This  ended  all  objections.  Orders  were  issued  that  evening 
for  a  general  engagement,  and  they  were  received  with  an  en- 
thusiasm which  justified  Lord  Marlborough's  confidence.  His 
army  was  encamped  along  the  line  of  the  Kessel,  another  of  the 
little  streams  coming  down  from  the  heights.  Prince  Eugene 
with  his  16,000  was  on  the  extreme  right  and  well  up  among 
the  hills,  but  such  hours  of  the  early  night  of  the  I2th-I3th 
that  the  English  general  did  not  devote  to  needed  rest  and  to 
an  earnest  interview  with  his  chaplain,  he  gave  to  confidential 
talk  with  his  colleague,  planning  the  details  of  a  battle  so  soon 
to  be  fought — a  battle  "  which  appeared  to  involve  the  fate  of 
the  Christian  world." 

At  two  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  August  I3th  the  army  of 
the  confederates  was  called  to  arms,  tents  were  left  standing, 
baggage  packed,  and  at  three,  marching  through  the  darkness 


314  BLENHEIM. 

in  parallel  columns,  infantry,  cavalry  and  the  light  guns,  they 
forded  the  Kessel,  crowded  through  the  narrow  defile  at  Dapf- 
heim,  and,  just  as  day  began  to  break,  they  came  in  sight  of  the 
advanced  posts  of  the  French,  who  fell  back  before  them.  A 
slight  haze  had  settled  on  the  valley.  The  French  pickets 
scurrying  back  to  the  Nebel  were  severely  rebuked  by  the  gen- 
erals, who  were  aroused  by  their  report.  France  had  made  up 
her  mind  that  the  instant  the  confederates  heard  of  her  army 
advancing  down  the  Danube  they  would  fall  back  on  Nordlingen. 
Marshal  Tallard  would  not  believe  it  possible  that  they  could 
have  the  temerity  to  come  forward  and  meet  him.  It  could  be 
nothing  but  a  scouting  party  of  cavalry,  said  he ;  but  at  seven 
o'clock  the  fog  lifted,  and  there,  before  his  astonished  eyes,  was 
the  army  of  Marlborough  already  deploying  on  the  high  ground 
northeast  of  the  Nebel,  and  the  columns  of  Prince  Eugene  march- 
ing up  the  narrow  valley  of  the  little  stream  and  forming  a  con- 
tinuation of  the  line.  Instantly  the  Frenchman  realized  his 
mistake ;  the  trumpets  rang  out  the  assembly;  signal  guns  called 
in  his  foragers ;  the  men  sprang  to  arms,  and  with  great  spirit 
and  eagerness  the  battalions  marched  out  before  their  camps, 
taking  part  in  the  hastily  determined  lines  of  battle.  The  ad- 
vance guards  at  the  same  moment  setting  fire  to  the  little  harru 
lets  of  Berghausen,  Schwenenbach  and  Weilheim  over  on  the 
eastern  bank,  hastened  back  to  join  the  main  body. 

Our  place  as  observers  will  be  with  Marlborough  over  on  the 
other  side,  but  let  us  first  note  the  formation  of  the  French  line, 
which,  in  some  excitement  and  confusion,  is  going  on  before  our 
eyes.  Tallard  thought  those  marshy  shores  between  Ober- 
glauh  and  the  mills  a  sufficient  obstacle  last  night  and  has  had 
no  time  to  examine  them  since,  but  he  has  spent  the  night  in 
Blenheim,  and  that  at  least  is  strongly  palisaded,  loopholed  and 
prepared  for  vigorous  defence ;  and  now,  just  because  they  think 

NOTE. — It  seems  best  to  adopt  the  verbiage  of  Archdeacon  Coxe,  whose  complete 
history  of  Marlborough  is  regarded  as  authority  second  to  none.  The  army  of 
France  and  Bavaria  is  by  him  called  that  of  "the  allies."  The  army  of  England, 
Holland,  Hanover,  Denmark,  Savoy,  Austria,  etc. — that  commanded  by  MarL 
borough  and  Eugene — is  spoken  of  as  "the  confederates." 


CAREFUL   PREPARATIONS.  315 

it  impossible  for  the  English  to  charge  across  the  stream,  both 
wings  of  the  French  army  form  with  the  cavalry  towards  the 
grand  centre  and  the  infantry  on  the  flanks.  Blenheim,  Ober- 
glauh  and  Lutzingen  are  bristling  with  musketeers,  but  the  mile 
between  the  inner  flanks  of  the  infantry  is  taken  up  by  two  lines 
of  squadrons  of  French  horse,  an  odd  and  hitherto  untried  ar- 
rangement. But  Marshal  Tallard  is  a  man  in  whom  the  soldiers 
have  every  confidence.  He  is  rapidly  riding  from  point  to  point 
giving  personal  supervision  to  every  detail.  First  he  dismounts 
a  brigade  of  dragoons  and  forms  them  on  his  extreme  right, 
between  Blenheim  and  the  Danube,  behind  a  lot  of  wagons. 
The  village  itself  he  fairly  crams  with  his  infantry;  nearly  10,- 
ooo  footmen  are  packed  within  its  loopholed  walls  and  garden 
hedges,  and  a  strong  reserve  stands  ready  behind  the  little  brook 
they  call  the  Meulweyer,  that  rises  back,  of  the  village  and  runs 
into  the  Danube.  The  mills  down  on  the  Nebel  suddenly  burst 
into  flame  as  the  field-batteries  come  trotting  to  the  front,  and 
it  is  evident  that  the  Frenchmen  do  not  propose  so  much  to 
prevent  the  crossing  of  the  Nebel,  as  to  hammer  the  English 
when  they  get  across.  Blenheim  itself  is  a  most  defensible 
point,  and  here  General  de  Clerambault,  as  gallant  a  soldier  as 
France  can  show,  is  assigned  to  the  command,  with  orders  to 
hold  it  to  the  last  extremity. 

To  the  left  of  Blenheim  are  the  cavalry.  Eight  squadrons  of 
gens-d'armes  nearest  the  right  and  from  there — way  over  to 
Oberglauh,  across  the  highway — there  are  some  fifty  sqiladrons 
in  the  two  lines.  Back  of  Oberglauh  are  the  footmen  of  Marshal 
Marsin,  the  brigades  of  Champagne  and  Bourbonnois,  and  a  third 
brigade,  fellows  who  are  fighting  far  from  home,  whose  own 
fortunes  were  wrecked  at  the  battle  of  the  Boyne  not  so  very 
long  before,  and  who  have  taken  service  with  the  French  since 
they  had  nowhere  else  to  go.  They,  the  Irishmen,  are  to  win 
glory  to-day,  and,  ere  long,  immortal  reputation  at  Fontenoy. 
Beyond  Oberglauh,  and  well  up  the  valley  of  the  Nebel,  the  lines 
of  horse  and  foot  extend — the  Bavarians  being  on  the  extreme 
left  among  the  wooded  hills  in  front  of  Lutzingen,  and  behind 
the  entire  line  strong  reserves  take  post.  Generally,  the  French 


BLENHEIM. 

and  Bavarians  may  be  said  to  form  two  strong  lines,  well  out  in 
front  of  their  camp ;  and  in  front  of  all,  close  to  the  low  bluffs 
overhanging  the  Nebel,  the  field-batteries  of  eight  and  twenty- 
four  pounders  are  already  unlimbered  and  ready  for  work. 

In  such  a  position,  with  such  a  tried  army,  and  with  the  ad- 
vantage in  numbers,  well  may  Marshal  Tallard  feel  confidence. 

Now  let  us  cross  the  Nebel,  get  well  over  to  the  height  in  front 
of  the  bridge  along  which  the  highway  is  conducted,  and  from 
there  survey  the  entire  field  and  watch  the  entire  battle,  for, 
once  past  that  height,  the  English  will  never  be  driven  back. 
The  Nebel  lies  at  its  foot.  English  field-batteries  are  already 
unlimbering  upon  it ;  the  lines  of  cavalry  and  infantry  are  de- 
ploying behind  it ;  but  here  is  the  point  of  all  others  from  which 
to  see  the  combat;  here  in  a  few  moments  will  be  Marlborough 
himself.  Just  now  he  is  among  those  little  stone-houses  to  the 
north,  the  hamlet  of  Wolperstetten,  eagerly  talking  with  Prince 
Eugene,  while  the  troops  of  the  latter  are  still  filing  through 
on  their  way  to  the  extreme  right.  Here,  facing  about,  towards 
the  Nebel  and  the  French,  the  field  lies  before  us.  There  to 
our  left  front,  a  mile  away  towards  the  Danube,  is  Blenheim,  a 
citadel  now.  Here,  directly  in  front,  is  the  highway-bridge 
across  the  Nebel.  There  to  the  right  front  is  Oberglauh  and 
Marsin's  stronghold.  Beyond  that,  backed  by  the  woody  crests, 
Lutzingen  and  the  Bavarians.  Every  foot  of  the  opposite  bank 
is  occupied  by  the  compact  army  of  the  French. 

Now  for  the  English  lines.  On  our  extreme  left,  down  to- 
wards the  Danube,  is  the  division  of  Lord  Cutts — four  lines  of 
horse  and  two  of  foot.  He  is  well  forward,  almost  within  mus- 
ket range  of  Blenheim,  and  close  to  the  east  bank  of  the  Nebel. 
Next  to  him,  stretching  way  across  the  rising  ground  on  which 
we  stand,  across  the  highway  and  up  the  valley  towards  Prince 
Eugene,  in  two  slender  lines  some  hundred  yards  apart,  are  the 
infantry  battalions  of  the  English  centre,  and  'between  these  lines, 
a  third  long  line  of  closed  squadrons  of  cavalry.  It  is  unusual 
to  form  cavalry  in  this  way  with  footmen  in  front  and  rear,  but 
the  crossing  of  the  stream  is  already  a  problem  on  which  Lord 
Marlborough  has  been  studying ;  officers  have  been  forward  to 


"LET   HIM   ATTACK   AT   ONCE."  317 

sound  it ;  cavalry  sent  to  the  hills  to  cut  bundles  of  saplings 
and  tie  them  into  "  fascines  "  for  temporary  use  in  fording ;  and 
engineer  officers  with  pontoons  have  already  got  to  work  at 
different  points  between  the  hamlet  of  Unterglauh  and  the 
burning  mills.  Marlborough  means  to  cross  the  stream  and 
assault  an  army  in  position.  He  is  only  waiting  for  Prince 
Eugene. 

Just  at  eight  o'clock  the  guns  of  the  French  open  a  furious 
cannonade  on  the  forming  troops  of  Marlborough,  and  the  bat- 
teries of  the  latter  answer  at  once.  The  battle  of  Blenheim  for 
some  hours  is  destined  to  be  an  artillery  combat.  Prince  Eu- 
gene is  having  unexpected  difficulty  up  there  in  the  gorge,  and 
cannot  get  his  men  into  position  to  suit  him.  While  waiting  for 
the  signal,  religious  services  are  conducted  at  the  head  of  each 
regiment,  and,  when  they  are  over,  the  army  rests  on  its  arms. 
It  has  been  arranged  between  the  two  generals  that  their  attack 
shall  be  simultaneous,  and  that  Eugene  shall  extend  his  lines 
sufficiently  far  up  the  gorge  of  the  Nebel  to  overlap  the  extreme 
left 'of  the  French  army  (there  held  mainly  by  Bavarians),  and 
that  he  shall  endeavor  to  gain  the  heights  and  "  turn "  that 
flank.  But  the  prince  has  found  the  heights  north  of  Lutzingen 
already  occupied  by  a  strong  force,  and  this  compels  him  to 
extend  his  line  farther  up  the  gorge  than  was  expected ;  and 
then,  to  keep  up  his  connection  with  Marlborough,  he  has  to 
bring  his  reserve  into  the  front  rank.  Now  his  ranks  extend 
far  but  of  sight  up  the  wooded  ravine  beyond  Eichberg,  but 
he  is  ready  at  last. 

Just  at  twelve  o'clock,  staff-officers  come  galloping  up  the 
slope,  and,  saluting  Lord  Marlborough,  report  that  Prince  Eu- 
gene is  in  position.  "  Let  him  attack  at  once,  then,"  are  the 
brief  instructions  as  the  duke  mounts  his  horse  and  turns  down 
the  slope  towards  his  left.  "  Order  Lord  Cutts  to  assault  Blen- 
heim," is  the  next  command,  and  under  the  eye  of  the  chief  the 
four  lines  of  infantry  on  the  left  sweep  down  towards  the  mills, 
and  in  thundering  uproar  the  guns  of  Blenheim  open  upon  them 
with  grape-shot.  Rowe's  brigade  of  English  leads.  Behind 
him  come  the  Hessians,  then  Ferguson's  battalions  of  foot,  and 


318  BLENHEIM. 

then  the  Hanoverian  brigade.  Cutts'  cavalry,  consisting  of  Ross' 
dragoons  and  the  light  troopers  of  General  Wood,  remain  for  a 
moment  to  watch  the  success  of  the  infantry  crossing  before  they 
are  sent  in.  Meantime  Lord  Marlborough  orders  forward  every 
available  gun,  and  personally  superintends  the  opening  of  their 
fire.  Now  the  infantry  swarm  down  upon  the  burning  mills  and 
struggle  across  the  Nebel.  Foremost  rides  General  Rowe,  who 
rapidly  forms  and  aligns  his  men  on  tfye  western  bank  prepara- 
tory to  leading  them  forward  to  the  assault.  To  the  English 
foot  belongs  the  honor  of  the  first  crossing  of  the  Nebel. 

Swampy  as  is  the  ground  along  the  little  stream,  they  struggle 
through:  for  many,  led  by  eager  young  officers,  will  not  wait  to 
crowd  over  the  pontoon  bridge.  Blenheim  stands  back  on  ris- 
ing ground,  and  there  is  a  regular  bluff  close  to  the  water's 
edge,  under  shelter  of  which  the  grapeshot  of  the  batteries  can- 
not reach  them,  and  here  the  brigade  of  Rowe,  all  Britons,  as 
we  have  noticed,  forms  and  aligns  its  ranks  preparatory  to  breast- 
ing the  slope  and  charging  up  to  the  palisades  and  walls  of  the 
village.  It  will  take  at  least  five  minutes  even  for  their  ener- 
getic chief  to  get  that  little  brigade  into  shape ;  so,  while  the 
Hessians  are  crossing  behind  him,  and  Ferguson's  brigade  is 
occupying  the  mills,  let  us  take  one  good  look  over  the  field. 
Ten  minutes  more  it  will  be  obscured  by  powder  smoke. 

Here  on  our  knoll  Lord  Marlborough  has  again  taken  his 
station  with  his  staff.  It  overlooks  the  valley  of  the  Nebel,  and 
here,  if  anywhere,  the  movements  of  the  troops  can  be  distinctly 
seen.  The  batteries  are  hammering  away  at  one  another,  and 
occasionally  the  shot  pass  uncomfortably  close  to  the  com- 
mander-in-chief.  But  a  moment  ago  one  twenty-four  pounder 
ploughed  the  ground  between  his  horse's  legs  and  covered  him 
with  dust  and  dirt,  but  could  not  induce  him  to  quit  the  position. 
Looking  over  to  the  French  side  of  the  Nebel,  we  see  what  ap- 
pears to  be  two  continuous  lines  of  caval'ry  stretching  from 
Blenheim  to  Oberglauh — over  a  mile  and  a  half  of  horsemen. 
Back  of  them  are  the  tents  of  their  late  encampment.  In  front 
of  them  are  the  batteries ;  two  are  at  Blenheim,  blazing  away 
with  grape  at  the  men  of  Lord  Cutts'  division  still  crossing  at 


MARLBOROUGH'S    MISTAKEN   SUPPOSITION.  319 

the  mills ;  another,  close  to  the  high-road,  is  sending  its  compli- 
ments across  the  Nebel  at  the  very  knoll  on  which  we  are  stand- 
ing ;  while  west  of  it,  three  more  are  posted  along  the  bluff 
firing  apparently  at  the  batteries  we  have  placed  in  position  near 
Unterglauh  and  Weilheim — these  little  villages  from  which  the 
flames  are  still  rising  off  here  to  our  right  hand.  We  wonder 
where  Tallard  has  posted  all  his  infantry,  and  well  we  may.  Not 
a  man,  from  the  Duke  of  Marlborough  down  to  the  drummers, 
imagines  that  nearly  10,000  footmen  are  in  and  around  the  walls 
of  that  village  on  our  left.  Off  to  the  west,  at  Oberglauh,  we 
can  see  strong  masses  of  musketeers  around  the  stone  walls  and 
even  on  the  slopes  in  front,  and,  in  two  lines,  a  division  at  least 
stands  behind  it.  Somewhere  there  is  that  Irish  brigade  of 
which  so  much  has  been  heard,  and  so  much  more  is  to  be 
heard  before  we  get  through  with  this  day's  work.  There  be- 
yond Oberglauh  is  another  strong  division  of  foot,  and  there  is 
no  telling  how  many  that  old  soldier  Marsin  has  planted  in  the 
village  itself.  Beyond  them,  some  three  miles  away 'from  us, 
we  can  see  more  lines  of  cavalry  drawn  up  by  squadrons,  in 
front  of  Lutzingen,  where  the  Elector  of  Bavaria  makes  his 
head-quarters  ;  and  farther  still,  way  up  in  those  wooded  slopes, 
dense  bodies  of  infantry.  If  that  position  can  be  flanked,  it  must 
be  by  a  bigger  army  than  Lord  Marlborough  can  muster  to- 
day. He  is  right — it  must  be  attacked  along  the  whole  line,  and 
pluck  and  discipline  must  win.  He  is  wrong  only  in  one  sup- 
position :  that  Blenheim  is  held  by  a  detachment.  He  has  had 
pontoons  thrown  over  the  Nebel :  one  in  front  of  the  village ; 
two  here  between  Unterglauh  and  the  highway  just  to  our  right; 
two  more  up  there  just  beyond  Unterglauh ;  and  he  means  to  ad- 
vance the  whole  line  as  soon  as  Rowe  and  Cutts  get  to  work 
down  there  on  the  left.  They  are  his  fighting  generals,  and 
occupy  subordinate  positions,  in  reality,  to  men  who  are  their 
inferiors  in  military -merit. 

We  have  come  to  that  stage  in  European  military  history 
when  princes  and  dukes  are  intrusted  with  important  com- 
mands in  the  field  simply  through  the  favor  of  their  sovereign, 
while  better  men  do  their  manoeuvring,  planning  and  fighting. 


320  BLENHEIM. 

These  magnates  are  the  persons  of  consequence  named  in  the 
despatches,  and  to  them  the  honors  of  the  victory  are  ofttimes 
attributed.  It  cannot  be  said  that  they  do  not  fearlessly  share 
the  dangers  and  exposure  of  the  battle-field,  but  it  must  be  ad- 
mitted that  many  a  high-born  personage  appears  on  the  roster 
of  Blenheim  who  is  more  in  the  way  than  anything  else.  The 
combined  armies  of  Marlborough  and  Eugene  do  not  exceed 
53,000  men,  and  to  lead  them  we  have  seven  generals,  thirteen 
lieutenant-generals,  twenty-one  major-generals,  and  eighteen 
brigadiers,  more  than  enough  with  the  two  commanders  to 
handle  an  army  ten  times  its  size.  Fortunately  a  great  many 
are  merely  honorary  positions,  and  Lord  Marlborough  has  so 
arranged  his  army  that  his  Englishmen  are  mainly  down  to- 
wards the  left  where  the  hardest  fighting  must  be ;  while  to  the 
Hanoverians  and  Dutch  he  assigns  his  own  right,  the  centre  of 
the  combined  line.  In  this  way,  too,  Prince  Eugene  seems  to 
have  posted  his  best  fighters — the  Danes  and  Prussians — on  his 
right,  while  his  cavalry  extended  thence  towards  the  centre. 
It  is  evident  that  the  flanks  are  to  begin  the  attack  in  force. 

It  is  now  just  one  o'clock.  The  thunder  of  the  cannon  has 
thus  far  monopolized  the  noise  of  battle.  Now  comes  a  distant 
sound,  a  rattle  of  musketry  from  our  extreme  right.  Far  up 
there  in  the  gorge  Eugene  has  begun  his  attack.  Now  for  the 
assault  on  Blenheim.  Every  man  grasping  "  Brown  Bess,"  as  in 
the  days  of  good  Queen  Anne  the  English  soldier  called  his 
musket,  the  men  of  Rowe's  brigade  scramble  up  the  bluff;  then, 
reaching  the  sloping  ground  above,  find  themselves  fairly  in 
sight  of  the  palisaded  walls  of  Blenheim.  Let  us  watch  them. 
Already  the  Hessian  brigade  has  formed  in  their  stead  on  the 
flats,  and  Ferguson  is  crossing  his  men.  Our  interest  centres  in 
that  slender  line  now  marching  sturdily  up  towards  the  village. 
Never  halting  to  fire,  never  responding  to  the  discharges  of  the 
battery,  they  trudge  fearlessly  on.  They  are  way  within  musket^ 
shot  of  the  hedges  and  walls,  yet  not  a  trigger  is  pulled.  Can 
it  be  possible  that  the  French  mean  to  back  out  of  Blenheim  ? 
Impossible.  The  line  is  almost  at  the  palisade ;  the  general, 
riding  out  in  front,  drives  his  sword  into  the  wooden  post  at  the 


THE   BRITISH   LINE   RECOILS.  321 

first  gateway ;  then,  with  one  explosion,  the  walls,  roofs,  towers, 
windows  of  Blenheim  blaze  with  flame.  Waiting  until  the  Eng- 
lish brigade  is  within  thirty  paces,  the  French  infantiy  drives 
in  a  merciless,  a  death-dealing  fire,  and  Lord  Marlborough  sees 
in  an  instant  that  instead  of  a  detachment,  a  whole  division  is 
there.  Instantly  he  orders  forward  his  entire  line. 

But  at  the  palisades  General  Rowe  falls  mortally  wounded; 
his  officers,  attempting  to  carry  off  his  body,  are  themselves  shot 
down  and  killed ;  in  five  minutes  one-third  of  the  brigade  lie 
dead  in  their  tracks,  and  then  with  much  dismay,  but  still  keep- 
ing their  front,  the  British  recoil.  Then,  concealed  by  the  smoke 
and  noise  of  the  batteries,  three  squadrons  of  French  gens- 
d'armes  rush  down  upon  the  right  flank.  The  little  brigade, 
leaderless,  amazed,  half-gone,  falls  slowly  back,  and  this  new  as- 
sault throws  them  into  confusion.  The  Hessian  line  rushes  up 
to  their  succor,  and  the  French  cavalry  have  to  turn,  and  General 
Lumley,  here  right  behind  the  knoll,  sends  forward  five  squad- 
rons of  horsemen  to  punish  those  gens-d'armes.  These  fellows 
are  English  cavalrymen.  Prince  Eugene  only  two  months  agone 
pronounced  them  the  finest  in  Europe,  and  they  go  down  the 
slopes,  through  the  marshy  Nebel,  and  up  the  other  bank  as 
though  war  were  a  delight.  Halting  but  an  instant  on  the  other 
shore  they  draw  sabre,  and  despite  the  guns,  despite  the  galling 
musketry  fire  from  the  walls  of  the  village,  they  charge  squarely 
up  the  slope  through  the  first  line  of  French  horsemen,  through 
the  second,  the  brigade  of  General  Tilly ;  then,  nearly  surrounded 
and  cut  off,  they  have  to  charge  back  and  once  more  reform 
down  by  the  Nebel  under  shelter  of  the  Hessian  brigade. 

Now  Ferguson  and  Hulsen  have  got  their  brigades  across, 
and  the  enemy  fearing  to  lose  his  battery,  calls  the  twenty-four 
pounders  within  the  shelter  of  the  walls.  Lord  Cutts'  entire 
infantry  sweeps  forward,  but  a  withering  fire  meets  them  from 
every  inch  of  the  walls.  Blenheim  still  holds  a  superior  force 
and  the  attack  is  madness.  Twice  he  rallies  his  lines  to  the 
assault,  but  they  are  driven  back  with  terrible  loss,  and  at  two 
in  the  afternoon  the  shattered  infantry  division  of  Lord  Cutts  is 
seeking  shelter  under  the  bluff  southwest  of  the  Nebel.  Lord 
21 


322  BLENHEIM. 

Marlborough,  eagerly  watching  the  attack  from  our  position 
here  on  the  knoll,  plainly  sees  that  he  has  sustained  a  sad  re- 
verse. But  he  never  loses  heart,  never  changes  his  cheery, 
confident  manner.  Ordering  Lord  Cutts  to  hang  on  to  the 
slopes,  and,  by  keeping  up  a  semblance  of  attack,  engage  the 
entire  attention  of  the  enemy  in  Blenheim,  he  himself  conducts 
the  movement  which  is,  he  hopes,  to  pierce  the  enemy's  centre. 

Marching  down  in  closed  columns  to  the  Nebel,  the  infantry 
of  the  first  line  has  already  crossed  and  begun  to  deploy  on  the 
opposite  shore.  The  guns  rake  them  savagely  with  grape,  but 
they  do  not  falter.  They  secure  their  foothold  opposite  the 
enemy's  centre  and  do  not  mean  to  yield  it.  After  them  come 
the  cavalry  of  General  Churchill's  command,  some  over  the 
pontoon  bridges,  some  through  the  stream,  and,  before  they 
can  get  out  on  the  open  ground  in  front  of  the  infantry,  down  at 
headlong  charge  comes  Turlauben's  entire  division  of  horsemen 
of  the  French  first  line.  They  have  every  advantage,  and  our 
horsemen  are  driven  back — some  as  far  as  the  Nebel ;  but 
Churchill's  infantry  has  knelt  behind  the  low  hedge  across  the 
field,  and  their  musketry  fire  soon  drives  Turlauben's  troopers 
to  cover ;  while  from  our  second  line,  Bothmar's  dragoon  brigade 
sweeps  forward  in  capital  order  and  charges  home  on  the  retiring 
squadrons  of  the  French,  driving  and  following  them  beyond  the 
Maulweyer;  and  here  in  turn  our  troopers  are  met  by  over- 
whelming numbers  and  forced  to  fall  back.  It  is  impossible  to 
tell  how  matters  will  result  here  on  our  left  and  centre.  Thus 
far  the  French  have  the  best  of  it. 

But  meanwhile  the  Duke  of  Marlborough  has  been  steadily 
sending  all  his  army  across  the  stream,  and  now,  at  three  o'clock, 
General  Lumley  has  reformed  and  straightened  out  our  squad- 
rons in  front  of  the  low  bluffs  west  of  Blenheim,  and  they  are  in 
readiness  to  act  with  renewed  spirit.  Meantime,  too,  Lieutenant- 
General  Hompesch  with  the  Dutch  cavalry,  and  the  Duke  of 
Wurtemberg  with  the  Danes  and  Hanoverians  have  managed  to 
scramble  over  the  boggy  banks  up  towards  Oberglauh,  and  now 
they  are  in  line,  the  infantry  closely  following  them.  Marshal 
Marsin  sends  a  few  old  battalions  from  his  centre  back  of  Ober- 


THE   ADVANTAGE   STILL   WITH   THE   ALLIES.  323 

glauh.  They  come  steadily  forward  until  at  the  crest,  drive  a 
few  volleys  into  the  Dutch  and  Danish  cavalry ;  then  comes  a 
charge  of  French  dragoons,  and  back  go  the  Dutchmen.  Marl- 
borough  has  crossed  most  of  his  army,  but,  what  has  he  gained? 
Nothing,  apparently,  but  a  position  in  which  he  can  be  ham- 
mered worse  than  when  on  the  northeastern  bank  of  the  Nebel, 
and  still  there  comes  no  good  news  from  Prince  Eugene  on  the 
west  Many  a  man  would  have  lost  his  nerve  at  this  juncture, 
and  the  Duke  of  Marlborough  might  readily  have  been  excused 
had  he  seen  fit  to  withdraw  his  troops  and  fall  back  to  the  line 
of  the  Kessel,  where  his  tents  were  still  standing,  but  his  is  not 
the  stuff  that  gives  up  easily. 

For  some  time  the  Prince  of  Holstein  Beck  has  been  can- 
nonading Oberglauh  from  that  knoll  over  there  near  burning 
Weilheim.  Now  he  limbers  up  his  battery,  and  with  eleven 
battalions  moves  down  to  the  stream  and  forms  on  the  bank  be- 
low the  position  of  Marsin's  right ;  begins  to  form  rather,  for 
before  the  columns  are  fairly  across  they  are  attacked  by  a 
strong  division  of  infantry,  and  with  that  division  is  the  famous 
Irish  brigade.  These  fellows  had  hoped  to  be  pitted  against 
the  British,  but  are  quite  ready  to  fight  anything  that  comes  in 
their  way,  and  it  is  a  black  day  for  Holstein  Beck  and  his  Hano- 
verians. Lord  Marlborough,  watching  the  move  across  the 
Nebel,  sees  the  sudden  advance  of  Marsin's  infantry  and  seems 
to  have  a  premonition  of  what  is  coming,  for  instantly  he  gal- 
lops off  towards  Weilheim.  Before  he  can  get  there  it  is  all 
over  with  Holstein  Beck ;  the  Irish  brigade  have  sprung  upon 
his  leading  lines  like  starving  tigers  on  their  prey.  Two  bat- 
talions are  swept  out  of  existence,  and,  leaving  their  princely 
leader  mortally  wounded  under  the  slopes  of  Oberglauh,  the 
shattered  division  is  in  full  retreat  across  the  stream,  when  Marl- 
borough  himself  appears  in  their  midst.  First  he  checks  their 
wild  and  disorderly  flight  and  faces  them  about ;  then  he  hurries 
the  brigade  of  Bernsdorf  over  from  Weilheim  and  posts  it  facing 
Oberglauh.  Then,  cheering  on  his  cavalry,  he  sends  in  all  the 
squadrons  of  Imperialists  to  charge  the  flanks  of  the  now  baffled 
line.  The  Danes  and  Hanoverian  horse  are  sent  around  to  the 


324  BLENHEIM. 

other  (western)  flank,  and  by  their  impetuous  rush,  and  the  now 
steady  valor  of  the  German  infantry,  the  battle  is  restored. 
Marsin's  infantry  are  driven  backward  up  the  slope,  Irish  and 
all,  and  forced  to  seek  shelter  behind  the  walls  of  Oberglauh. 
For  fifteen  minutes  it  looked  as  though  all  was  over  with  our 
right  centre.  Now  all  is  triumph  again,  but  it  took  all  the 
magnetic  power  of  Marlborough  to  effect  it.  He  alone  was 
capable  of  restoring  the  battle. 

It  is  three  o'clock  as  the  duke  gallops  back  to  the  high-road, 
sending  Lord  Tunbridge  to  announce  to  Prince  Eugene  that  his 
entire  force  is  now  across  the  Nebel  and  about  to  assault  the 
French  centre.  He  also  eagerly  inquires  how  the  battle  is  going 
on  the  right.  Eugene  has  been  having  a  vividly  exciting  but 
most  unsatisfactory  combat.  The  woods  are  thick,  the  ravines 
deep  and  rugged,  and  charges  and  countercharges  have  been 
going  on  for  two  hours.  His  troops  are  well-nigh  exhausted 
and  dispirited,  for  they  have  gained  little  or  nothing.  It  seems 
impossible  to  drive  those  dogged  Bavarians  out  of  their  covert 
among  the  rocks.  The  cavalry  are  unable  to  act,  yet  are  severe 
sufferers  from  the  grape  of  the  enemy's  battery.  The  artillery, 
after  huge  exertions,  succeed  in  lugging  their  guns  up  the  slopes 
and  open  fire  on  the  Bavarians,  but  the  latter  are  so  sheltered  that 
they  cling  to  their  ground.  In  vain  Prince  Eugene,  the  Prince 
of  Anhalt  and  the  elector  himself  ride  among,  and  strive  to  en- 
courage their  men ;  a  new  charge  is  ordered,  but,  though  the 
lines  obey  and  advance,  it  is  spiritless  and  weak ;  once  more  they 
reel  and  are  about  to  recoil,  when  Prince  Eugene,  braving  al^ 
most  certain  death,  spurs  out  to  the  front,  cheering  and  waving 
his  sword,  and  some  devoted  soldiers  follow  him.  The  example 
is  not  thrown  away ;  officers  leap  in  front  of  the  wavering  ranks 
and  call  to  their  men  to  follow  them,  and  now  at  last  they 
grapple  hand-to-hand  with  the  Bavarians,  and  here  the  Bavarians 
get  the  worst  of  it.  After  a  short,  sharp,  bloody  struggle,  they 
stagger  from  their  stronghold  among  the  rocks  and  trees  and 
go  sullenly  backward  down  the  ravine  toward  Lutzingen.  "Now 
bring  up  those  guns  and  plant  them  here,"  is  the  exultant  order, 
for,  the  heights  above  the  village  once  gained,  a  raking  fire  can 


LUTZINGEN  WON.  325 

be  poured  along  the  enemy's  lines  and  into  the  walls  of  Lutz- 
ingen.  Eugene  has  turned  the  allied  left.  The  Bavarians  are 
falling  back — yes,  behind  Lutzingen  now ;  and  they  have  left 
some  of  their  own  guns  on  the  heights  too.  Another  moment 
and — look !  the  rocky  crest  is  vomiting  flame  and  smoke,  and 
the  batteries  of  Eugene  are  hurling  iron  missiles  down  the  valley. 
Now,  Bavaria !  the  sooner  you  get  out  of  it  the  better.  The 
allied  left  comes  drifting  back,  doubling  up  on  the  lines  of  Mar- 
sin  behind  Oberglauh.  Lutzingen  is  won. 

Yet  it  would  not,  could  not  have  been  lost  to  the  Bavarians 
had  Marsin  detached  a  few  battalions  from  his  left,  and  sent  them 
up  to  support  the  elector.  Why  did  he  fail  ?  For  four  mortal 
hours  the  elector  has  held  the  heights  against  the  combined 
attacks  of  Eugene  and  Anhalt,  and  not  until  five  o'clock  does  he 
loosen  his  grasp  on  the  strong  position  he  has  so  doggedly  held. 
Marsin  ought  to  have  aided  him,  but  Marsin  dare  not  send  a 
man.  Here,  right  along  the  slopes  of  the  Nebel,  almost  under 
his  nose,  stretching  from  Oberglauh  to  Blenheim,  but  partially 
sheltered  by  the  rise  of  the  ground,  the  cavalry  of  Britain  and 
the  confederates  have  been  coolly  forming  in  two  lines,  backed 
by  heavy  masses  of  infantry,  and  Marsin  dare  not  move;  he 
does  not  know  how  soon  he  may  need  every  man  to  repel  the 
grand  assault  that  is  evidently  coming.  So  too  with  Tallard. 
Throughout  the  armies  of  France  and  Bavaria  there  is  a  whole- 
some dread  of  the  British  cavalry,  and  Marlborough  knows  well 
how  to  use  it.  Leaving  their  colleague  at  Lutzingen  to  shift 
for  himself,  these  two  generals,  Tallard  and  Marsin,  devote  all 
their  energies  to  meeting  the  new  move.  Tallard  marches 
strong  battalions  of  infantry  along  his  line,  stationing  them  at 
intervals  between  the  squadrons ;  Marlborough  (whose  infantry 
thus  far,  since  crossing  the  Nebel,  have  been  drawn  up  with  con- 
venient gaps  through  which  the  cavalry  can  retire  if  compelled 
to  fall  back)  now  sends  forward  some  of  the  best  footmen  to 
crown  the  brow  of  the  low  hill  towards  the  enemy,  and  having 
assigned  them  their  positions,  which  they  are  ordered  to  hold 
against  counter  attack,  he  advances  the  entire  line.  In  all  "the 
pomp  and  circumstance  of  glorious  war "  the  combined  horse 


326  BLENHEIM. 

and  foot  of  Britain  and  the  confederates  move  slowly  up  the 
slopes.  At  the  same  instant  Marlborough's  cannons  open  over 
their  heads  at  the  French  lines,  and  in  another  moment,  the 
leading  ranks  come  full  into  view  of  the  enemy.  Then  begins 
a  thunder  of  field-guns  such  as  Blenheim  has  not  yet  heard. 
Two  field-batteries  are  run  up  to  the  brow  of  the  bluff  between 
the  squadrons  and  open  rapidly  on  the  French  lines. 

And  now  eight  thousand  horsemen  are  about  to  charge  ten 
thousand,  supported,  too,  by  infantry.  For  a  few  moments  the 
English  guns  and  musketry  pour  rapid  volleys  into  the  opposing 
ranks,  receiving  heavy  fire  in  return,  but  holding  firmly  to  their 
ground.  Then  right  and  left  along  the  slopes  the  trumpets 
ring  out  their  stirring  call,  the  sabres  of  fifty  gallant  squadrons 
flash  in  air,  and  with  one  mad  cheer  the  troopers  of  England 
dash  forward  to  the  charge.  In  vain  the  French  musketeers 
salute  them  with  rapid,  low-aimed  volleys  that  empty  many  a 
saddle.  On  they  go,  and  the  gunners  and  footmen  hold  their 
breath  and  envy  their  mounted  comrades  the  glory  of  that  wild 
ride.  Straight  at  Tallard's  squadrons  they  drive.  In  they  rush 
between  the  hurriedly  forming  squares ;  and  the  French  dra- 
goons appalled  at  the  fury  of  the  onset,  fire  their  carbines  in 
panicky  haste,  then  dash  spurs  to  their  horses,  wheel  about  and 
scatter  for  shelter,  leaving  nine  squares  of  gallant  musketeers 
to  their  fate.  In  vain  Tallard  rallies  and  faces  westward  a  strong 
division  of  his  horsemen,  whose  right  now  rests  on  Blenheim. 
The  victorious  riders  after  driving  before  them  five  thousand 
horsemen  over  into  the  valley  of  the  little  Brunnen,  now  wheel 
to  their  left,  charge  this  new  formed  line,  and  scatter  them  like 
sheep  over  the  banks  and  down  into  the  morass  and  the  Danube 
beyond.  The  centre  is  pierced.  Tallard  and  Marsin  are  hurled 
apart.  Blenheim  is  won,  and  the  cavalry  have  won  it. 

But  it  is  only  half-past  five,  and  before  the  sun  goes  down 
there  is  a  deal  of  hard  fighting  to  be  done.  This  last  charge  of 
horsemen  has  completely  cut  off  the  garrison  of  the  town  itself 
from  the  rest  of  the  army.  Tallard's  wing  is  practically  ruined. 
He  himself,  a  small  escort  of  cavalry  and  his  staff  have  nar- 
rowly escaped  being  cut  to  pieces,  and  though  witnesses  of 


MARSHAL  TALLARD   A   PRISONER.  327 

the  slaughter  and  destruction  of  the  thirty  squadrons  which  so 
lately  strove  to  reform,  back  of  the  tents  and  to  the  south  of 
Blenheim,  he  and  his  immediate  followers  have  managed  to  slip 
through  to  Sonderheim,  a  little  hamlet  just  under  the  banks  of 
the  Danube.  He  has  sent  to  Marsin  imploring  aid,  but  Marsin's 
right  has  been  doubled  up  on  his  centre,  and  now  this  latter 
officer  finds  himself  in  a  bad  predicament.  Directly  in  his  front 
there  is  no  longer  any  foe ;  yet  towards  Lutzingen,  to  his  left 
and  rear,  the  troops  of  the  Elector  of  Bavaria  are  crowding  back 
upon  him,  and  to  his  right  his  lines  are  being  doubled  up  by  the 
squadrons  and  foot  of  General  Churchill.  From  the  heights 
above  Lutzingen,  Prince  Eugene  has  been  a  witness  of  the  grand 
charge  and  victory  of  the  Duke  of  Marlborough,  and  now  he  is 
straining  every  nerve  to  complete  the  work  on  the  enemy's  left. 
His  losses  have  been  severe,  but  he  renews  his  efforts  and  sends 
his  wearied  men  in  to  the  attack  of  Lutzingen.  It  is  speedily 
carried,  and  then  the  Bavarians  fall  back  in  disorder  upon  Mar- 
sin,  who  now  sees  no  help  for  it.  He,  too,  must  retreat,  but  he 
forms  his  columns  and  falls  back  in  capital  order,  while  from  the 
roofs  and  walls  of  Oberglauh  and  Lutzingen,  columns  of  smoke 
and  flame  rise  in  air.  The  vanquished  army  is  setting  fire  to 
everything  in  its  retreat.  Keeping  close  under  the  heights, 
though  vehemently  pursued  by  Eugene,  the  remnants  of  the 
elector's  army  and  the  well-handled  columns  of  Marsin  move 
steadily  back  towards  the  valley  of  the  Brunnen.  They  are  fre- 
quently charged  by  cavalry,  but  the  gathering  darkness  favors 
their  escape,  and  by  eight  o'clock  they  are  clear  of  the  field. 

But  around  Blenheim  the  battle  still  rages  fiercely.  Marshal 
Tallard  had  sent  an  officer  earlier  in  the  afternoon  to  order  the 
troops  within  the  village  to  file  out  and  join  him,  but  the  order 
never  reached  de  Clerambault,  who  was  in  command,  and  now, 
at  six  P.  M.,  Tallard  himself,  with  his  staff,  has  been  surrounded 
by  dragoons  in  Sonderheim  and  is  a  prisoner  of  war,  treated  as 
a  distinguished  guest  by  Marlborough,  and  de  Clerambault  is 
drowned  in  the  Danube  with  hundreds  of  unfortunate  men  who 
strove  to  swim  across  its  rapid  tide.  The  gallant  Frenchmen 
holding  Blenheim  are  without  a  commander,  without  orders, 


328  BLENHEIM. 

without  hope,  but  they  mean  to  fight.  They  have  seen  the  com- 
plete demolition  of  the  cavalry.  They  can  plainly  see  the  dis- 
tant retreat  of  Marsin.  They  are  isolated,  and  will  soon 
be  surrounded.  An  effort  is  made  to  cut  their  way  through 
towards  Hochstadt;  but  General  Lumley  with  some  of  his 
battalions  and  that  renowned  regiment  of  dragoons,  the  Scots 
Greys,  fiercely  charge  and  repel  the  sortie.  General  Churchill 
extends  his  infantry  completely  around  the  stone  hedges  of  the 
little  town.  Lord  Orkney  and  General  Ingoldsby  lead  their 
men  in  to  the  assault,  but  recoil  before  the  heroic  defence  of  the 
garrison,  and,  just  as  the  sun  goes  down,  further  shedding  of 
blood  is  obviated  by  the  honorable  surrender  of  the  troops  in 
the  village.  With  the  coming  of  darkness  the  field  is  completely 
won. 

Of  the  allies  that  had  mustered  nearly  sixty  thousand  strong 
that  bright  morning,  only  twenty  thousand  were  left  upon  the 
slopes  back  of  Hochstadt,  whither  Marsin  had  led  his  men. 
Twelve  thousand  lay  on  the  field  dead  or  wounded,  as  many 
more  were  prisoners,  and  all  the  artillery,  all  their  tents  and 
camp  equipage,  hundreds  of  colors  and  standards,  the  general- 
in-chief  and  twelve  hundred  officers  of  rank  were  united  in  the 
losses  sustained  by  France  and  Bavaria.  Five  thousand  killed 
and  eight  thousand  wounded,  summed  up  the  casualties  on  the 
side  of  the  confederates,  but  the  fruits  of  their  triumph  were 
incalculable.  Bloody  and  desperate  as  it  had  been,  Blenheim 
was  a  glorious  victory  for  England — brilliant,  decisive,  and  of 
world-wide  importance  in  its  results.  The  power  of  Louis 
XIV.  was  broken.  From  that  time  forth  he  fought  only  on  the 
defensive.  The  French  were  driven  from  the  valley  of  the 
Danube.  Ulm,  Landau  and  Treves  surrendered  to  the  con- 
federates. Bavaria  broke  her  alliance  with  France  and  humbly 
submitted  to  Austria,  and  the  supremacy  of  British  arms  and 
valor  was  established  throughout  Europe.  Marlborough  and 
Prince  Eugene  became  the  renowned  names  of  the  century,  and 
where  they  fought  side  by  side,  no  power  seemed  able  to  with- 
stand them. 


CavaLy  *  JrfantryWf Arhl  I  eiy 


3JATTXE 

15LEHTHEIM 

OIL 

HOECHSTEDT 


RAMILIES. 


1706. 


O  worthily  describe  these  great  battles  and  cam- 
paigns of  Maryborough,  a  dozen  books  the 
size  of  this  might  well  be  written.  It  is  neces- 
sary in  the  space  to  which  we  are  limited,  to 
make  only  the  briefest  allusion  to  some  of  his 
most  brilliant  deeds.  Blenheim  had  rid  all 
Germany  east  of  the  Rhine,  of  the  French 
invaders.  Lord  Marlborough  then  turned  his 
attention  to  affairs  in  Holland,  and  sent  an  army  up  the  valley 
of  the  Moselle  to  confront  the  French  under  Marshal  Villars, 
but  diplomatic  duties  with  which  he  was  burdened,  called  him 
for  a  time,  away  from  the  head  of  the  armies,  and  the  sluggish- 
ness of  the  Dutch  delayed  his  combinations.  Sent  to  Vienna  he 
was  there  created  a  prince  of  the  empire  as  a  reward  for  his 
heroic  services ;  but  in  1706  he  resumed  the  direction  of  mat- 
ters in  the  field,  and  on  the  23d  of  May  he  again  attacked  and 
defeated  a  French  army  in  position,  winning  the  spirited  battle 
of  Ramilies. 

The  army  of  France  under  Marshal  Villeroy  occupied  in  May 
a  strong  position  between  Brussels  and  Namur  in  mid  Belgium. 
The  river  Dyle  covered  their  front,  and  Namur  on  the  Meuse, 
which  defended  their  right,  was  strongly  held  and  fortified. 
Marlborough  hoped  to  surprise  the  fortress  and  secure  it  through 
the  agency  of  one  Pasquier,  a  resident  of  the  city.  If  he  succeeded, 
their  line  could  no  longer  be  held,  as  he  had  turned  their  right  flank. 
If  they  detected  his  move  in  time  to  prevent  it,  they  would  be 
compelled  to  march  out  from  their  lines  to  meet  him  in  front 

(329) 


330 


RAMILIES. 


of  the  Dyle,  and  a  battle  in  the  open  country  was  what  he 
needed. 

Lord  Marlborough  entered  upon  this  campaign  in  low  spirits, 
for  numerous  harassing  complications  had  occurred  ;  and  though 
he  counted  on  defeating  the  French,  he  feared  that  his  Dutch 
allies  were  not  to  be  thoroughly  depended  on,  and  he  wanted  to 
make  the  battle  decisive. 

On  the  1 2th  of  May,  Lord  Marlborough  arrived  at  Maestricht 
on  the  Meuse,  forty-five  miles  northeast  of  Namur.  Here  he 
found  the  Dutch  troops  awaiting  him,  but  the  English  were  yet 
in  march  to  join.  Fifty  miles  due  west  lay  Brussels,  and  along 
the  Dyle  south  of  west  and  thirty-five  miles  away,  lay  the  French 
army.  Between  the  Dyle  and  the  Meuse,  in  several  small 
branches,  the  river  Geete  drained  the  country,  flowing  northward 
into  the  Dender.  On  the  largest  branch  nearly  due  west  of 
Maestricht  and  some  twenty-five  miles  east  of  Brussels  is  the 
little  town  of  Tirlemont.  Namur  is  due  south  from  Tirlemont 
and  thirty  miles  away ;  a  good  road  joined  them,  and  this  road 
after  crossing  the  river  Mehaigne,  passes  northward  through 
several  little  villages,  among  them  Judoigne  on  the  banks  of  the 
Geete,  and  Ramilies  out  in  the  open  country  between  the  head- 
waters of  the  Geete  and  the  Mehaigne. 

Ordering  his  English  troops  to  meet  him  there,  Marlborough 
marched  west  towards  Tirlemont;  and  Villeroy  took  alarm  at 
once.  He  was  ordered  even  to  risk  a  battle  in  the  field  with 
Marlborough,  rather  than  let  him  swoop  down  upon  Namur. 
He  had  learned,  too,  that  the  forces  of  the  confederates  were  far 
from  united,  that  the  Hanoverians  were  not  yet  joined,  that  the 
Danish  cavalry  had  not  come  at  all,  and  that  the  English 
were  delayed.  He  promptly  recalled  Marshal  Marsin,  who 
had  been  detached  with  a  large  force,  and  then  did  just  what 
Marlborough  hoped  and  prayed  he  would  do — crossed  the 
Dyle  and  came  forward  towards  Tirlemont,  as  though  to  give 
him  battle. 

On  the  2Oth  the  English  army  reached  the  camp  of  Marlbor- 
ough. The  Danes  were  confidently  expected  on  the  22d.  The 
forces  then  at  the  disposal  of  the  English  duke  would  be  123 


NETHERLANDS'   DESTINIES  THE   ISSUE.  331 

squadrons  of  horse  and  73  battalions  of  foot.  The  French  had 
128  squadrons  and  74  battalions,  so  that  they  were  nearly  evenly 
matched.  In  round  numbers,  Marlborough  had  about  60,000 
mixed  troops,  against  62,000,  mostly  Frenchmen. 

Now  it  began  to  look  as  though  a  decisive  battle  might  be 
fought  after  all,  and  Marlborough's  spirits  rose  high  at  the  pros- 
pect. They  had  been  fighting  over  this  very  ground  the  pre- 
vious summer,  and  he  knew  it  well. 

Villeroy,  crossing  the  west  branch  or  Great  Geete,  moved 
down  towards  Jiidoigne ;  and  Marlborough,  marching  in  eight 
columns  by  the  left  flank,  passed  around  to  the  head-waters  of 
the  middle  fork  or  Little  Geete.  It  stormed  during  the  night, 
and  the  infantry  made  slow  progress ;  but  Lord  Cadogan,  who 
had  been  sent  forward  with  600  cavalry  to  reconnoitre,  reached 
the  uplands  of  Mierdorp  at  eight  o'clock  on  the  morning 
of  May  23d,  and  from  there  plainly  saw  the  French  columns 
marching  across  the  plateau  of  Mont  St.  Andre,  five  miles  west, 
and  heading  for  the  Mehaigne,  which  has  a  branch  running  east 
just  a  couple  of  miles  below  Ramilies;  and  in  Ramilies  itself  one 
of  the  branches  of  the  Little  Geete  has  its  source. 

The  battle  that  is  to  decide  the  fate  of  the  Netherlands  is  soon 
to  be  fought  right  here,  so  it  is  well  to  look  at  the  lay  of  the 
land.  Mierdorp,  where  Cadogan  catches  his  first  glimpse  of 
the  enemy,  is  a  little  village  on  a  ridge  that  runs  north  and  south 
from  Wasseige,  on  the  Mehaigne,  to  Orp  le  Petit,  at  the  forks 
of  the  Little  Geete,  a  distance  of  five  miles ;  and  along  this  ridge 
ran  the  old  line  of  earth-works  built  by  the  French  engineers, 
and  demolished  by  Marlborough  the  previous  year.  The  Me- 
haigne is  bordered  on  the  north  by  a  gently  sloping  range  of 
heights,  under  which,  and  close  to  the  water's  edge,  lie  in  regular 
order  from  east  to  west  a  number  of  quiet  little  country  ham- 
lets. Supposing  ourselves  here  at  Mierdorp,  and  facing  west,  we 
look  out  over  a  rolling  plateau  nearly  five  miles  broad,  and,  on 
the  side  of  the  Mehaigne,  five  miles  long.  To  our  left,  down 
under  the  bank  and  close  to  the  stream,  is  Wasseige.  Two  miles 
farther  west  is  Branson,  then  Boneffe,  then  Franquinay,  then 
Tavier— all  within  four  miles  of  us.  Each  has  its  little  bridge 


332  RAMILIES. 

over  the  Mehaigne ;  and  from  Tavier,  around  which  there  is  a 
good  deal  of  marshy  ground,  a  road  leads  up  northward  over 
the  farther  end  of  the  plateau,  passes  beyond  the  sources  of  the 
brooks  that  make  up  the  Little  Geete,  and  so  on  to  Judoigne, 
just  visible  to  the  northwest  eight  miles  away,  and  down  in  the 
valley  of  the  Great  Geete.  The  first  village  this  cross-road 
strikes  after  climbing  the  bluff  north  of  Tavier  is  that  little  ham- 
let we  can  see  so  plainly  four  miles  away  straight  in  front.  That 
is  Ramilies. 

Bordered  by  tall  poplars,  and  parallel  with  the  Mehaigne,  the 
high-road  runs  along  the  top  of  the  bluffs ;  but  except  these 
trees,  which  stand  .like  two  long  ranks  of  infantry  against  the 
southern  sky,  and  two  little  coppices  out  here  to  the  front,  a 
couple  of  miles  away,  the  plateau  is  bare  of  trees.  From  Rami- 
lies to  the  northeast,  around  to  our  right  hand,  sweeps  a  ravine 
that  divides  the  plateau  diagonally,  and  in  that  ravine  trickles 
along  the  rivulet  of  the  middle  Geete.  The  ground  sinks  around 
the  north  of  Ramilies,  and  is  marshy  at  the  sources  of  this  stream. 
Then  a  bold  ridge  rises  from  the  marsh,  juts  out  northeastward 
two  miles  or  so,  and  back  of  that  is  another  ravine.  This  ridge 
is  simply  a  tongue  of  land  stretching  northeastward  from  the 
middle  of  the  position  of  St.  Andre,  as  the  west  end  of  the 
plateau  is  called ;  but  two  important  hamlets  lie  there  on  the 
ridge:  one,  just  north  of  Ramilies  and  a  mile  and  a  half  from  it, 
is  Offuz,  at  the  base  of  the  tongue; -the  other,  near  our  end  of 
the  tongue  and  between  the  two  ravines,  is  Autre-Eglise — And- 
erkirk  the  Dutchmen  call  it.  A  line  joining  these  four  hamlets, 
Tavier,  Ramilies,  Offuz  and  Anderkirk,  forms  a  great  semi- 
circle, with  the  concavity  towards  us  at  Mierdorp,  and  the  centre 
of  the  circle  would  be  at  that  first  coppice  or  grove  two  miles 
out  there  on  the  plateau.  We  stand  on  the  highest  ground  in 
the  neighborhood  except  one  point.  Off  there  to  the  west,  close 
to  the  high-road  and  beyond  Ramilies,  is  a  high,  conical  hill, 
all  by  itself,  and  the  ground  slopes  up  to  it  around  its  base. 
They  call  it  the  Tomb  of  Ottomond. 

From  where  we  stand,  it  looks  as  though  an  army  in  line  of 
battle,  could  march  with  a  front  four  miles  long,  square  to  the 


VILLEROY   OVER-CONFIDENT.  333 

west  through  Ramilies,  but  it  could  not;  that  ravine  this  side 
of  the  ridge  of  Autre-Eglise  and  Offuz  is  deep  and  marshy,  and 
between  Ramilies  and  the  end  of  the  ridge  there  are  only  three 
points  where  it  can  be  safely  traversed ;  country  roads  are  built 
across  it  from  Offuz,  Autre-Eglise  and  the  very  end  itself.  Be- 
tween Ramilies  and  Tavier,  to  the  south,  the  ground  is  high  and 
unobstructed. 

Such  is  the  battle-field  on  which  Lord  Marlborough  looks  out 
at  ten  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  May  23,  1706,  and  the  low  fog 
lifting,  shows  him  the  army  of  France  going  into  position  over 
beyond  the  ravines  on  the  position  of  St.  Andre.  Our  end  of 
the  plateau  is  called  Jandrinceuil.  From  ten  o'clock  until  one 
the  army  of  the  confederates  is  occupied  in  moving  up  into  order 
of  battle.  In  two  long  lines  they  now  stretch  across  the  plateau, 
facing  west  from  the  bank  of  the  Little  Geete  on  our  right,  down 
to  Boneffe  on  the  left.  They  have  a  front  of  nearly  four  miles, 
and  are  now  two  miles  west  of  Mierdorp,  where  the  baggage  is 
left — what  there  is  of  it.  Before  we  go  forward  to  join  them  let 
us  see  what  disposition  Villeroy  has  made  of  his  command.  All 
four  villages  from  Tavier  to  Autre-Eglise  are  swarming  with  in- 
fantry ;  long  lines  of  infantry  extend  along  the  ridge  to  Offuz ; 
others  from  Offuz  across  the  low  ground  to  Ramilies ;  then  be- 
tween Ramilies  and  the  swamps  of  the  Mehaigne,  in  two  long 
lines  of  squadrons,  with  intervals,  stand  the  entire  horse  of  the 
French  army;  and  the  hedges  and  walls  of  Tavier,  and  the 
roadside  and  fields  well  out  to  Franquinay,  are  lined  with 
skirmishers. 

The  position  is  undoubtedly  formidable,  but  Villeroy  is  over- 
confident or  he  would  never  have  violated  one  of  the  first  prin- 
ciples in  selecting  a  defensive  position.  He  has  formed  a  deeply 
concave  line,  and  if  any  part  is  heavily  threatened  he  has  to 
march  reinforcements  way  around  the  arc  while  his  opponent 
takes  the  shorter  line  across.  Marlborough  sees  the  error  quick 
enough ;  sees  too  that  the  point  he  wants  to  gain  is  that  height 
of  the  Tomb  of  Ottomond  beyond  Ramilies.  The  experience 
of  Blenheim  has  taught  him  the  futility  of  attacking  infantry  in 
stone-walled  villages,  and  he  notes  with  delight  that  only  cavalry 


334  RAMILIES. 

are  drawn  up  across  the  high  ground  parallel  with  the  main 
road.  His  main  attack  is  instantly  determined  to  be  against  the 
French  right,  between  Ramilies  and  the  river,  but  he  intends  to 
make  Villeroy  believe  the  opposite. 

To  this  end  he  advances  his  Line  until  the  infantry  has  made 
almost  a  half  wheel  to  the  right,  and  is  now  facing  and  threaten- 
ing Offuz,  Autre-Eglise  and  the  ridge  between  them.  Villeroy 
instantly  orders  a  strong  division  of  infantry  from  Ramilies  to 
reinforce  his  left,  and  with  commendable  rapidity  it  marches  the 
mile  of  distance  to  Offuz,  passes  around  behind  it  and  soon  files 
out  on  the  ridge  behind  the  lines  there  stationed.  This  accom- 
plished to  the  complete  satisfaction  of  Marlborough,  and  while 
Villeroy  is  now  drawing  upon  his  extreme  right  for  footmen  to 
replace  those  who  were  thus  sent  from  the  centre,  an  order  is 
suddenly  given  to  the  two  lines  of  English  and  German  infantry 
to  face  about  and  march  back  to  the  ridge  on  which  they  de- 
ployed originally.  They  obey,  and  when  the  leading  one  has 
passed  over  that  ridge  and  is  out  of  sight  of  the  enemy's  lines, 
the  rearmost  rank  halts  and  faces  to  the  front  again  on  the  crest, 
while,  behind  the  ridge,  the  second  line  marches  rapidly  over 
towards  the  high-road  where  Marlborough  is  forming  his  men 
for  a  grand  attack.  Even  if  discovered,  it  is  now  too  late  for 
Villeroy  to  remedy  matters.  He  has  to  march  way  around  his 
own  line. 

And  now  at  half-past  one  the  attack  begins.  Marlborough's 
batteries  open  from  our  side  of  the  first  ravine  upon  the  three 
villages,  and  the  guns  of  the  allies  (French  and  Spanish)  respond 
with  spirit.  The  Dutch  guards,  with  two  light  guns,  oblique 
down  the  slope  towards  the  Mehaigne  to  drive  the  skirmishers 
back  from  Franquinay  and  to  assault  Tavier,  while  General 
Schultz,  with  twelve  battalions,  surrounds  the  walls  and  hedges 
of  Ramilies. 

Prince  Eugene  is  away  on  other  duty,  and  Marlborough  has 
not  with  him  his  great  colleague.  He  has  instead  a  brave  old 
soldier  and  a  devoted  officer  in  Marshal  Overkirk,  who  now 
leads  forward  the  cavalry  in  three  deep  lines,  centre  resting  on 
the  high-road,  to  attack  the  one  hundred  squadrons  drawn  up 


DUTCH   AND   GERMAN   CAVALRY   IN  CONFUSION.          335 

across  the  ground  between  him  and  the  Tomb  of  Ottomond. 
Marlborough  has  determined  to  win  that  height,  for,  from  it,  he 
can  enfilade  the  whole  position  of  Mont  St.  Andre. 

And  now  as  the  Dutch  guards  sweep  along  under  the  bluffs 
towards  Tavier,  driving  in  the  skirmishers,  Villeroy  sees  that  he 
has  been  misled.  The  main  attack  is  coming  on  his  right  after 
all.  He  must  hold  Tavier  at  all  hazards  or  these  fellows  will 
get  it  and  then  take  him  in  flank.  His  spare  infantry  is  now  too 
far  away,  but  over  there  on  the  ridge  beyond  the  Ottomond 
height  are  fourteen  squadrons  of  dragoons.  He  quickly  sends 
orders  to  them  to  dismount;  leave  their  horses  therewith  a  small 
guard  and  make  their  way  across  the  swampy  ground  into  Tavier. 
Two  regiments  of  infantry  at  the  same  time  hurry  down  to 
support  them.  But  it  is  too  late.  Before  they  can  reach  the 
walls  the  Dutch  have  driven  out  the  little  garrison,  and  then 
twenty-five  squadrons  of  Danish  horse  come  sweeping  down 
the  slopes,  out  to  the  front,  and  in  a  few  moments  have  sabred 
the  dismounted  dragoons  or  driven  them  into  the  river.  Then 
they  turn  on  the  Swiss  infantry  and  hack  them  to  pieces.  Tavier 
is  taken  almost  without  a  struggle,  and  its  would-be  rein- 
forcements annihilated. 

Even  while  this  brilliant  piece  of  work  is  going  on,  Overkirk 
receives  orders  to  charge,  and  now  with  all  the  old  enthusiasm 
of  Blenheim,  but  unfortunately  without  the  English  dragoons  in 
the  lead,  a  gallant  array  of  squadrons  rides  down  upon  the 
French.  The  lines  crash  together,  and  the  French  front  line  is 
overturned;  but  the  second  charges  in  prompt  and  spirited  form 
upon  the  Dutch  and  German  horse,  throws  them  into  confu- 
sion, and  then  drives  them  back  upon  their  supports.  The  grand 
cavalry  attack  is  a  failure  so  far,  and  now,  while  General  Schultz 
is  hammering  away  at  the  walls  of  Ramilies  with  his  guns  and 
musketry,  Lord  Marlborough  himself,  seeing  the  confusion  of 
his  cavalry,  goes  tearing  out  there  with  seventeen  squadrons 
from  the  right  of  our  line.  They  are  needed,  for  our  people  are 
being  driven  back,  and  the  Bavarian  cuirassiers  of  the  French 
army  are  now  charging  from  behind  Ramilies.  These  Marlbor- 
ough himself  meets  with  his  squadrons,  drives  them  back,  and 


336  RAMILIES. 

now  for  half  an  hour  a  vehement  and  rattling  sword-fight  goes 
on,  the  duke  himself  being  among  the  foremost  ranks,  striving 
to  restore  order  and  spirit  among  the  too  easily  broken  cavalry. 
He  is  speedily  recognized  by  the  French  dragoons,  a  dash  is 
made  to  capture  him,  he  is  surrounded,  and  only  escapes  by 
leaping  his  horse  into  a  ditch  where  he  is  hurled  to  the  ground. 
An  aide-de-camp  supplies  him  with  his  own  horse,  and  Colonel 
Bingfield,  while  holding  his  stirrup,  is  shot  dead;  but  the  duke 
escapes,  and  at  this  moment  twenty  fresh  squadrons,  Britons 
these,  come  dashing  across  the  plateau  from  the  right,  and  ride 
in  against  the  left  of  the  enemy's  line,  while  the  Danish  dragoons 
under  the  Duke  of  Wirtemberg,  who  have  already  done  such 
capital  service  down  in  the  valley  of  the  Mehaigne,  once  more 
ride  in,  facing  the  French  right.  The  Dutch  dragoons  make  a 
grand  rally  and  charge,  and  this  time  weight  is  against  the 
French  horse.  Both  lines  go  reeling  back,  and  despite  all  efforts 
of  Villeroy,  once  started,  there  is  no  stopping  them;  for  Marlbor- 
ough's  cavalry,  British,  Dutch,  Danish  and  Hanoverian,  thunder 
at  their  heels.  Away  they  go.  The  whole  plateau  of  Mont  St. 
Andre,  back  of  Ramilies,  is  one  disorderly  mass  of  fugitives. 
Away  they  go  like  sheep,  past  Geest,  past  Offuz,  and  out  along 
the  country  roads  to  the  north,  now  choked  with  the  baggage 
trains.  Marlborough  promptly  seizes  the  height  of  Ottomond,  the 
object  of  his  great  attack,  then  turns  to  aid  Schultz  at  the  walls  of 
Ramilies.  It  is  defended  by  the  Marquis  de  Maffei,  who  is 
fighting  valiantly,  but  shot  and  shell  are  doing  desperate  work. 
The  Swiss  and  Bavarian  infantry  who  are  with  him  are  worn 
and  wavering.  The  battle  has  lasted  three  hours.  It  is  now 
nearly  five  o'clock,  when  Schultz,  heavily  reinforced,  makes  his 
final  dash  and  forces  the  garrison  out  upon  the  open  plain  to  the 
rear.  Here  the  Swiss  and  Bavarians  are  sabred  by  the  cavalry, 
and  Maffei  is  taken  prisoner.  The  French  guards  have  man- 
aged to  march  off  towards  Offuz  and  escape,  but  Ramilies  is 
taken. 

And  now  Marlborough  turns  the  divisions  of  Schultz,  rein- 
forced by  General  Wood,  against  Offuz,  while  he,  with  the  cav- 
alry, sweeps  northward  along  the  plateau  to  prevent  all  possi- 


UNERRING  JUDGMENT  OF  MARLBOROUGH.      337 

bility  of  a  rally.  It  is  low  swampy  ground  between  Ramilies 
and  the  foot  of  the  ridge,  but  the  troops  are  wild  with  victory 
now  and  plunge  through  with  absolute  merriment,  breast  the 
slopes  at  OfTuz  and  rush  pell-mell  through  the  enclosures  and 
over  the  ridge  only  to  find  the  French  gone.  The  entire  French 
left  has  abandoned  the  ridge.  Churchill,  Mordaunt,  Lumley, 
Hay  and  Ross,  with  their  foot  and  horse,  rush  over  the  inter- 
vening valley  to  the  assault  of  Autre-Eglise  at  the  same  time 
and  with  the  same  result.  The  dragoons  press  on  in  pursuit, 
overtake  the  celebrated  regiment  du  Roi  back  of  Offuz  and  com- 
pel its  surrender.  Out  by  the  farm  of  Chantrain,  way  to  the 
northwest,  the  Spanish  and  Bavarian  horse-guards  have  halted 
and  are  reformed  for  a  countercharge,  but  they  are  dashed  upon 
by  Wood  and  Wyndham,  and  that  is  the  last  stand  of  the  French- 
army.  At  the  close  of  day  all  that  is  left  of  it  is  in  disorderly 
flight,  and  all  night  long — at  least  until  two  in  the  morning — the 
army  of  Marlborough  streams  northward  through  Judoigne  in 
pursuit.  The  main  army  finally  halts  at  Meldert,  nearly  fifteen 
miles  away,  and  the  victory  of  Ramilies  is  over. 

It  was  a  most  surprising,  yet  most  triumphant,  victory,  and! 
was  won  first  by  the  skillful  manoeuvres  of  the  duke,  and  second 
by  his  personal  and  high  soldierly  bearing  on  the  field.  He 
seemed  to  be  everywhere  at  once.  His  example  was  electric ; 
his  judgment  unerring.  Overkirk,  too,  displayed  signal  zeal  and 
ability,  but  the  victor  greatly  missed  Eugene. 

Most  of  the  French  guns,  all  their  baggage,  eighty  colors  and 
standards  and  great  quantities  of  small  arms  and  equipments 
fell  into  the  hands  of  the  victors,  and  the  losses  of  the  French 
in  killed,  wounded  and  prisoners  were  13,000,  among  them  sev- 
eral officers  of  high  rank.  On  the  other  hand,  the  army  of  the 
confederates  lost  the  Prince  of  Hesse  Cassel  and  81  officers 
killed  and  283  wounded,  while  of  the  rank  and  file  1, 066  were 
killed  and  2,567  wounded. 

The  news  was  received  like  that  of  Blenheim,  with  the  greatest 
exultation  in  England.  The  queen  again  went  to  the  cathedral 
of  St.  Paul's  in  great  state  to  render  solemn  thanks  for  the  vic- 
tory of  her  arms.  Another  national  thanksgiving  was  proclaimed 
22 


338 


RAMILIES. 


and  the  name  of  the  illustrious  general  was  on  every  lip.  His 
devoted  wife  was  still  the  confidante  of  the  queen  and  high  in 
power  at  court,  but  her  imperious  temper  was  soon  to  sow  the 
seeds  of  discord,  and  the  many  enemies  of  Marlborough  at  home 
were  incessantly  striving  to  undermine  him.  For  a  time  Kami- 
lies  put  a  check  to  their  efforts,  but  only  for  a  time. 

And  now  France  was  overthrown  in  Belgium,  as  two  years 
before  she  had  been  on  the  Rhine.  Brussels,  Ghent  and  the 
principal  towns  of  Brabant  soon  surrendered  to  Marlborough. 
Ramilies  had  freed  the  Netherlands,  and  the  waning  power  of 
Louis  XIV.  received  another  severe  blow. 


LOUIS   XIV. 


OUDENARDE. 


1708. 

UT  Louis  XIV.  had  enjoyed  unlimited  power  and 
triumph  so  many  years  of  his  life — was  so  absolute 
a  monarch,  that  he  could  not  believe  himself 
whipped  by  the  confederates.  Experience  was  to 
teach  him  a  bitter  lesson.  Soon  after  the  disaster 
of  Ramilies  his  grandson,  Philip  V.,  came  reeling 
back  into  France  from  Spain,  where  Lord  Peter- 
borough had  almost  demolished  his  army  in  front 
of  Barcelona.  The  Spanish  Netherlands  were  gone. 
Spain  itself  was  almost  crushed.  Then  Antwerp  and  Ostend 
fell  before  Marlborough.  It  seemed  as  though  Louis  XIV. 
were  tottering  on  his  throne. 

But  dissensions  among  the  confederates  in  the  Low  Countries, 
intrigues  and  cabals  at  home,  and  his  renewed  "employment  in 
settling  important  diplomatic  affairs,  checked  Lord  Marlborough 
at  the  moment  when  he  could  and  would  have  carried  the  war 
into  France.  Over  a  year  was  lost  in  senseless  hesitation  and 
delay,  for  which  he  was  in  no  way  responsible.  The  French  re- 
organized their  armies  on  the  northeastern  frontier,  and  in  the 
spring  of  1708  Marlborough  and  Eugene,  once  more  united, 
were  called  upon  to  meet  a  formidable  force  of  French  bent  on 
the  recapture  of  the  lost  cities  of  Belgium.  Their  plan  was  a 
good  one.  They  were  afraid  to  meet  the  army  of  Marlborough 
on  even  terms  in  the  field,  but  had  bethought  themselves  of  a 
feasible  project  for  robbing  him  of  all  the  fruits  of  his  conquests 
of  1706.  All  the  cities  of  the  Netherlands  were  disgusted  with 
the  oppressions  of  the  Dutch,  their  new  masters,  and  the 
people  were  only  too  ready  to  co-operate  with  the  French.  It 

(339) 


340 


OUDENARDE. 


was  resolved  therefore  to  surprise  the  citadels  of  Bruges  and 
Ghent,  and  to  capture  Oudenarde,  an  important  fortified  town 
on  the  Scheldt,  about  twenty-eight  miles  southwest  from  Ghent. 
So  far  as  Bruges  and  Ghent  were  concerned  the  plan  worked  to 
a  charm.  Both  surrendered  without  a  shot,  for  the  garrisons 
were  Flemings  and  Walloons,  or  Dutch ;  and  Marlborough  was 
far  in  the  interior,  beyond  Brussels,  near  the  old  field  of  Kami- 
lies,  waiting  for  Eugene  who  was  coming  from  Maestricht. 

The  French,  on  July  9th,  laid  siege  to  Oudenarde,  then  held 
by  General  Chanclos,  and,  to  "cover  the  siege"  and  delay  Marl- 
borough's  move  to  the  rescue,  they  attempted  to  seize  the  left 
bank  of  the  river  Dender  and  hold  it  against  his  crossing. 

But  Marlborough  was  quicker  than  they.  Eugene  had  gal- 
loped forward  to  join  him,  and  together  they  crossed  the  Dender 
and  the  French  recoiled  behind  Oudenarde  and  the  Scheldt. 

All  around  Oudenarde  the  country  lies  in  low,  gentle  undu- 
lations. The  valley  is  wide ;  the  ground  is  thoroughly  culti- 
vated; corn  on  the  uplands;  flax,  clover,  buckwheat  and  peas  on 
the  lower.  Only  on  the  few  steep  acclivities  are  woods  to  be 
found.  Over  towards  Courtray  to  the  west,  and  up  the  Scheldt 
towards  the  frontiers  of  France,  there  are  or  were  forests,  but 
around  Oudenarde  it  was  nearly  all  open.  Low  hedges  divided 
the  fields  but  there  was  nothing  to  impede  the  march  of  troops, 
even  of  artillery,  and,  by  a  strange  contradiction,  artillery  was 
the  one  thing  lacking  in  the  sharp  battle  which  took  place  at 
this  point.  Oudenarde  was  an  infantry  and  cavalry  fight.  The 
river  runs  about  northeast  through  the  queer  old  Dutch  town, 
then  sweeps  around  towards  the  north.  One  or  two  castles  and 
an  old  abbey  were,  with  those  inevitable  windmills,  the  features 
of  the  rather  uninteresting  scenery.  Marshes  bounded  both  sides 
of  the  stream,  but  north  of  Oudenarde  the  ground  rose ;  two 
little  streams  cut  through  the  rise  and  reached  the  Scheldt  a 
mile  or  so  northeast  of  the  town,  and  a  larger  creek,  flowing 
nearly  east,  and  bounded  north  and  south  by  sloping  banks,  in- 
tersected this  low  plateau  three  miles  north  of  the  town.  It  was 
called  the  Norken,  and  between  this  stream  and  the  walls  of  the 
city  the  battle  of  Oudenarde  took  place. 


THE    FRENCH   OUT-MANCEUVRED.  341 

The  French  had  determined,  it  has  been  said,  to  hold  Marl- 
borough  east  of  the  Dender  while  they  invested  the  town,  but 
before  they  could  get  their  guns  in  position,  Cadogan — he  who 
led  the  advance  at  Ramilies — was  crossing  the  stream  six  miles 
south  of  them  and  their  position  was  "turned."  Amazed  at 
such  rapid  moves,  even  of  Maryborough,  the  French  com- 
manders decided  that  now  they  must  get  across  the  Scheldt, 
near  Oudenarde,  and  confront  him  there.  For  this  purpose 
their  columns  were*  directed  on  Gavre,  six  miles  northeast  of 
Oudenarde,  where  bridges  were  already  thrown  across ;  and 
about  half-past  ten  on  the  sultry  morning  of  the  nth  of  July, 
their  advance,  under  the  Marquis  de  Biron,  passed  quietly  over 
and  moved  up  the  slopes  of  the  Norken,  sending  out  foragers 
right  and  left.  Behind  him,  in  leisurely  march,  came  the  entire 
French  army.  Despite  the  lesson  of  the  Dender  it  did  not  seem 
to  occur  to  these  leaders  of  Louis  XIV.  that  Marlborough  might 
teach  them  another,  and  beat  them  to  the  commanding  ground 
across  the  Scheldt  Had  Turenne,  Conde,  or  even  unlucky 
Villeroy,  been  at  their  head,  there  would  have  been  less  delibera- 
tion and  far  more  energy  of  movement.  The  Duke  of  Vendome, 
one  of  their  chiefs,  was  a  fine  soldier,  but  all  his  efforts  were 
clogged  by  the  Duke  of  Burgundy,  whose  rank  carried  with  it 
supreme  command,  and  both  on  the  march  and  in  the  battle  that 
followed,  his  fatuity  brought  about  grave  consequences.  At  the 
very  moment  when  de  Biron  with  his  advance  was  lounging 
about  the  bridges  at  Gavre,  Cadogan,  eager,  rapid  and  impetu- 
ous, was  urging  his  men  to  the  completion  of  the  four  bridges 
he  had  to  throw  across  just  below  Oudenarde,  and  then  out  he 
went,  he  and  his  light  horse,  and  at  twelve  o'clock  the  foraging 
parties  of  the  French,  plundering  among  the  villages  on  the 
plateau,  were  confounded  by  the  sight  of  the  British  standards 
on  the  opposite  slopes.  The  largest  village,  Heurne,  lay  on  the 
west  bank  of  the  Scheldt,  two  miles  below  Oudenarde,  well  up 
on  the  slopes,  with  a  broad  plain  behind  and  on  each  side  of  it 
— a  plain  that  stretched  another  two  miles  northward,  where  it 
came  to  a  point  between  the  Norken  and  the  Scheldt,  just  above 
the  French  bridges  at  Gavre. 


342  OUDENARDE. 

Cadogan's  advance  was  composed  of  eight  squadrons  of  light 
horse  and  sixteen  battalions  of  foot,  with  good  field-artillery. 
The  cavalry  were  mainly  Hanoverians ;  the  artillery  had  not 
come  up,  thanks  to  heavy  roads,  but  Cadogan  never  hesitated. 
He  swung  his  two  brigades  of  infantry  into  position,  facing  north- 
east, on  the  slopes  beyond  Oudenarde  and  dashed  in  at  the  head 
of  his  squadrons,  forded  the  little  stream  that  cut  the  plateau  in 
half,  rode,  cheering,  through  the  village  of  Eyne  on  its  north 
bank,  whirling  the  foragers  before  him  up  the  slopes  to  the  plain 
of  Heurne,  and  never  drew  rein  until  he  had  chased  them  to  its 
extreme  point  and  found  himself  charged  in  turn  by  de  Biron 
with  a  much  larger  force,  before  which  Cadogan  retired  in  good 
order.  De  Biron  pursued  until  he  reached  the  bluffs  above 
Eyne  and  there  came  in  sight  of  the  brigades  of  infantry  in  line 
of  battle,  the  pontoon  bridges  down  behind  them  on  the  Scheldt, 
and  the  huge  clouds  of  dust  rising  skyward  behind  Oudenarde. 
In  utter  amazement  he  realized  that  the  whole  army  of  the  con- 
federates was  within  gunshot  of  the  plateau,  and  his  own  people 
not  within  supporting  distance.  Promptly  sending  back  word 
to  Gavre  of  the  approach  of  the  troops  of  Marlborough,  and  the 
presence  of  their  advance,  he  gallantly  stood  to  his  ground  and 
seized  the  little  village  of  Eyne  with  the  intention  of  fortifying. 
And  at  that  very  moment  Marlborough  and  Eugene  arrived  at 
full  gallop  at  the  bridges. 

The  French  were  thunderstruck  by  the  news ;  Vendome  alone 
seems  to  have  formed  a  just  estimate  of  the  .  situation.  He 
judged  by  the  distance  of  the  dust-clouds  that  only  the  advance 
"of  the  confederates  had  crossed  the  Scheldt,  and  that  by  prompt 
action  it  could  be  overwhelmed  ar^d  crushed  before  the  main 
army  could  reach  Oudenarde.  Fine  soldier  that  he  was,  Ven- 
dome lost  not  an  instant.  Seven  strong  battalions  of  Swiss  in- 
fantry were  thrown  forward  to  occupy  the  village  of  Heurne, 
while  all  his  divisions  of  foot  and  horse  were  directed  to  march 
southward  with  the  view  of  forming  line  of  battle  parallel  to,  and 
facing  the  Scheldt  along  the  plateau  itself.  It  would  have  been 
a  very  easy  matter  for  him  by  one  o'clock,  or  two  at  the  latest, 
to  dash  upon  Cadogan  and  his  comrade  Rantzau,  hurl  them 


BURGUNDY  COUNTERMANDS  VENDOME'S  ORDERS   343 

back  on  the  river  and  seize  and  break  up  the  pontoons,  for,  be- 
sides the  advance,  only  the  confederate  cavalry  was  in  sight  at 
noon. 

Already  his  infantry  was  marching  out  upon  the  plateau,  and 
General  Pfeffer  with  the  seven  battalions  of  Swiss  had  gone,  not 
into  Heurne,  but,  by  some  mistake  in  name,  beyond  it  a  full 
mile,  and  was  now  loopholing  the  walls  of  Eyne,  which  Biron 
had  so  recently  seized.  Already  Cadogan  and  Rantzau  saw 
their  position  threatened  and  began  to  cast  anxious  glances  to- 
wards Oudenarde  arid  the  coming  reinforcements ;  already  Marl- 
borough  and  Eugene,  marking  the  massive  advance  of  Vendome's 
columns  along  the  opposite  plateau,  were  trembling  with  appre- 
hension for  their  advance,  if  such  men  ever  did  tremble,  when 
suddenly  the  heads  of  their  own  columns  appeared,  some  cross- 
ing the  heights  of  Edelaere,  behind  them,  some  winding  around 
the  southern  base  between  the  heights  and  Oudenarde,  and  at 
the  same  instant  the  French  divisions  sheered  off  to  the  north, 
and,  by  a  rapid  movement  to  their  right  flank,  began  the  descent 
into  the  ravine  of  the  Norken.  To  the  rage  of  Vendome,  to  the 
wonderment  of  Marlborough,  and  the  unmixed  delight  of  him- 
self and  Eugene,  the  faint-hearted  Duke  of  Burgundy  had  coun- 
termanded Vendome's  orders — abandoned  the  whole  plateau, 
and  was  falling  back  to  the  line  of  low  heights  behind  the  Nor- 
ken, marked  by  the  villages  of  Lede  and  Huysse.  They  had 
left  poor  Pfeffer  with  his  Swiss  division  all  alone  out  there  in 
Eyne  under  the  plateau. 

Marlborough  was  not  the  man  to  let  slip  such  a  chance.  Al- 
ready his  cavalry  was  crossing  the  bridges,  and  by  three  o'clock 
the  head  of  the  infantry  columns  began  to  arrive.  The  one 
battery  that  had  managed  to  struggle  forward  with  the  horsemen 
was  posted  on  the  slopes  commanding  the  ground  towards  the 
village  of  Diepenbeck,  which  stands  on  a  portion  of  the  plateau, 
shaped  for  all  the  world  like  an  inverted,  old-fashioned,  circular 
tin  pan,  the  two  branches  of  the  stream  that  drain  the  plateau 
having  scooped  out  semi-circular  troughs  for  themselves  around 
it,  and  then,  meeting  on  the  east  side,  rippled  off  towards  the 
Scheldt.  This  flat-topped,  circular  mound  is  about  a  mile  across, 


344  OUDENARDE. 

with  Diepenbeck  on  its  eastern  edge,  the  Oudenarde  side,  and  it 
must  be  noted  well.  That  mound  is  to  be  the  vortex  of  the 
battle. 

The  moment  the  infantry  came  up,  Cadogan's  brigade  of  foot 
left  to  guard  the  bridges  was  relieved  and  sent  across  t©  join 
him.  At  three  o'clock  he  had  there  twelve  battalions  of  mus- 
keteers, and  Rantzau's  Hanoverian  dragoons,  and  there  was 
Pfeffer  with  his  seven  battalions  of  Swiss,  backed  by  a  few  of  de 
Biron's  horse,  utterly  isolated,  abandoned  by  the  blundering 
stupidity  of  the  French  duke.  The  sight  was  enough  for  any 
soldier.  Cadogan  swooped  down  with  his  whole  force,  Sabine's 
brigade  of  British  infantry  in  front,  while  Rantzau's  horse  splashed 
through  the  rivulet  higher  up  to  take  the  position  "  in  reverse." 
The  fight  was  sharp,  short  and  bloody.  Twelve  battalions,  eight 
of  them  English,  were  too  heavy  metal  for  the  Swiss  even  be- 
hind loopholed  walls.  They  were  soon  driven  out ;  Pfeffer  and 
three  battalions  were  taken  prisoners  on  the  spot;  the  rest,  at- 
tempting to  retreat  across  the  plateau  towards  the  Norken,  were 
surrounded,  shot  or  sabred,  and  a  number  more  taken  prisoners 
out  near  the  old  windmill.  The  French  cavalry,  far  from  coming 
to  their  aid,  attempted  to  slink  off  towards  their  supports,  but 
were  charged  by  Rantzau,  driven  pell-mell  across  the  Norken 
and  up  among  their  own  comrades  on  the  other  side,  and  yet 
Rantzau  and  most  of  his  troopers  came  back  unharmed,  with 
twelve  standards  and  a  French  colonel  among  their  trophies. 

Several  distinguished  nobles  charged  with  Rantzau  in  this 
gallant  little  affair — among  them  the  electoral  Prince  of  Han- 
over, afterwards  George  II.  of  England,  and  Count  Lusky,  who 
was  killed. 

Now  it  seemed  to  the  French  generals  that  something  had  to 
be  done.  Anything  more  lamentable  than  the  manoeuvres  of 
the  Duke  of  Burgundy  thus  far  can  hardly  be  conceived,  and 
yet,  spurred  to  action  of  some  kind  by  the  furious  arguments 
of  his  generals,  who  were  overcome  with  rage  and  mortification 
at  the  disgrace  which  had  attended  them  so  far,  he  decided  to 
fight  at  once,  and  therein  made  a  bigger  blunder  than  he  had 
before. 


RENEWED  BLUNDERING  OF  THE  FRENCH  COMMANDER.     345 

He  had  sacrificed  Pfefter  and  the  plateau  in  order  to  gain  a 
strong  position  behind  the  Norken.  He  was  now  in  that  posi- 
tion, and  there  was  little  likelihood  of  Marlborough's  attacking 
him  before  the  next  day,  for  the  latter's  army  had  marched 
fifteen  miles  and  was  much  fatigued,  and  in  no  condition  to  as- 
sault an  enemy  posted  as  the  French  were  now  posted.  If  they 
did  attack  that  evening,  the  chances  were  vastly  in  favor  of  their 
being  whipped.  If  they  did  not,  then  the  French  would  have 
twelve  hours  or  more,  in  which  to  strengthen  their  ground,  and 
the  morrow  would  be  the  more  likely  to  bring  them  victory. 

But  the  hot-headed  Frenchmen  clamored  for  instant  battle, 
and,  yielding  to  their  demands,  the  duke  weakly  decided  to  at- 
tack, and  in  so  doing  he  came  down  from  his  strong  line,  re- 
crossed  the  Norken  in  front  of  Marlborough's  forming  divisions, 
and  proceeded  to  grapple  with  him  on  equal  terms,  on  the  very 
ground  he  had  abandoned  an  hour  earlier. 

He  had  made  heavy  sacrifices  to  abandon  that  position  for  a 
better;  now  he  proposed  to  make  still  heavier  sacrifices  to  regain 
it.  All  this  irresolution,  confusion  and  change  of  purpose  was 
plain  to  the  keen  sight  of  Marlborough  and  Eugene,  now  seate  i 
in  their  saddles  on  the  low  bluffs  just  opposite  Eyne,  and  they 
were  in  blithe  spirits  over  the  prospect. 

As  yet  Marlborough's  infantry  was  not  in  line;  some  of  the 
divisions  were  still  crossing  the  bridges,  but  fast  as  they  came 
up  the*y  moved  up  the  slopes  near  the  hamlet  of  Bevere,  and  out 
towards  the  castle  of  the  same  name,  where  they  extended  their 
lines  to  the  left,  and  halted,  facing  north  along  the  slope  of  the 
rivulet  which  flowed  between  them  and  the  circular  mound  of 
Diepenbeck.  Nearly  all  the  French  cavalry  were  drawn  up 
across  the  Norken  on  the  west  end  of  their  line,  and  from  this, 
their  right  wing,  the  duke  ordered  the  first  movement  Grimaldi 
with  sixteen  squadrons  swept  down  across  the  stream  and 
forward  towards  Diepenbeck  to  "  feel  "  the  British  position,  but 
at  sight  of  the  silent  lines  of  infantry  a  mile  away,  he  concluded 
to  come  no  farther,  but  halted  at  the  mill  of  Hoyegem,  over  on 
the  second  plateau.  However,  enough  had  occurred  to  lead 
Marlborough  to  see  that  the  French  meant  to  attack  speedily, 


346  OUDENARDE. 

so  he  himself  rapidly  crossed  the  little  stream  at  the  head  of  the 
Prussian  horse,  and  placed  it,  facing  the  enemy  on  the  plain,  back 
of  Heurne  in  support  of  Cadogan,  where  twelve  battalions  were 
thrown  forward  into  the  hedges  of  Groenevelde  directly  in  front 
of  the  French  centre.  Even  as  the  cavalry  were  trotting  into 
position,  the  French  right  centre  quickly  advanced  down  the 
slopes  of  the  Norken,  crossed  the  farther  plateau  on  which 
Grimaldi  had  halted,  dipped  down  again  into  the  circular  ravine 
which  swept  around  the  plateau  of  Diepenbeck,  and  then  came 
gallantly  down  upon  Cadogan's  advance  in  the  hedges.  These 
were  the  best  troops  of  the  French  line,  thirty  battalions  of 
French  and  Swiss  guards,  and  the  chosen  brigades  "  du  Roi," 
Picardy  and  Royal  Roussillon;  but  Cadogan  stuck  to  his  hedges 
like  a  bull-dog,  yielding  not  an  inch  of  ground  until  the  Duke 
of  Argyll,  general  of  the  British  infantry,  hurried  forward  to 
his  support  with  twenty  battalions,  and  then  the  combined  com- 
mands proved  too  strong  for  the  Frenchmen ;  they  fell  back 
across  the  rivulet,  and  formed  on  the  slope  of  the  Diepenbeck 
plateau,  their  front  following  the  course  of  the  stream  and  show- 
ing a  complete  semi-circle  with  the  convex  side  toward  the  Eng- 
lish ;  and  now  Cadogan  lapped  around  towards  the  French  left 
with  his  own  flank  dangerously  threatened  by  attack  across  the 
Norken,  while  Argyll  swung  completely  around  from  their  cen- 
tre to  their  right,  and  thus  it  happened  that  the  mound  of  Die- 
penbeck became  the  vortex  of  the  fight.  The  French  sprang 
forward  to  reinforce  their  advance,  the  English  and  their  allies 
swept  on  to  sustain  Cadogan  and  Argyll,  and  after  half  an  hour's 
desperate  grapple  the  French  found  themselves  bent  backward 
into  a  circular  line  of  battle  around  the  plateau  of  Diepenbeck 
as  a  centre,  while  across  the  rivulet  which  marked  their  front, 
strong  lines  of  confederate  infantry  closely  invested  them. 

It  was  six  o'clock.  Marlborough  and  Eugene,  who  had  hith- 
erto been  watching  and  directing  the  conflict  from  the  plateau 
back  of  Heurne,  now  separated — Eugene  being  assigned  to  the 
high  honor  of  commanding  all  the  right  wing  where  the  British 
infantry  and  most  of  the  British  cavalry  were  fighting,  while 
Marlborough  galloped  back  across  the  stream  to  direct  opera- 


FURIOUS   CHARGING   AND  COUNTER-CHARGING.          347 

tions  on  his  own  centre  and  left.  Here,  with  their  backs  to- 
wards Oudenarde  and  facing  Diepenbeck,  the  Prussians  and 
Hanoverians  were  stoutly  engaged  with  the  dense  masses  of  the 
French ;  but  the  heaviest  fighting  was  still  going  on  over  to  the 
north  and  eastern  sides  of  the  central  mound,  and  thither  Marl- 
borough  sent  most  of  his  infantry. 

Thus  it  happened  that  Eugene  had  some  sixty  battalions  at  his 
disposal,  while  his  comrade  had  but  twenty.  Meantime,  of 
course,  the  whole  left  wing  of  the  French  had  crossed  the 
Norken  and  thrown  itself  on  Prince  Eugene ;  and  Cadogan,  well 
out  to  the  front,  was  now  assailed  front,  right  and  rear,  and  had 
to  drop  the  hedges  near  Herlehem  whither  he  had  worked  his 
way,  and  face  this  new  attack.  Then  on  his  right  there  came  to 
support  him  a  grand  charge  of  Prussian  cuirassiers,  led  by 
General  Natzmer,  which  broke  the  first  line  of  Vendome  and 
sent  many  of  his  battalions  scurrying  down  into  the  ravine  of 
the  Norken,  whence  they  rallied,  however,  and  swept  the 
squadrons  with  a  heavy  fire  of  musketry  that  emptied  dozens  of 
saddles,  and,  being  charged  in  turn  by  the  French  household 
cavalry  and  himself  severely  wounded,  Natzmer  had  to  retreat 
with  considerable  loss  ;  but  he  had  saved  Cadogan,  and  when 
Vendome  again  urged  forward  his  footmen,  the  British  were 
ready  and  received  them  with  a  withering  volley  that  drove  them 
again  to  cover. 

Meantime  Marlborough,  with  the  Hanoverian  and  Dutch  in- 
fantry back  of  Oudenarde,  charged  the  French  lines  along  the 
rivulet,  drove  them  up  the  reverse  slope,  and  were  now  slowly  but 
surely  creeping  forward  and  more  closely  penning  them  in.  But 
the  French  line  extended  some  distance  southwestward,  toward 
the  higher  ground  around  the  mill  and  village  of  Oycke  which 
overlooked  the  plateau  of  Diepenbeck.  Had  they  occupied  this 
high  ground  the  French  would  have  commanded  the  field 
within  range  of  their  guns,  but  the  only  real  soldierly  general  of 
their  army  was  far  to  the  other  side.  The  Duke  of  Burgundy 
never  seemed  to  see  it,  and  the  chance  was  lost. 

Old  Marshal  Overkirk,  who  had  brought  up  the  rear  with 
twenty  battalions  of  Dutch  and  Danish  infantry  and  a  large 


348  OUDENARDE. 

body  of  cavalry,  had  just  crossed  the  bridges  and  was  deploying 
upon  the  extreme  left  of  Marlborough's  line.  It  was  after  six 
o'clock,  but  there  was  still  time.  Half  an  hour's  sharp  marching 
would  gain  the  plateau  of  Oycke,  then  he  could  wheel  to  the 
right,  and  the  right  wing  of  the  French  would  be  immediately 
under  him.  Marlborough  lost  not  a  moment.  He  galloped 
over  to  where  the  old  German  soldier  was  deploying  his  lines, 
pointed  out  the  position,  quickly  explained  the  great  advantage 
to  be  gained,  and  then  as  quickly  gave  his  orders.  He  had  a 
noble  subordinate  in  the  veteran  marshal.  The  latter  saw 
through  the  plan  at  a  glance,  and  sent  in  his  right  division  to 
sweep  the  enemy  out  of  the  ravine  near  the  castle  of  Bevere, 
which  was  accomplished  after  a  short  and  bloody  struggle. 
Then  his  centre  and  left  divisions,  supported  by  the  cavalry, 
moved  up  on  the  plateau  of  Oycke,  and  then,  finding  no  enemy 
there,  "  changed  front  forward  on  the  right " — a  movement  which 
brought  them  at  right  angles  to  their  old  line,  and  enveloping 
and  enfilading  the  right  flank  of  the  French.  It  was  the  deci- 
sive move  of  the  battle.  The  army  of  the  confederates  now 
formed  one  vast  semi-circle  around  the  right  wing  of  the  French, 
and  the  latter  could  look  for  nothing  but  surrender  or  annihila- 
tion. 

Vendome,  commanding  the  French  left  wing  along  the  Nor- 
ken,  now  made  a  desperate  effort  to  cut  his  way  through  to  the 
rescue  of  the  surrounded  right.  Dismounting  from  his  horse  he 
led  forward  his  lines,  and  fell  again  upon  Cadogan  with  his  right 
brigade,  while  the  rest  of  his  wing  confronted  Prince  Eugene  and 
the  long,  serried  ranks  of  British  squadrons  on  the  plateau. 
The  attempt  was  fruitless.  His  men  were  disheartened  at  the 
utter  inefficiency  of  their  leaders  when  compared  with  those  of 
the  confederates.  Cadogan  was  as  solid  in  his  position  as  before, 
and  the  rest  of  the  line,  seeing  the  cavalry  of  Eugene  preparing 
to  charge,  could  not  be  induced  to  advance  another  step.  In 
bitter  humiliation  Vendome  saw  his  wing  recoil  before  the  mere 
threat  of  attack,  and  once  more  take  refuge  in  the  ravine. 
Ordering  his  cavalry  to  hold  them  there  and  to  charge  if  a 
single  battalion  again  attempted  to  show  front  on  the  plain,  Eu- 


THE   LAST    HOPE   OF   BURGUNDY   GONE.  349 

gene  galloped  in  toward  his  left,  to  complete  the  encircling  of  the 
French  right  wing.  Cadogan's  division,  having  shaken  off  the 
assault  of  Vendome's  right,  and  being  assured  that  no  further 
molestation  need  be  feared  from  them,  now  changed  front  for- 
ward to  the  left  and  lapped  completely  around  the  northeastern 
front  of  the  plateau  of  Diepenbeck.  It  was  growing  dark,  and 
the  ruddy  flashes  of  the  musketry  alone  served  to  determine  the 
position  of  the  contending  lines.  Still  the  French  fought  gal- 
lantly, desperately,  hoping  to  be  extricated  from  the  trap. 

It  must  have  been  nearly  eight  o'clock  when  Prince  Eugene 
and  his  staff  officers  caught  sight  of  dark  masses  descending  the 
slopes  a  mile  away  towards  Oycke,  and  coming  down  on  the  rear 
of  the  French  foot  and  on  the  right  flank  of  the  French  house- 
hold troops  and  dragoons  who  were  still  watching  the  conflict  from 
their  halting-place  beyond  the  mill  of  Hoyegem.  And  when  it  was 
so  dark  that  they  could  not  tell  whether  the  advancing  lines  were 
friends  or  foes,  the  prince  and  his  officers  were  greeted  by  the 
stirring  sound  of  volleys  from  the  west,  and  in  a  few  moments 
more  the  crest  of  Hoyegem  was  all  in  a  glare  with  the  rapid 
flashes  of  their  musketry.  Away  went  the  dragoons  and  house- 
hold cavalry  of  France.  Taken  in  flank  and  rear  by  advanc- 
ing lines  of  disciplined  infantry,  they  were  thrown  into  confusion. 
Some  galloped  back  to  the  ravine  of  the  Norken.  Some  pushed 
forward  into  the  centre  of  the  narrowing  circle  on  the  plateau  of 
Diepenbeck.  The  last  hope  of  the  Duke  of  Burgundy  was 
gone.  Old  Marshal  Overkirk,  after  changing  front  to  his  right 
on  the  plain  of  Oycke,  had  thrown  forward  Count  Tilly  and  the 
Prince  of  Nassau  with  a  strong  force  of  infantry  and  cavalry  to 
descend  to  the  plateau  behind  that  of  Diepenbeck,  sweep  away 
the  cavalry  drawn  up  at  the  mill  of  Hoyegem,  and  then  assault 
the  French  rear  on  the  circular  plateau.  Completely  surrounded 
now,  nothing  but  darkness  saved  the  French  right  wing  from 
annihilation.  Fearful  that,  as  his  own  right  and  Overkirk's  left 
were  now  in  juxtaposition,  they  might  mistake  one  another  for 
enemies,  Eugene  caused  his  own  lines  to  halt  and  cease  firing, 
and  this  being  imitated  by  Overkirk,  the  battle  practically  ended 
here. 


350  OUDENARDE. 

It  was  nine  o'clock.  The  carnage  on  the  French  side  around 
Diepenbeck  had  been  terrible,  and  the  confederates  had  also  lost 
heavily.  But  now  in  the  darkness  some  nine  thousand  of  the 
French  managed  to  slip  away  towards  the  south  through  the 
dark  ravine  by  the  castle  of  Bevere,  and  by  marching  all  night 
these  stragglers  made  their  way  to  the  frontiers  of  France. 
Others  too,  in  knots  of  four  or  five,  succeeded  in  crawling  back 
towards  the  Norken,  but  these  were  trifling  in  comparison  with 
the  numbers  that  remained  dead,  wounded  or  hemmed  in  on 
that  bloody  circle. 

And  now,  at  ten  o'clock  at  night,  the  Duke  of  Burgundy  with 
a  retinue  of  panic-stricken  generals  stood  in  the  village  of 
Huysse  listening  to  the  tales  of  disaster  and  ruin  that  met  him 
every  moment.  Here  he  was  joined  by  Vendome,  who  strove 
to  induce  his  superior  to  issue  orders  reorganizing  his  demoral- 
ized forces,  and  conduct  an  orderly  retreat,  but  the  duke  would 
do  nothing.  He  was  completely  whipped  and  thought  of  only 
the  quickest  way  to  get  to  a  place  of  safety.  With  some  few 
battalions  and  squadrons  Vendome  wearily  faced  the  foe,  and  in 
deep  disgust  strove  to  cover  the  flight  of  his  countrymen,  who, 
generals  and  privates  alike,  broke  for  Ghent  in  wildest  disorder. 
The  battle  of  Oudenarde  was  the  most  crushing  blow  yet  ad- 
ministered to  the  armies  of  Louis  XIV.,  for  hardly  a  brigade  was 
left  with  the  colors  when  morning  dawned  upon  the  scene. 

Marlborough  and  Eugene  bivouacked  on  the  field,  closely 
guarding  the  plateau,  and  at  the  first  break  of  day  proceeded  to 
count  their  gains.  Four  thousand  Frenchmen  lay  dead  along 
that  gory  semicircle,  and  eleven  thousand,  wounded  and  prison- 
ers, still  remained  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  confederates. 
Seven  fine  regiments  of  dragoons  in  the  centre  of  the  plateau 
surrendered  their  standards  as  they  stood  among  the  corpses  of 
their  comrades  and  their  slaughtered  horses.  Seven  hundred 
officers  gave  up  their  swords.  No  guns  are  reported  taken,  as 
those  of  the  French  too  were  left  east  of  the  Scheldt,  but,  while 
the  confederates  had  lost  only  3,000  killed  and  wounded,  the 
army  of  Burgundy  and  Vendome  was  literally  pounded  to  pieces. 
Indeed,  as  the  duke  wrote  at  the  time,  could  they  have  had  three 

4 


THE   KING   OF   FRANCE   PROPOSES   PEACE..  351 

hours  more  of  daylight,  there  would  have  been  an  end  to  the 
war. 

Even  as  it  was,  King  Louis  made  proposals  of  peace.  He  had 
had  more  than  enough  of  fighting  against  such  men  as  Marlbor- 
ough  and  Eugene.  The  enmity  of  the  latter  was  something  he 
bitterly  regretted,  for  though  called  Prince  Eugene  of  Savoy, 
this  brilliant  soldier  was  a  Frenchman,  a  Parisian  by  birth,  and 
had  years  before  offered  his  services  to  his  king,  was  refused  a 
commission,  and  so  took  service  in  Austria,  where  he  soon  rose 
to  high  command  and  distinction.  Then  King  Louis  strove  to 
recall  him  to  France,  but  he  declined  to  give  up  his  commission 
in  the  service  which  had  warmly  received  him  and  borne  him  to 
such  great  success.  Sentence  of  exile  was  then  passed  upon 
him,  and  Eugene  became  a  Savoyard,  as  being  the  nearest  thing 
to  a  Frenchman.  He  and  Vendome  were  own  cousins. 

Marlborough's  grand  success  at  Oudenarde  led  to  further 
rejoicings,  festivity  and  public  thanksgiving  in  England,  but 
bitter  enemies  were  still  at  work  against  him,  and  the  imperious 
temper  and  tongue  of  his  wife  were  stirring  up  incessant  discord 
at  the  court,  where  her  majesty  the  queen  found  that  the  exac- 
tions and  domineering  ways  of  the  friend  of  her  youth  were 
plunging  her  into  deeper  entanglements  all  the  time.  Lady 
Marlborough's  influence  at  home  was  on  the  wane,  and  even  the 
unlimited  successes  of  the  great  captain  of  his  day  could  not 
save  him  from  court  jealousy  and  intrigue.  England  began  to 
fail  him  in  the  support  he  needed.  The  terms  proposed  by  the 
King  of  France  were  not  accepted,  and  the  war  went  grimly  on. 

An  unusual  feature  of  Marlborough's  great  battles  was  that, 
in  point  of  numbers  engaged,  the  contending  armies  were  gen- 
erally very  evenly  matched.  It  was  the  case  as  we  have  seen  at 
Blenheim  and  Ramilies.  Here  again  at  Oudenarde  about  60,000 
men  came  into  action  on  each  side,  and  at  the  most  bloody  and 
hard  fought  of  all,  the  memorable  fight  of  Malplaquet,  in  the 
following  year,  each  army  brought  100,000  men  into  line.  As 
a  battle  Malplaquet  is  perhaps  more  deserving  of  description 
than  Ramilies  or  Oudenarde,  for  the  forces  there  engaged  were 
much  larger,  and  much  more  brilliantly  led  than  before,  but  it 


352  OUDENARDE. 

was  utterly  indecisive  in  its  results ;  it  was  won  by  hard  pound- 
ing at  an  almost  impenetrable  position ;  it  involved  a  terrible 
sacrifice  of  life  and  limb,  and  for  no  purpose  whatever.  Marl- 
borough  and  Eugene  only  succeeded  in  forcing  the  French  to 
fall  back  in  good  order  a  few  miles,  at  a  cost  of  20,000  killed 
and  wounded;  while  at  the  highest  estimate  only  14,000  men 
can  be  claimed  as  the  total  loss,  including  prisoners,  of  the 
French.  Malplaquet  was  a  fruitless  slaughter,  and  though  a 
tactical  victory  could  be  claimed  for  the  arms  of  the  confederates, 
it  is  certain  that  it  did  them  more  harm  than  good.  At  home 
the  outcries  against  Marlborough  broke  forth  afresh.  He  was 
accused  of  peculation  and  disloyalty,  and  although  the  French 
now  yielded  to  him  the  palm  of  invincibility,  it  was  only  in  the 
field.'  He  never  fought  a  battle  that  he  did  not  win,  never  laid 
siege  to  a  city  that  he  did  not  conquer,  never  met  a  leader  in 
the  ranks  of  war  whom  he  did  not  overthrow.  His  last  cam- 
paign of  1711  was  perhaps  the  most  brilliantly  conducted  of  his 
career,  and  yet  soon  thereafter  Marlborough  left  England  a 
voluntary  exile.  He  could  not  triumph  over  enemies  at  home 
whose  battles  he  was  fighting  at  the  front.  Distinguished  as 
courtier  and  statesman  as  he  was  as  soldier,  and  though  a  faith- 
ful husband  and  devoted  father,  the  great  duke  had  grave  faults, 
which  historians  and  writers,  notably  Macaulay  and  Thackeray, 
have  not  failed  to  fully  describe.  We  deal  with  him  only  as  the 
soldier,  and  as  a  soldier  he  had  no  superior. 


III.     PORTRAITS   OF  GREAT   GENERALS   OF'  MODERN^  EUROPE. 
(Famous  and  Decisive  Battles.) 


LEUTHEN. 


1757. 

EXT  among  the  great  generals  came  Frederick 
II.  of  Prussia,  justly  termed  Frederick  the 
Great.  The  death  of  his  harsh  old  father 
brought  him  to  the  throne  on  the  3 1st  of 
May,  1740,  and  he  who  had  hated  military 
duty  in  his  youth,  had  loved  music  and  litera- 
ture, had  loved  extravagance  to  the  verge  of 
foppery  in  dress,  suddenly  found  himself  King 
of  Prussia.  He  sprang  to  the  head  of  the  finest  army  in  the  world 
in  point  of  discipline  and  efficiency,  though  small  in  numbers, 
and  found  himself  called  upon  to  defend  his  frontiers  on  every 
side  from  powerful  and  bitter  foes.  Six  months  after  his  acces- 
sion he  clashed  with  Austria  for  the  possession  of  Silesia,  which 
his  people  claimed  as  Prussian  territory,  and  from  that  hour 
almost  to  the  end  of  his  eventful  life,  Frederick  the  Great  was  in- 
volved in  desperate  and  almost  incessant  warfare. 

The  eighteenth  century  brought  forth  more  brilliant  soldiers 
in  Europe  than  have  been  found  in  the  whole  world  in  any  other 
hundred  years.  Marlborough  and  Prince  Eugene  were  in  their 
prime  when  it  opened;  Charles  XII.  of  Sweden  was  still  the 
amazement  of  Christendom,  though  his  star  soon  waned  at  Pul- 
towa,  and  now,  all  over  the  continent  there  seemed  to  spring  into 
vigorous  life  more  than  a  score  of  younger  generals  of  all  na- 
tions. In  the  campaigns  from  1740  to  the  close  of  the  century 
we  find  them  everywhere.  From  a  soldier  standpoint  we  might 
mark  off  that  century  into  right,  centre  and  left,  and  assign  its 
chief  to  each,  or  divide  it  into  three  epochs — those  of  its  three 
greatest  soldiers  :  1st.  Its  beginning ;  2d.  Its  middle ;  3d.  Its  end, 
23  (353) 


354  LEUTIIEN. 

and  in  the  ascending  scale  of  greatness  place  them  where  they 
stood  in  order  of  time — Marlborough,  then  Frederick  the  Great, 
then,  greatest  of  all,  Napoleon. 

We  have  come  to  the  middle  of  the  century,  and  for  twenty 
years  rto  name  rivalled  that  of  Frederick  II.  of  Prussia;  and  no 
war,  for  brilliant  moves,  rapid  combinations,  desperate,  sanguin- 
ary and  thrilling  battles,  compared  in  interest  with  that  on  which 
we  now  enter,  The  Seven  Years'  War. 

Fought  originally  for  the  sake  of  Silesia,  it  became  the  fiercest, 
.as  it  was  the  last  of  the  three  great  struggles  for  that  province. 
Austria  demanded  Silesia  as  her  right,  Russia,  through  the 
Empress  Elizabeth,  hated  Frederick,  and  was  willing  to  help. 
The  Elector  of  Saxony  and  King  of  Poland  had  grievances  of 
some  kind  against  Prussia,  and  weak,  woman-led  Louis  XV.  of 
France  was  glad  enough  to  do  anything  the  reigning  favorite, 
Madame  Pompadour,  demanded.  She,  too,  hated  Prussia,  and 
before  he  knew  it  King  Frederick  found  himself  absolutely  en- 
circled by  enemies.  No  one  but  England  would  lend  him  a 
helping  hand.  All  Europe  was  jealous  of  his  almost  perfect 
army,  and  so  the  cordon  was  woven  round  him — east,  south  and 
west — only  northward  was  he  unassailed,  and  so  it  resulted  that 
the  armies  of  this  great  coalition  became  known  as,  and  fre- 
quently termed,  "  The  Armies  of  the  Circle."  Never  before, 
never  since,  had  the  sturdy  German  kingdom  such  odds  against 
her.  Could  they  attack  all  at  once,  or  on  all  sides  at  once,  Prus- 
sia was  ruined.  But  it  took  time  to  get  troops  upon  her  bor- 
ders, and  Frederick  jumped  at  the  chance.  He  would  beat  them 
in  detail. 

Saxony  lay  nearest,  and  the  first  of  the  seven  campaigns  of 
the  Seven  Years'  War  began  August,  1756.  Prussia  pounced  on 
Dresden,  the  Saxon  capital,  whipped  back  Austria  when  she 
came  to  the  rescue,  and  turned  the  Saxon  soldiers  into  Prussians 
forthwith.  So  far  Frederick  was  way  ahead,  but,  being  com- 
pelled to  winter  in  Saxony  and  Silesia  in  order  to  hold  them,  he 
and  his  armies  were  far  to  the  south.  Then  Sweden  concluded 
to  attempt  to  reconquer  Pomerania,  Prussia's  north  borderer,  and 
so  joined  the  circle,  hemming  in  the  east  half  of  her  northern 


IMMENSE  ODDS   AGAINST   FREDERICK.  355 

front,  and  now  at  the  opening  of  the  spring  campaign  of  1757 
the  Armies  of  the  Circle  numbered  430,000,  against  Frederick's 
total  of  260,000  (British  and  Hanoverians  included).  He  was 
no  whit  dismayed.  He  had  the  great  military  advantage  of  mov- 
ing on  interior  lines  while  the  allies  hammered  at  him  at  differ- 
ent points  of  the  big  circle.  He  had  faith  in  his  combinations, 
and  for  seventeen  years  he  had  been  studying  and  practising  war 
as  faithfully  as  he  had  previously  clung  to  his  flute. 

He  darted  first  upon  the  Austrians  and  wofully  whipped  them 
at  Prague,  though  it  cost  him  18,000  men,  killed  and  wounded, 
to  do  it,  and  the  Austrians  suffered  only  1,000  more.  But  then 
a  new  Austrian  army  under  a  splendid  soldier,  Daun,  one  of  the 
brilliant  galaxy  that  made  the  century  famous,  drove  Frederick 
back  in  turn,  beating  him  fairly  at  Kolin ;  and  the  French  under 
their  fine  leader,  D'Estrees,  punished  the  English  and'  Hanover- 
ians, so  that  the  second  year  of  the  war  looked  black  for 
Prussia. 

But  Frederick,  now  threatened  by  another  French  army  in 
Saxony,  together  with  a  large  force  of  Imperialists,  bade  his  out- 
posts stand  firm.  He  himself  led  a  rapid  march  against  the  new 
attack,  and  on  November  5th  administered  a  crushing  blow  at 
Rossbach,  one  of  his  best  fights  (it  would  take  ten  volumes  of 
this  size  to  tell  them  all),  and  then,  just  one  month  after,  just 
when  it  seemed  as  though  there  were  not  an  earthly  hope  left 
for  him  or  Prussia,  he  turned  back  like  a  lion  on  the  swarming 
foe  in  Silesia,  and  on  December  5th,  fought  and  won  his  great- 
est and  most  astonishing  battle,  Leuthen,  otherwise  known  as 
Lissa. 

Premising  that  the  great  master  of  the  art  of  war,  Napoleon, 
says  of  this  battle :  "  It  is  a  masterpiece  of  movements,  of  man- 
oeuvres, and  of  resolution  ;  enough  to  immortalize  Frederick,  and 
rank  him  among  the  greatest  generals,"  let  us,  as  best  we  may, 
lay  before  the  reader  its  story. 

With  more  than  80,000  Austrians  at  his  back,  Prince  Charles 
of  Lorraine,  the  favored  general  of  his  empress,  has  pushed 
northward  through  Silesia,  whipped  out  the  small  Prussian  gar- 
risons, winning  town  after  town,  fort  after  fort,  arms,  stores  and 


356  LEUTHEN. 

guns ;  has  at  last  reached  and  conquered  the  city  of  Breslau,  with 
Count  Bevern,  its  luckless  chief,  and  its  large  garrison  and  arma- 
ment; thence,  flushed  with  triumph  and  delight,  he  sends  his 
proud  message  to  Vienna — "All  Silesia  is  now  regained  to  your 
majesty ; "  and  here  he  learns  with  utter  amaze  and  incredulity 
that  Frederick  is  hastening  by  forced  marches,  and  with  only 
such  troops  as  he  can  hurriedly  pick  up  on  the  way,  to  give  him 
battle.  It  is  the  end  of  November;  the  weather  is  gloomy  and 
threatening,  yet  in  the  Austrian  camps  around  Breslau  all  is 
jollity  and  confidence.  The  story  goes  among  the  officers  at 
mess,  among  the  men  at  the  canteens.  "  What !  Fritz  with  his 
Potsdammers  advancing  on  us  ? — Bosh  ! "  Even  should  he  dare 
come,  what  more  could  they  ask?  He  might  scrape  up  30,000 
men  from  the  shattered,  scattered  fragments  of  his  armies,  and 
they — they  had  full  90,000  here  around  Breslau.  They  had 
whipped  the  Prussians  all  through  Silesia  for  three  months  past. 
"  Let  him  come — he's  as  mad  as  his  old  father." 

He  is  coming,  sure  enough,  and  what  is  more  has  "  turned  " 
the  line  at  Liegnitz,  where  lay  a  strong  Austrian  force  thrown 
forward  by  Prince  Charles  to  hold  him  in  check,  and  now, 
December  2d,  he  is  close  under  the  banks  of  the  Oder  at 
Parchwitz,  only  two  days  march  away,  waiting  only  for  Ziethen, 
staunch  old  Hussar-leading  Ziethen.  He  has  come  way  round 
in  a  big  circle  from  Rossbach  across  the  Saale;  starting  with 
only  13,000  men,  quick  as  marching  could  make  it,  he  has 
swung  through  Leipsic  and  Torgau  and  Bautzen,  200  miles  on 
a  bee-line,  250  the  way  he  had  to  come — he  is  here  in  front  of 
Breslau. 

Prince  Charles  is  fairly  mad  with  joy.  Right  here  before 
him,  with  only  25,000  or  30,000  men  at  the  utmost,  is  the  arch 
enemy  of  his  beloved  empress.  He  with  his  army  occupies  a 
strong  position  facing  west,  covering  Breslau.  He  has  the  forti- 
fications of  the  city  behind  him.  Before  him  lies  the  "  Schweid- 
nitz  Water,"  so  easily  defensible.  He  has  nearly  90,000  men, 
and  Frederick  proposes  coming  to  whip  him  out.  An  additional, 
an  inevitable  triumph  lies  in  his  grasp,  and  in  his  impatience  he 
takes  the  step  that  robs  him  of  it  all — aye,  even  of  all  he  has 


GENERAL  DAUN  OVERRULED.  357 

won  before.  He  cannot  wait  for  Frederick :  he  must  move  out, 
fall  upon  and  crush  him. 

But  he  hears  of  expostulation  and  demur  among  some  of  his 
generals  who  see  no  reason  for  giving  up  their  ready  defences  to 
try  an  issue  in  open  fielc}.  He  summons  a  council,  and  there 
speaks  General  Daun,  his  second  in  command,  the  Daun  who 
had  fought  Frederick  before,  knew  him  well,  and  knew  him 
too  well  to  throw  away  chances.  "Why  move  out?"  said  Daun. 
"  Let  him  assault  us  here,  and  we  will  crush  him." 

But  Daun  had  been  superseded  by  Prince  Charles.  Daun 
might  be  jealous,  thought  the  Prince  and  the  Prince's  satellites. 
Some  few  old  war-dogs  growled  their  approval  of  Daun's  argu- 
ments, but  there  were  all  the  eager  young  bloods,  all  the  chivalry 
of  the  empire  against  him.  Lucchesi  spoke  up  in  vehement 
advocacy  of  the  advance :  "  Forward,"  he  urged.  "  We  can- 
not fail;  we  have  won  Silesia.  Now  let  us  finish  him  and  the 
war  with  him,"  and  eager  Lucchesi  carried  the  convention  by 
storm.  Daun  was  overcome,  the  advance  was  sounded,  Lucchesi 
won,  and  paid  for  it  with  his  life.  Frederick  "  finished  him  " 
two  days  after  at  Leuthen;  fooled  him  first  and  killed  him  after- 
wards. 

And  so,  for  the  first  time  on  record,  the  Austrians  marched 
forward  to  open  battle  with  Frederick.  They  never  tried  it 
again. 

Twelve  or  fifteen  miles  west  of  Breslau  lies  a  low  ridge  run- 
ing  north  and  south  across  the  highway ;  not  much  of  a  ridge 
either.  There  are  no  real  hills  anywhere  in  that  part  of  the 
country.  There  are  knobs  and  knolls  and  waves  of  ground,  and 
low  swamps,  and  scrubby  patches  of  woods,  and  numbers  of 
stoutly  built  little  hamlets.  Six  or  seven  of  these  are  in  sight 
from  the  point  where  the  highway  crosses  this  low  ridge,  and 
right  here  Prince  Charles  is  met  by  startling  news.  Twelve 
miles  farther  west  lies  the  town  of  Neumarkt.  He  had  sent 
forward  to  that  point  his  army  bakery,  his  bakers,  a  few  quarter- 
masters, and  a  reasonably  good-sized  guard.  Their  orders  were 
to  set  up  the  bakery  at  Neumarkt,  and  have  80,000  rations  of 
fresh  loaves  in  readiness  for  his  epicurean  soldiery  when  they 


358  LEUTHEN. 

got  there  next  day.  The  news  was  that  Frederick  had  got  there 
first,  and  with  much  gusto  had  swallowed  up  his  bakery,  bak- 
ings, bakers,  guards  and  all,  and  was  coming  ahead  as  though 
only  too  ready  to  swallow  everything  he  encountered.  It  was 
here  that  General  Daun  is  reported  to  have  originated  a  query 
that  has  since  become  a  household  word  :  "  Didn't  I  tell  you  so?" 

Then  arose  the  question,  What  was  to  be  done  ?  To  fall  back 
ten  miles  to  the  old  works  would  certainly  shatter  the  morale  of 
the  army.  To  push  ahead  might  be  to  stumble  into  some  one 
of  those  traps  the  wily  Prussian  king  so  well  knew  how  to  lay ; 
and  here,  right  here,  was  a  capital  line.  It  was  adopted  at  once. 
With  its  centre  in  the  village  of  Leuthen,  a  long  mile  south  of 
the  highway,  its  right  at  Nypern,  two  and  a  half  miles  north  of 
that  road,  and  its  left  off  behind  Sagschiitz,  the  whole  some  six 
miles  in  extent,  the  Austrian  army  formed  line  of  battle.  The 
position  was  a  good  one;  the  villages  were  heavily  garrisoned  by 
strong  divisions  of  infantry,  thrown  forward  from  the  main  lines. 
Over  one  hundred  guns  of  light  calibre  were  advantageously 
posted  along  the  ridge;  the  cavalry  of  Lucchesi,  out  on  the  ex- 
treme right,  where  that  zealous  and  enthusiastic  soldier  is  to  have 
command ;  that  of  Nadasti  on  the  left  and  facing  a  low  meadow- 
like  stretch  of  land,  lying  down  to  and  beyond  Sagschiitz  to  the 
west ;  while  Daun's  horsemen  are  posted  in  rear  of  Leuthen, 
and  Daun  is  to  command  the  centre  immediately  under  the  eye 
of  Prince  Charles,  who  has  begun  to  think  by  this  time  that  it 
were  to  his  best  interests  to  have  his  experienced  subordinate 
close  at  his  side.  Nadasti  on  the  left  is  a  fine  soldier,  and  has 
made  an  admirable  disposition  there.  A  thick  little  copse  bends 
around  on  the  slope  with  rather  a  sharp  angle  or  elbow.  He 
has  crammed  it  with  infantry,  felled  trees  towards  the  west 
and  south,  and  now  occupies  a  compact  little  field-fort  at  this 
angle,  while  his  line,  bent  back  towards  the  rear  at  this  point,  is 
strongly  backed  up  by  a  second  line  of  footmen,  and  by  the 
squadrons  of  horse.  The  peculiar  formation  is  known  to  military 
students  as  "  en potence" 

Such  being  his  main  line,  Prince  Charles  sends  forward  a 
strong  brigade  of  cavalr  to  the  west  towards  Frederick,  and 


FREDERICK'S    MEMORABLE   ADDRESS.  359 

gives  its  commander,  General  Nostitz,  orders  to  go  well  beyond 
Borne,  the  first  village  to  the  west,  and  there  watch  for  the  ad- 
vance of  Frederick,  and  give  timely  notice  of  his  coming.  This 
done,  he  and  his  army  betake  themselves  to  easy-minded  re- 
pose. 

Now  for  Frederick.  On  Sunday  morning  at  four  o'clock  he 
sets  out  from  Parchwitz  at  the  head  of  his  army,  learning  with 
grim  satisfaction  that  the  Austrians  have  moved  forward  to  meet 
him,  and  he  will  not  have  to  assault  them  in  their  stronghold. 
He  knows  every  inch  of  the  ground  towards  Breslau,  for  all 
along  here  he  has  been  in  the  habit  of  exercising  and  manoeu- 
vring his  army.  Early  that  afternoon  he  pounces  on  Neu- 
markt  with  its  bakers  and  bakery,  and  that  night  and  for  several 
to  come,  the  Prussians  have  fresh  bread  for  supper.  Before  leav- 
ing Parchwitz  he  had  held  a  memorable  meeting  with  his 
generals,  and  delivered  an  address  that  has  come  down' to  us 
verbatim. .  We  have  only  space  to  quote  a  portion : 

"  I  intend  in  spite  of  the  rules  of  art  to  attack  Prince  Carl's 
army,  which  is  nearly  thrice  our  strength,  wherever  I  find  it 
The  question  is  not  of  numbers,  or  the  strength  of  his  position ; 
all  this,  by  courage,  by  the  skill  of  our  methods,  we  will  try  to 
make  good.  This  step  I  must  risk,  or  everything  is  lost.  We 
must  beat  the  enemy,  or  perish  all  of  us  before  his  batteries.  So 
I  read  the  case;  so  I  will  act  in  it.  If  there  should  be  one  or 
another  who  dreads  to  share  all  dangers  with  me,  he  can  have 
his  discharge  to-night." 

But  no  general  needed  that:  all  were  eager  and  confident. 
They,  too,  most  of  them,  knew  their  ground  and  had  faith  in  their 
leader.  Then  the  king  strolled  off  among  the  bivouac  fires  to 
see  his  soldiers.  It  was  a  quaint  fashion  he  had,  but  it  made 
them  love  him.  "  Good-evening,  my  children,"  he  cheerily 
hailed  as  they  rose  and  grouped  about  him;  and  some  old  life- 
guardsmen,  well  knowing  his  humor,  queried  in  the  brusque 
and  familiar  way  he  liked  at  such  times :  "  What  news  then, 
Fritz  ?  What  brings  you  so  late  ?  " 

"  Good  news,  lads:  to-morrow  you  are  to  thrash  the  Austrians 
for  me,  and  thrash  them  well — no  matter  how  strong  we  find 


300  LEUTHEN. 

them ;  "  and  sturdy,  resolute  answer  did  he  get  from  all.  Then 
with  parting  " Good-night,  good  rest,  my  children,"  and  "Good- 
night, old  Fritz,"  or,  more  respectful,  "  Good-night,  your  maj- 
esty," off  he  would  go  to  the  fires  of  the  next  regiment. 

And  so  in  the  very  best  humor  hjs  brave  fellows  had  marched 
on  towards  Neumarkt  that  raw  Sunday  morning;  and  in  still 
better  humor,  immensely  tickled  at  the  way  old  Fritz  had  nabbed 
that  Austrian  bakery,  they  had  by  his  orders  gone  early  to  their 
blankets  that  Sunday  evening,  for  soon  after  midnight,  very 
stealthily,  he  wakes  his  army.  At  one  o'clock  they  are  in  ranks ; 
at  two,  on  the  road  to  Breslau. 

It  is  long  before  daybreak — a  raw,  foggy,  Monday  morning, 
this  5th  of  December,  1757,  and  in  four  columns,  both  on  and 
parallel  to  the  high-road,  Frederick  in  front  with  his  staff,  only 
a  few  hussars  well  out  ahead,  the  Prussian  army  trudges  or  trots 
along — very  silently  too — well  closed  up  on  head  of  column. 
There  is  no  telling  how  soon  the  Austrians  may  be  encountered. 
All  goes  well  six — seven  miles.  Then  word  comes  back  from 
the  hussar  advance  that  there  is  something  ahead.  Vigilant 
light  cavalrymen,  "  the  eyes  and  ears  of  the  army,"  make  out 
that  across  the  highway,  and  extending  nearly  half  a  mile  right 
and  left,  there  is  a  line  of  troops  just  astir. 

Quickly,  without  trumpet  call,  but  in  that  perfect  order 
and  discipline  in  which  old  Ziethen  kept  his  hussars,  six  or 
eight  regiments  of  horse  form  line  to  right  and  left-front,  feel 
their  way  forward  until,  in  the  first  gray  mists  of  dawn,  they  can 
just  make  out  the  shadowy  line  ahead,  then  change!  Away 
they  go,  crashing  in  upon  poor  Nostitz  and  his  outpost,  killing 
the  unwary  leader  and  many  others,  capturing  500  prisoners  and 
driving  the  Saxon  and  Austrian  horse  helter-skelter  back  tow- 
ards Leuthen  ;  every  man  for  himself,  in  wildest  disorder ;  and, 
as  luck  would  have  it,  these  panic-stricken,  stampeded  wrecks 
go  whirling  off  north  of  the  high-road  as  they  near  the  lines  of 
Austria,  and  tell  their  tale  of  dismay  not  to  sturdy  Daun,  but  to 
mercurial  Lucchesi  up  at  Nypern  on  the  right.  "  The  whole 
Prussian  army  is  at  our  heels — we  are  cut  to  pieces — nothing 
left  of  the  Saxon  hussars,"  etc.,  etc.,  and  Lucchesi  starts  in  at 


LUCCHESI    DECEIVED. 

daybreak,  on  this  eventful  day,  with  the  expectation  of  being  the 
chosen  object  of  Frederick's  attack.  Despite  the  peat-bog  in 
his  front,  he  believes  that  there  and  nowhere  else  will  the  Prus- 
sians appear.  Already,  argues  he,  they  are  striking  off  north  of 
the  high-road,  and  will  come  thundering  down  on  my  right ;  so, 
nervously,  he  begins  to  feel  off  in  that  direction  with  his  alarmed 
cavalry,  and  sure  enough,  before  'tis  broad  daylight,  they  come 
tearing  back.  They  have  seen  a  few  squadrons,  and  that  was 
more  than  enough. 

Long  before  Frederick  arrives  in  sight  of  the  Austrians,  their 
right  is  uneasy  and  alarmed. 

But  Frederick  has  halted  his  main  army  at  Borne,  and,  with 
his  staff  and  a  few  horse-guards,  spurs  forward  to  the  one  high 
knoll  to  be  found  thereabouts,  and  from  here — the  hill  of  Borne 
— he  sees  two  miles  away,  stretching  right  and  left,  the  long 
lines  of  the  enemy.  It  is  just  growing  light.  Little  by  little 
the  range  of  Nypern,  Leuthen  and  Sagschutz  becomes  perfectly 
distinct,  and  grim  Fritz  Magnus  laughs  in  glee.  He  knows  every 
rood  of  the  land,  and  he  could  ask  nothing  better.  The  height 
he  is  on  stretches  away  in  a  gradually  lowering  range  till  op- 
posite the  Austrian  left  at  Sagschutz.  He  can  watch  every  move 
they  make,  but  this  height  and  range  utterly  hides  his  army  from 
their  view.  Quickly  he  orders  up  a  sufficiently  large  body  of 
horse  and  some  light  guns  to  hold  the  height  and  apparently 
threaten  the  enemy's  right ;  then  soon  after  seven,  orders  for- 
ward from  Borne,  his  four  •  parallel  columns.  He  has  decided 
just  exactly  what  to  do.  He  means  to  give  them  a  taste  of  the 
move  of  all  others  he  most  believes  in — most  loves  to  make — 
the  attack  in  oblique  order,  and  he  means  to  try  it  down  there 
at  Sagschutz  to  the  south.  'Twixt  eight  and  nine  the  heads  of 
columns  are  well  up  from  Borne,  and  there  are  his  staff  officers 
busily  at  work  resolving  the  four,  into  two  parallel  columns  and 
turning  them  southward.  At  ten  o'clock  his  infantry  is  trudg- 
ing down  back  of  the  range  and  completely  out  of  sight  of  the 
Austrians. 

Prince  Charles  in  losing  Nostitz  and  his  outpost  has  lost  his 
eyes.  He  cannot  form  the  faintest  idea  of  what  Frederick  is 


362  LEUTHEN. 

doing.  Up  there  on  the  heights  at  the  high-read,  and  farther 
northward  in  front  of  Nypern,  a  couple  of  cavalry  brigades  keep 
up  a  restless  moving  to  and  fro — now  taking  ground  farther 
northward,  as  though  to  open  out  for  more  troops ;  now  mass- 
ing as  though  for  attack — always  in  front  of  Lucchesi.  Not  a 
trooper  shows  anywhere  else  along  the  front,  and  King  Frederick 
is  delightedly  keeping  up  the  delusion.  By  ten  o'clock  he  has 
Lucchesi  completely  on  tenter  hooks.  "  The  whole  Prussian 
force  is  massing  for  attack  here;  I  must  be  strengthened  at 
once,"  he  sends  word  to  Prince  Charles,  and  Prince  Charles  ap- 
peals to  Daun.  "  Impossible,"  says  the  latter ;  "  the  King  of 
Prussia  has  manoeuvred  all  over  this  country  and  he  is  not  going 
to  attack  across  bogs  and  morass."  So  Lucchesi  is  ignored. 

Still  Frederick  keeps  stirring  him  up.  More  cavalry  are 
made  to  show  out  there  on  the  Nypern  front,  for  the  Prussians 
are  having  hard  work  getting  up  their  guns.  Seventy-one  they 
had  in  all,  and  all  heavier  than  the  Austrians,  who  had  twice, 
perhaps  three  times,  as  many.  But  ten  of  the  Prussian  guns 
are  of  very  heavy  calibre,  the  pets  of  Frederick  and  his  whole 
army;  and  these  very  guns — "The  Boomers,"  as  they  are  called 
— he  happens  to  want  just  now  way  over  in  front  of  Sagschiitz, 
and  it  takes  time  to  get  them  there.  Meantime  something  must 
be  done  to  keep  the  Austrians  entertained,  and  that  explains  this 
masquerade  over  against  Nypern. 

.  After  eleven  o'clock,  and  there  is  no  telling  still  what  the 
Prussians  are  doing.  Prince  Charles-,  with  Daun  and  other  trusted 
generals,  is  up  in  the  old  church  tower  of  Leuthen,  or  perched 
on  top  of  windmills  scanning  the  west  through  their  old-fashioned 
spy-glasses.  No  use  to  send  out  cavalry  to  make  inquiries  at 
the  right  and  front.  Those  horsemen  of  Prussia  are  too  quick 
and  vigilant ;  and  as  for  the  left,  opposite  Nadasti,  any  one  can 
see  there  is  nothing  there.  Even  if  formed,  they  have  not  men 
enough  to  reach  that  distance  in  single  line.  Ah,  no ;  and 
who  would  suppose  that  by  this  time  all  the  army  except  these 
few  cavalry  are  massed  down  there  waiting  only  for  "  The 
Boomers."  Every  few  moments  there  comes  some  new  rumor 
or  alarm  from  the  right,  and  soon  after  twelve  o'clock  an  urgent 


FREDERICK'S   CELEBRATED  OBLIQUE   ORDER.  3(53 

message  that  begins  to  look  as  though  there  might  be  something 
after  all  in  Lucchesi's  entreaties. 

King  Frederick,  watching  everything  from  the  Borne  hill,  has 
now  got  his  infantry  in  exact  readiness  and  position  to  advance 
in  their  celebrated  oblique  order.  In  two  parallel  and  heavy 
lines  the  Prussians  are  formed,  still  masked  by  the  low  hills, 
and  facing,  not  toward  the  main  line  of  the  Austrians,  but  to  the 
backward-thrown  flank  of  Nadasti,  so  that  the  Prussian  front 
really  forms  an  angle  of  about  thirty  degrees  with  that  of  the 
Austrian  main  line.  The  former  faces  east-northeast;  the  latter 
due  west.  The  cavalry  are  all  formed — those  who  are  to  act 
under  Ziethen  in  the  grand  assault  on  Nadasti '$  "potence;" 
the  guns  are  in  readiness  to  be  run  forward  into  battery  the  in- 
stant the  word  is  given,  and  now,  noting  the  extreme  strength 
of  Nadasti's  position,  and  that  of  Daun  in  centre,  the  wily  king 
determines  on  another  move. 

Sending  orders  for  all  the  cavalry  of  his  left  to  trot  out  before 
the  eyes  of  Lucchesi,  and  form  as  though  for  attack,  the  king 
waits  the  result.  Long  before  half  their  numbers  have  deployed, 
Lucchesi,  scared  in  good  earnest,  sends  word  to  his  chief: 
"  Send  me  strong  reinforcements  of  cavalry  at  once  or  I  will  not 
be  responsible  for  the  result;"  and,  out  of  all  patience,  Prince 
Charles  orders  Daun  to  take  all  his  cavalry  from  the  left-centre 
and  go  up  there  and  see  what  is  the  matter;  and,  disgustedly 
enough,  Daun  and  his  horsemen  trot  off,  a  three  or  four  mile 
move  in  the  wrong  direction.  Grimly  Frederick  watches  them 
through  his  glass  ;  signals  "  ready"  to  .his  watching  army,  and 
"-forward,"  as  the  great  gap  shows  in  the  Austrian  line.  Just  at 
one  o'clock  the  golden  moment  has  come. 

Fancy  the  amaze  of  all  Austria  when  the  next  moment,  in 
perfect  ranks,  in  compact  battalions  or  squadrons,  all  in  their 
appropriate  positions  (what  we  soldiers  call  in  echelon  by  bat- 
talion from  the  right),  in  the  far-famed  oblique  order  of  Frederick, 
lapping  beyond  the  left  flank  of  Nadasti,  supported  by  their 
heavy-metalled  artillery,  "  Boomers"  and  all,  over  the  knolls  and 
ridges  beyond  Sagschutz,  comes  the  whole  Prussian  army. 
Three  minutes  bring  the  great  guns  into  play ;  three  more  the 


364  LEUTHEN. 

light,  and  then  the  battalions  open  fire.  One  grand  assault  of 
nearly  25,000  magnificently  trained  soldiery  has  burst  upon 
Nadasti's  left,  and  the  rest  of  the  Austrian  army,  for  all  it  can 
now  do  to  help  him,  might  just  as  well  be  in  Breslau.  Frederick 
himself  has  galloped  down  to  superintend. 

This  oblique  order  is  something  that  ought  to  be  explained 
right  here.  Suppose  four  battalions  to  be  drawn  up  on  the  same 
straight  line,  elbow  to  elbow.  Now  to  advance  "  in  echelon 
from  the  right,"  as  practised  by  Frederick  the  Great,  the  right 
battalion  marches  straight  to  the  front.  As  soon  as  it  has  gone 
fifty  paces,  the  next  battalion  starts ;  the  third  "  standing  fast " 
until  the  second  has  gone  its  fifty  paces,  and  so  on  until  we  have 
the  four  battalions  moving  to  the  front  something  like  a  pair  of 
stairs,  each  one  fifty  paces  behind  the  line  of  the  other.  Now 
instead  of  fifty  steps,  the  distance  might  be  made  a  hundred,  or, 
instead  of  a  hundred,  the  number  of  steps  it  took  to  pace  off  the 
front  of  a  battalion,  and  the  interval  between  it  and  the  next  in 
line,  say  three  hundred  and  twenty  paces.  In  this  last-named 
case  the  "  tread  "  or  top  of  each  step  would  be  equal  to  its 
height,  and,  having  our  battalions  in  this  shape,  it  is  plain  that 
each  at  the  same  instant  could  wheel  to  its  own  right,  to  its  own 
left,  or  halt,  face  about,  and  open  fire  direct  to  its  new  front  with- 
out danger  of  hitting  any  other  of  the  comrade  battalions. 
Now,  instead  of  confining  the  move  to  a  little  brigade  of  four 
battalions,  conceive  the  whole  Prussian  line,  each  battalion, 
battery  and  squadron  in  its  appropriate  place,  executing  this 
beautiful  manoeuvre,  and  you  have  just  what  Frederick  played 
on  overwhelmed  Nadasti  at  Leuthen.  With  only  "  fifty-pace  " 
distance,  beginning  with  the  right,  he  launched  in  his  superb  and 
compact  army;  then  when  the  batteries,  battalions  and  squadrons, 
which  had  begun  the  move,  had  got  well  out  beyond  Nadasti's 
extreme  left,  with  one  simultaneous  impulse,  this  right  division 
made  a  half  wheel  to  the  left,  and  Nadasti  was  enveloped  in  an 
arc  of  flame  and  smoke. 

Nadasti  is  a  gallant  fellow  though,  and,  seeing  well  what  is 
coming,  hurls  in  all  his  cavalry  at  headlong  charge  on  Ziethen's 
flank,  now  out  in  the  air  down  beyond  Sagschiitz,  and  the  attack 


THE   AUSTRIAN   LEFT   WING   IN   DISORDER.  355 

is  so  spirited  that  but  for  the  steady  fire  of  their  supporting  in- 
fantry the  hussars  would  be  completely  overthrown ;  as  it  is, 
they  get  time  to  rally,  charge  in  turn,  and  then,  getting  the 
better  of  the  Austrians,  chase  them  well  home  around  Nadasti's 
left  flank,  and  Nadasti  is  now  too  hard  pressed  all  along  his 
front  and  his  retired  flank  to  help  his  horsemen  any  further. 
Here,  of  course,  the  Prussians  are  in  overpowering  numbers. 
"  The  Boomers  "  play  havoc  with  the  Croats  in  that  thick  copse, 
and  before  the  firm,  steady,  sweeping  advance  of  the  Prussian 
infantry  no  stand  can  be  made.  Up  on  his  right  the  oblique 
advance  has  burst  through  Nadasti's  line  between  the  wood  and 
Leuthen,  and  the  luckless  guardians  of  his  extreme  left  are  cut 
off,  a  tumultuous  retreat  begins,  and  at  two  o'clock  the  Austrian 
left  wing  is  tumbling  back  in  utter  disorder  upon  or  back  of  its 
centre. 

Daun  with  his  misled  cavalry  comes  tearing  back  at  this 
juncture,  but  he  cannot  make  headway  or  charge  through  a 
surging  tide  of  his  own  people.  Brigades  and  battalions  come 
down  at  double-quick,  or  the  run,  from  behind  Leuthen;  but  they 
arrive  "  blown  "  and  disordered,  are  swept  into  the  sea  of  their 
huddling  and  bewildered  comrades ;  for,  all  the  time,  steadily, 
remorselessly,  fatally,  the  serried  lines  of  Prussia  are  sweeping 
northeastward  up  the  ridge,  halting  by  battalion  and  firing  with 
the  precision  of  machinery,  then  sweeping  on  again;  and  all  the 
time  old  Ziethen  is  whirling  his  hussars  around  the  outskirts  of 
the  sheep-like  droves,  taking  whole  battalions  prisoners  at  a 
time,  until  at  half-past  two,  the  hitherto  resistless  advance  butts 
up  against  the  walls  of  Leuthen.  Then  comes  a  pause. 
Crammed  with  musketeers  and  light  guns  that  Prince  Charles 
has  been  frantically  urging  into  position  there,  and  on  the  ridge 
behind  it,  Leuthen  becomes  for  the  while  a  little  fortress,  a  rock 
on  which  the  Prussian  battalions  have  to  hammer  a  full  hour 
before  it  is  shattered  under  their  blows. 

But  it  gives  Austria  a  chance  to  breathe.  Daun  and  Nadasti 
labor  like  heroes  to  bring  order  out  of  chaos  now,  and  check  the 
retreat.  Resting  its  right  on  Leuthen,  a  new  line  is  formed  ex- 
tending off  towards  the  southeast  nearly  to  the  valley  of  the 


366  LEUTHEN. 

Schweidnitz  Water,  but  its  left  is  "  out  in  the  air,"  and  Ziethen 
chops  at  it  with  his  sabres,  splintering  and  shaving  away  until, 
little  by  little,  that  line  is  dwindling  in  toward  Leuthen — -Leuthen 
still  the  stormy  vortex  of  the  battle. 

Lucchesi,  too,  by  this  time  has  been  making  up  his  mind  to 
do  something,  and  changes  front  forward  on  his  left,  so  as  to 
have  his  line  sticking  out  to  the  northwest,  resting  somewhere 
on  the  highway,  also  "in  the  air;"  and  at  this  flank  those  vul- 
tures of  cuirassiers  and  the  light  cavalry  of  the  left  remorse- 
lessly peck,  dribbling  it  away,  as  it  went  on  the  other  end  of  the 
line. 

But  the  centre  is  still  a  rock.  All  around  Leuthen  the  fight- 
ing is  terrible.  The  church  and  the  walled  church-yard  for  a 
long  hour  resist  all  efforts,  all  blows.  "The  Boomers"  hammer 
the  walls  into  chips ;  and  then  in  hand-to-hand  fashion  the 
guards  and  linesmen  rush  in,  and  the  bayonet  does  the  work. 
So  hard  is  the  struggle  here,  and  so  desperate  are  the  chances, 
that  the  king  orders  in  the  reserve,  till  this  moment  "  refused  " 
at  Radaxdorf,  y  hamlet  just  over  the  Borne  ridge;  and  as  the 
fresh  battaliorvi  come  sweeping  across  the  low  ground  south  of 
the  highway,  Lucchesi  at  last  fancies  his  hour  of  vengeance  has 
come.  He  has  a  strong  corps  of  cavalry  which  has  been  of  no 
use  in  the  melee  around  Leuthen.  Now  he  sees  a  chance  to 
swoop  down  on  the  flank  of  those  reserve  battalions.  It  is 
open  over  towards  the  "  Scheuberg,"  the  Borne  ridge;  nothing 
is  to  be  seen  at  the  moment,  so  with  fervent  impulse,  with 
several  thousand  fresh  horsemen,  in  he  goes — to  his  death. 

He  might  have  known  that  such  a  master  as  Frederick  would 
never  have  left  that  flank  defenceless;  a  few  squadrons  thrown 
forward  to  peep  behind  the  Borne  ridge  would  have  told  him  the 
truth — that  there,  in  ambush,  lay  Driesen  with  the  reserve  cav- 
alry of  the  Prussian  army,  and  Driesen's  orders  are  to  guard  the 
flank  of  the  infantry  when  it  goes  in,  and  nothing  else. 

Instead  of  meeting  him  with  counter  charge  and  driving  him 
back,  Driesen  does  far  better.  He  lets  Lucchesi  rush  past  his 
covert,  then — up  rise  his  squadrons  to  the  crest,  shake  free  their 
reins,  dig  spurs  to  chargers'  ribs,  and  down  the  slope  they  go 


UTTER  ROUT  OF  THE  AUSTRIANS.          367 

upon  Lucchesi's  rear.  He  is  trapped.  In  ten  minutes  he  him- 
self lies  sabred  and  hoof-trampled  to  death.  Dismay  spreads 
through  his  entire  wing.  His  left  reels- back  before  the  Prussian 
reserve;  his  right  is  whirled  off  the  field  by  Driesen's  imme- 
diate rush  upon  them ;  they  drift  away  back  toward  Lissa.  And 
now,  right  gone — left  gone — what  use  to  hold  Leuthen?  Back 
go  Charles,  Daun,  Nadasti,  and  with  them  all  Austria,  three  miles 
back  to  Saara,  and  here,  just  at  sunset,  the  last  stand  is  made — 
a  stand  so  weak,  so  tottering,  as  almost  to  be  pitiful.  It  melts 
away  before  the  first  attack  of  the  leading  Prussian  division ;  and 
the  proud,  boastful  array  of  Austria  is  in  full  retreat  before  the  dis- 
dained Potsdam  barrack  guard.  Four  bridges  cross  the  Schweid- 
nitz  water  towards  Breslau,  and  for  hours  these  are  jammed  with 
disorderly  fugitives — rank,  regiments,  all  forgotten.  It  is  a  rush 
for  the  sheltering  walls  of  the  distant  city. 

With  Ziethen  spurring  behind  them  in  vigorous  pursuit,  well 
may  they  flee.  The  Prussian  infantry  are  halted  in  line  at  Saara. 
Strong  guards  are  posted  over  the  prisoners  and  plunder  back 
on  the  battle-field;  and  King  Frederick,  as  is  his  custom,  rides 
among  his  battalions  to  praise  or  censure,  as  need  be.  Chief  of 
the  infantry  of  the  right  wing  is  the  General  Moritz,  of  Dessau, 
who  has  been  simply  superb  to-day.  Ever  since  Kolin,  he  has 
been  burning  for  an  opportunity  of  retrieving  the  ill-fortune  that 
there  attended  him.  Ziethen,  Driesen,  Ratzow,  have  all  been 
daring  and  conspicuous;  but  the  king  singles  out  Moritz  of  Des- 
sau, and  calls  to  him  in  hearty  commendation,  "Well  done!  I 
congratulate  you,  Field-Marshal;"  and  the  emphasis  on  the  last 
word  carries  glad  tidings  to  the  soldier,  for  no  promotion  is  so 
dear  as  that  won  upon  the  field  of  battle. 

Then  Frederick  pushes  ahead  through  the  darkness  to  Lissa, 
down  by  the  Schweidnitz  water,  only  a  few  miles  away.  In  the 
village,  the  small  brigade  that  accompanies  him  stirs  up  a  number 
of  skulking  Croats  and  stragglers  in  the  outhouses  and  village 
taverns,  and  a  fight  breaks  out  in  the  darkness.  The  sound  of 
musketry  comes  floating  back  through  the  still  night  air  to  the 
wearied  footmen  at  Saara,  and  knowing  their  king  to  be  ahead 
there,  they  resume  their  arms  and  trudge  along  to  join  him, 


368  LEUTHEN. 

singing  solemn  hymns  of  praise  as  they  march,  and  so,  make 
their  soldier  bivouac  around  Lissa,  miles  beyond  the  field  they 
had  won. 

Of  all  Frederick's  victories,  Leuthen  was  the  most  decisive. 
He  says,  and  with  good  reason,  that  had  there  been  two  hours 
more  of  daylight,  he  could  have  atterly  annihilated  the  Austrian 
army.  As  it  was,  his  30,000  had  attacked  and  utterly  routed 
80,000  in  a  strong  position.  No  finer  tactical  battle  had  ever 
been  fought:  3,000  Austrians  were  left  dead  on  the  field,  12,000 
were  taken  prisoners  on  the  day  of  battle,  and  9,000  more  within 
the  next  few  days;  1 16  cannon  fell  into  his  hands,  and  fifty-one 
flags  and  standards.  Against  these,  the  losses  of  Frederick  were 
1,141  killed,  5,1 1 8  wounded.  Twelve  days  after  Leuthen  he  had 
re-conquered  Breslau,  with  all  its  arms,  stores  and  trophies.  Si- 
lesia was  his  again,  and  17,000  more  pri  oners  of  war. 

As  for  the  Empress  of  Austria,  in  her  utter  chagrin  at  these 
terrible  losses,  she  relieved  Prince  Charles  of  his  command  and 
restored  Daun  to  his  former  high  position.  Ten  years  before, 
Prince  Charles  had  been  termed  one  of  the  finest  generals  of  the 
day;  but  in  five  pitched  battles  he  had  been  beaten  by  Frederick, 
and  war  had  lost  its  attractions  for  him. 

All  Silesia  being  once  more  safely  won  to  Prussia,  and  it  being 
now  mid-winter,  the  king  and  his  army  proceeded  to  make  them- 
selves comfortable  in  and  around  Breslau,  where  they  remained 
until  the  opening  of  the  third  campaign  in  the  following  spring. 


.   Austrian  Army.S^SHlNSHE 

2.  Saxons  under  '.Nostitz. 

3.  Advance  of  Prussian  Army.  t-^ 

4.  Lueehesi's  Cavalry  reinforced  by  D 

5.  Nadasti's  Command. 

6.  Frederick's  Hill  of  Observation. 

7.  Prussian  Army  about  to  Attack. 

8.  Ziethen's  Cavalry.^?'" '         "<"" 
Austrian  Ketreat. 


1.  ussian      rmy. 

2.  Austrians  under  Loudon. 

3.  Russian  Abatis. 

4.  Russian  Wairon  Camp. 


5.  Prussian  Army,  Evening  of  llth. 

6.  Prussian  Vanguard  under  Fink. 


KUNERSDORF. 


1759 

FTER  his  great  victory  of  Leuthen,  as  we  have 
seen,  King  Frederick  spent  the  winter  in  Breslau, 
Early  in  the  spring,  however,  he  was  again  in  the 
field.  His  forces  proved  too  weak  for  those  of  his 
adversary,  Daun,  who,  as  second  in  command,  was 
whipped  at  Leuthen  even  whilst  protesting  against 
the  battle.  In  all  the  fighting  that  followed,  in  all 
his  combinations,  Frederick  the  Great  had  no  such 
antagonist  as  this  gallant  and  loyal  general :  gal- 
lant, because  he  was  ever  ready  to  be  "  foremost  in  the  fray; " 
loyal,  because,  whether  superseded  in  command  or  being  chiefr 
his  best  efforts  went  to  the  cause  of  his  country,  and  many  and 
many  a  brilliant  and  skillful  battle  did  he  fight  for  her.  Daun 
drove  Frederick  out  of  Moravia,  which  the  latter  had  invaded, 
but  could  do  nothing  further.  That  in  itself  was  an  achievement. 
But,  meantime,  the  vast  forces  of  the  Russians  had  swept  down 
from  the  northeast.  Frederick  was  compelled  to  meet  them,  and 
in  August  he  fought  and  won  the  bloodiest  and  most  destructive 
battle  of  the  Seven  Years'  War — that  of  Zorndorf. 

Space  compels  us  to  limit  the  description  of  our  battles  to  those 
which  were  most  decisive  or  characteristic  in  a  campaign,  and  Zorn- 
dorf lacked  the  brilliancy  of  manoeuvre  which  so  distinguished 
many  or  most  of  the  great  engagements  between  Frederick  and 
his  legions  of  enemies.  It  lasted  for  several  days ;  was  fought 
among  bogs  and  morasses,  and  in  a  country  so  broken  as  to  cramp 
the  movements  of  the  cavalry.  The  Russians  fought  with  stolid 
desperation;  the  Prussians  with  determined  valor;  and'the  slaugh- 
ter on  both  sides  was  appalling.  Frederick  won  from  sheer  per- 
24  (369) 


370  KUNERSDORF. 

sistency,  though  this  sanguinary  battle  was  never  one  on  which 
he  prided  himself.  As  its  result,  the  Russians  were  compelled 
to  fall  back  beyond  the  frontier  of  Poland. 

Then  the  king  turned  once  again  upon  the  Austrians  in 
Saxony,  driving  them  before  him  steadily,  until  that  brilliant 
Daun  turned  upon  him  with  the  sudden  leap  of  a  skilled  fencer — 
actually  took  him  by  surprise,  and  gave  the  Prussians  a  sound  and 
severe  thrashing  at  Hochkirch  before  they  had  time  to  recover 
from  their  astonishment.  Frederick  rallied,  and  soon  resumed 
his  steady  drive  of  the  enemy,  but  this  third  campaign  concluded 
with  but  trivial  advantage  for  the  Prussians. 

And  now  we  come  to  the  Fourth  Campaign,  and  the  darkest 
hours  of  Frederick  and  his  gallant  nation.  We  followed  him  to 
his  greatest  triumph  at  Leuthen.  Let  us  see  how  he  met  and 
bore  his  deepest  humiliation.  It  reached  him  at  Kunersdorf. 

The  Russians  had  routed  the  Prussian  General  Wedel  at  Ziil- 
lichau  on  July  23d,  and  Frederick  had  to  make  all  speed  to  his 
.assistance.  On  the  west,  the  Duke  of  Brunswick  won  a  gallant 
iight  at  Minden,  August  1st,  badly  whipping  the  French;  and  if 
Frederick  could  but  retrieve  the  losses  sustained  at  the  hands  of 
the  Russians  during  the  spring  and  summer,  the  Fourth  Cam- 
paign would  be  in  his  hands.  He  was  hopeful  and  buoyant.  He 
had  this  spring  introduced  to  the  military  world  the  first  battery 
•of  "  horse  artillery,"  and  he  was  delighted  with  the  new  arm,  which 
he  destined  to  accompany  his  cavalry.  Mounted  artillery  was 
already  an  old  story,  and  the  reader  must  distinguish  between  the 
two.  In  the  latter,  the  drivers  ride  the  "near"  horse  of  each 
team,  but  the  cannoneers  walk  or  run  alongside  the  gun  carriages; 
and  though  occasionally  allowed  to  ride  on  the  ammunition  chests, 
their  movements  are  like  those  of  foot  troops,  and  mounted  bat- 
teries could  only  accompany  infantry.  Not  so  with  this  new  arm 
of  Frederick's.,  He  had  thought  it  out  in  the  previous  year,  1758. 
Now  in  the  sprjng  of  '59  he  put  it  into  practice.  With  guns  and 
carriages  made  very  light,  but  of  the  best  material  for  strength, 
with  the  cannoneers  galloping  along  after  their  guns,  he  aston- 
ished the  enemy  with  a  little  four-gun,  six-pounder  battery  that 
spun  over  hill  and  dale,  wherever  horses  could  go.  Next  year 


FRANKFORT-ON-THE-ODER   SEIZED.  371 

Austria  imitated  him ;  then  all  Europe,  though  only  very  grad- 
ually. 

And  now  while  Frederick  with  his  new  toy  was  watching  Daun, 
there  came  the  startling  news  that  the  Russians  under  Soltikoff 
had  terribly  defeated  Wedel  at  Zullichau — or,  as  others  call  it, 
Kay — and  Palzig ;  next,  that  Soltikoff  was  marching  on  Frank- 
fort-on-the-Oder.  Could  he  reach  and  take  that  city,  he  would 
be  within  sixty  miles  of  Berlin.  With  all  speed  Frederick  starts 
to  aid  Wedel.  Disastrous  as  is  the  news  he  is  nothing  daunted. 
But  on  the  last  day  of  July  the  Russians  seize  the  defenceless 
city ;  there  they  are  joined  by  an  Austrian  corps — 18,000  strong, 
under  Loudon ;  and,  hurry  though  he  may,  Frederick  comes  too 
late. 

The  Oder  here  runs  nearly  north.  The  little  city  of  Frank- 
fort, then  containing  some  12,000  inhabitants,  lies  on  the  west 
bank,  a  single  bridge  of  stone  connecting  it  with  the  east  side. 
West  of  the  river  the  ground  is  hilly  and  broken;  east  of  it,  from 
opposite  Frankfort  down  to  Goritz,  fifteen  miles  to  the  north,  it 
is  marshy  and  well-nigh  impassable  for  three  or  four  miles  out ; 
then,  nearly  on  a  straight  line  north  and  south,  there  runs  from 
Goritz  to  Schwetig,  four  miles  above  Frankfort,  a  range  of  heights. 
The  river  makes  a  bow-like  sweep  of  these  eighteen  miles — a  flat 
arch  with  the  concavity  to  the  east,  and  the  range  of  heights  along 
the  string.  Close  under  the  heights,  draining  the  eastern  edge  of 
the  marsh,  crawls  a  lazy,  murky  stream;  it  makes  a  sharp  elbow 
about  four  miles  out,  north  of  east  of  Frankfort,  breaks  through  the 
line  of  heights  from  the  southeast,  and  if  we  follow  it  out  a  few 
miles  through  the  thick  woods  in  that  direction,  we  find  it  drain- 
ing a  chain  of  muddy  little  ponds.  This  dirty  string  of  puddles 
is  to  play  the  mischief  with  Frederick's  plans,  and  may  as  well  be 
understood;  and  its  outlet — with  miry  bottom  and  oozy  banks — 
the  Hiinerfleiss  (Hen  Floss)  is  to  give  his  artillery  great  annoyance. 

Now  just  where  this  Hiinerfleiss  breaks  through  the  ridge,  the 
ridge  itself  turns  sharply  westward  and  makes  for  the  Oder,  just 
about  four  miles  away ;  and  we  have  or  had  then  (for  the  wind 
and  rains  have  almost  blown  and  washed  away  the  topography  of 
this  famous  battle-ground)  a  chain  of  knolls,  never  more  than  a 


372  KUNERSDORF. 

mile  across,  and  this  chain  was  called  "the  heights  of  Kuners. 
dorf,"  from  the  little  village  that  nestled  under  the  shelter  of  the 
easternmost  knoll — the  Miihlberg,  or  Mill  Hill.  Through  Ku- 
nersdorf  ran  the  high  road  to  the  east,  along  which  the  Russians 
had  come.  The  road  passed  through  a  depression  in  the  ridge 
west  of  the  Mill  Hill,  then  swept  round  to  the  west  and  followed 
the  base  of  the  spur  to  the  bridge  across  the  Oder.  West  of  the 
Mill  Hill  came  another  and  longer  knoll — the  Spitzberg;  then 
a  deep  valley  or  depression  through  which  the  Oder  must  have 
flowed  in  days  gone  by,  as,  indeed,  it  must  have  washed  its  way 
through  these  other  depressions  or  channels — the  Kuh  Grund 
(Cow  Hollow)  and  Tiefe  Weg  (Deep  Way) ;  but  this  deep  and 
clearly  defined  cut  between  the  Spitzberg  and  the  Judenberg 
(Jew  Hill),  a  cut  not  unlike  some  of  our  western  canons,  is  the 
most  important  of  all — Hohle  Grund  (Big  Hollow,  some  call  it); 
London's  Hollow,  people  called  it  for  years  afterwards,  and  with 
reason  !  It  was  through  there  that  Loudon,  the  Austrian,  with 
his  unexpected  18,000,  swept  down  upon  the  wearied  flank  of 
Prussia's  army  and  turned  the  tide  of  the  furious  fight  at  Ku- 
nersdorf. 

These  three  commanding  knolls  even  then  were  no  more  than 
150  feet  in  height,  while  the  general  elevation  was  about  100. 
All  north  of  the  chain,  remember,  is  marsh  and  ooze  except  the 
narrow  bench  along  which  runs  the  high-road;  and  parallel  with 
this  high-road  is  a  sluggish  canal-like  drain  that  lazily  flows 
into  the  Hunerfleiss,  and  with  it  is  lost  in  the  swamps  toward 
Goritz. 

Just  east  of  the  Oder  and  north  of  the  high  road  is  a  suburb, 
protected  from  the  encroachments  of  the  stream  by  a  stout  em- 
bankment, and  called,  from  the  earthwork  to  which  it  owed  its 
existence,  the  Dam  Suburb;  and  out  east  of  this  patch  of  houses 
were  a  few  acres  of  dry  ground,  separated  from  the  chain  of  knolls 
by  that  muddy  canal.  The  sunken  road  of  Ohain,  says  Hugo, 
was  fatal  to  Napoleon  and  to  Milhaud's  cuirassiers  at  Waterloo 
years  afterwards,  because  it  could  not  be  seen,  and  La  Coste,  the 
peasant  guide,  shook  his  head  when  asked  if  there  were  any  ob- 
struction up  that  apparently  smooth  slope  of  Mont  St.  Jean.  This 


MISTAKEN   TACTICS   OF   AUSTRIA   AND   RUSSIA.  373 

canal  was  fatal  to  Frederick  because  he  could  see  it  in  part,  and 
his  peasant  guide  shook  his  head  when  asked  if  there  were  any 
means  of  crossing  it  from  the  north.  Loudon's  18,000  lay  out 
there  on  that  patch  of  dry  ground,  and  the  peasant  did  not  know 
that  in  one  night,  with  logs,  stakes,  barn-beams,  stones  and  rub- 
bish, they  and  the  Russians  had  bridged  it  opposite  the  Big 
Hollow ;  but  they  had,  and  it  well-nigh  ruined  Prussia. 

East,  around  the  slopes  of  the  Mill  Hill  and  south,  along  those 
of  this  range  of  knolls,  lay  an  open  valley,  perhaps  half  a  mile 
in  width.  Then  came  a  belt  of  thick,  tangled  woods  clear  over 
to,  and  beyond  the  ponds  of  the  Himerfleiss — woods  so  impene- 
trable that  from  the  heights  themselves  they  masked  and  hid  all 
movements  that  might  be  going  on ;  yet  so  boggy  and  miry  was 
the  ground  all  through  there  that  the  Russians  seem  to  have 
considered  it  impracticable  for  the  passage  of  troops;  even  their 
restless  and  hardy  Cossacks  never  prodded  its  thickets  with  their 
lances.  Their  whole  time  was  taken  up  plundering  the  villages 
along  the  Oder. 

Such  was  the  ground  over  which  Russia  and  Austria  were  to 
grapple  with  Frederick  the  Great;  and  yet  Russia  and  Austria 
had  not  the  faintest  idea  that  the  grapple  would  come  when  and 
as  it  did.  Well  they  knew  that  Frederick  would  make  all  speed 
from  the  west  to  rescue  Frankfort;  and,  not  deeming  the  city 
defensible,  it  was  their  idea  to  let  him  come  in,  to  retire  before 
him  to  the  east  side;  entice  him  across  until  he  had  the  Oder 
behind  him ;  get  him  between  the  heights  of  Kunersdorf,  the  flat 
patch  near  the  Dam  Suburb,  the  embankments  of  the  Oder;  tempt 
him  to  attack  the  heights,  then  fall  upon  and  annihilate  him. 

On  Wednesday,  August  8th,  a  gay  party  of  Russian  and 
Austrian  generals  had  gathered  at  the  cosy  inn  of  Fischers 
Miihle,  some  distance  out  beyond  the  western  suburbs  of  Frank- 
fort; dinner  had  been  ordered,  a  jolly  time  was  to  be  had,  when 
in  came  the  miller's  boy  all  panic  and  perspiration,  just  able  to 
gasp  out  "  Prussian  hussars ! "  The  convivial  bout  broke  up 
in  wild  haste  and  confusion;  the  officers  mounted  in  all  haste 
and  went  scurrying  back  to  Frankfort,  sharply  chased  by  the 
wiry  swordsmen  of  Seidlitz,  that  prince  of  light  cavalry  soldiers. 


374  KUNERSDORF. 

King  Frederick  has  arrived  at  the  Oder  and  is  out  recon- 
noitring. His  main  body  is  at  Lebus,  six  miles  down  stream, 
north  of  Frankfort.  He  has  but  40,000  men  all  told,  and  the 
Russo-Austrian  army  has  90,000 — Leuthen  figures  over  again, 
but  the  ground  is  far  different.  The  old  war-dog  knows  they 
will  not  come  out  to  attack  him,  that  he  must  be  the  assailant; 
and  with  such  odds  against  him  he  can  have  little  hope.  He 
sees,  too,  that  they  have  made  no  attempt  to  fortify  Frankfort. 
He  readily  divines  their  intention  of  enticing  him  across  there. 
He  studies  the  distant  heights  of  Kunersdorf  through  his  glass, 
and  sees  their  redoubts  and  earthworks  bristling  with  guns. 
He  needs  more  men,  sends  couriers  to  General  Finck,  and  mean- 
time goes  on  quietly  with  his  preparations  for  crossing. 

Soltikoff  and  Loudon  now  march  all  their  troops,  except  a 
small  garrison  for  Frankfort,  over  to  the  east  side.  Soltikoff 
takes  post  at  Kunersdorf  at  the  east,  Loudon  in  front  of  the 
Dam  town  at  the  west.  The  Russians  swarm  along  the  heights, 
which  on  both  faces,  north  and  south,  are  fortified  with  parapet 
and  ditch ;  while  at  intervals  heavy  redoubts  are  thrown  up. 
Nearly  two  hundred  pieces  of  artillery  are  distributed  along  that 
formidable  range,  whose  western  end  reaches  the  banks  of  the 
Oder,  three-quarters  of  a  mile  south  of  that  one  bridge  over 
which  Frederick  is  expected,  nay,  invited  to  come. 

Frederick  does  nothing  of  the  kind.  Finck  with  10,000  men 
joins  him  on  the  loth  of  August,  at  Reitwein,  opposite  Goritz. 
That  night,  on  two  hastily  prepared  pontoon  bridges,  the  Prus- 
sian artillery  and  infantry  cross  the  Oder  opposite  Oetscher,  a 
little  hamlet  a  mile  south  of  Goritz.  The  cavalry  ford  the 
stream  a?  the  shallows  higher  up.  Not  a  sign  of  preparation 
had  been  visible  at  the  river  until  after  dark.  Not  an  inkling 
did  the  allies  get  of  what  was  going  on.  At  four  in  the  morning 
all  are  safely  across  and  stretching  away  southward  on  the  road 
along  the  bow-string  line  of  heights  already  described;  the 
heavy  baggage  is  left  under  guard  near  Oetscher,  and  at  one 
o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  to  the  utter  amaze  and  consternation  of 
Soltikoff,  the  Prussian  army  appears  in  magnificent  order  of  bat- 
tle, not  behind  Frankfort  as  was  expected — not  marching  blindly 


FREDERICK   RECONNOITRES   THE   ENEMY'S   POSITION.     375 

into  the  trap  prepared  for  it  under  the  guns  of  the  Juden,  Spitz 
and  Muhlbergs,  but  off  there  to  the  northeast  in  the  open 
country,  between  Leissow  and  Bischoffsee.  Frederick  has  fooled 
them  again. 

And  now  while  all  is  excitement  and  consternation  in  the 
Russian  cantonments  along  the  heights,  Frederick  cautions  his 
army  to  rest  after  its  long  march ;  and  taking  with  him  but  a 
small  escort  of  hussars,  rides  forward  to  thoroughly  reconnoitre 
the  position  of  the  enemy  from  this  side.  He  has  utterly  con- 
founded them,  it  is  true ;  but  he  has  executed  a  manoeuvre  that 
would  have  completely  unnerved  a  Washington  Cabinet  during 
the  days  of  our  civil  war.  He  has  gone  around  behind  the 
enemy,  leaving  the  road  open  to  his  capital  so  short  a  distance 
away.  He  has  thrown  Finck  with  his  division  well  forward  to 
threaten  the  Mill  Hill  from  the  northeast;  while  his  main  army, 
40,000  strong,  lies  farther  back  in  two  ready  lines,  and  calmly 
resting  through  the  hot,  sultry  August  afternoon ;  sorely  needing 
water  and  shade,  but  patient  and  loyal  to  their  grim  old  leader. 
It  has  grown  to  be  a  delight  to  follow  him,  no  matter  where  he 
may  go. 

It  is  while  out  here  studying  the  situation  and  riding  to  and 
fro  on  the  heights  of  Trettin,  that  Frederick  meets  in  the 
peasant  who  brings  him  a  jug  of  cold  spring  water,  the  intelli- 
gent native  on  whose  information  he  leans  so  much  the  next 
day.  He  can  distinctly  see  the  camp  of  Loudon  over  there  at 
the  Red  Grange,  back  of  Dam  town.  He  can  see  the  marshy 
alder-waste,  and  the  murky  little  west  branch  of  the  Hen  Floss 
that  runs  between  the  highway  and  the  boggy  flats;  north  of 
which  lies  the  dry  patch  where  Loudon  is  posted;  and  he  asks 
that  question  of  his  guide  to  which  allusion  has  been  made : 
"  If  you  wanted  to  get  across  from  the  camp  of  the  Austrians  to 
the  Big  Hollow  there,  or  to  the  Judenberg,  could  you  do  it?" 

"  No,  your  majesty.  The  Hen  Floss  is  not  fordable,  nor  the 
alder-waste  beyond ;  you  have  to  go  way  round — back  through 
Dam  town,"  and  though  the  king  looks  sharply  at  him  and 
repeats  with  emphasis  his  question,  the  peasant  sticks  to  his 
assertion,  and  honestly  believes  it. 


376  KUNERSDORP. 

Even  now  Frederick  is  not  fully  satisfied.  He  cannot  con- 
ceive it  possible,  that,  between  the  corps  of  Loudon  and  the 
army  of  Soltikoff,  there  should  be  no  direct  means  of  communi- 
cation. On  a  bee-line,  they  lie  not  more  than  two  miles  apart — 
not  more  than  one  from  Loudon's  nearest  flank  to  the  slopes  of 
the  Judenberg.  Even  admitting  tliat  he  was  expected  to  come 
no  other  way  than  across  the  bridge  from  Frankfort,  Frederick 
feels  sure  that  there  ought  to  be  some  causeway  through  the 
alder-waste — some  bridge  across  the  Hen  Floss.  So  he  calls  up 
Major  Linden,  whose  regiment  had  long  been  posted  at  Frankfort 
some  little  time  before,  and  who  had  hunted  all  over  this  ground. 
The  major  answers  as  confidently  as  the  peasant,  and  Frederick, 
satisfied  at  last  as  evening  lowers,  rides  back  to  Bischoffsee  to 
make  his  dispositions  for  the  morrow.  That  night  the  western 
sky  is  red  with  the  glare  of  conflagrations.  In  revenge  for  being 
outwitted  perhaps,  but  for  no  good  and  sufficient  reason,  the 
Russians  are  burning  the  defenceless  villages,  and  thousands 
of  homeless  creatures  are  wandering,  weeping  through  the  dark- 
ness, seeking  over  pathways  lighted  only  by  the  flames  of  their 
own  roofs,  some  refuge  from  the  wrath  to  come.  Kunersdorf 
and  other  outlying  hamlets  lie  in  ashes  before  midnight;  Schwetig 
and  Reipzig  go  down  before  the  Cossack  torches  on  the  morrow, 
but  meanwhile  the  Prussian  army  sleeps. 

All  night  long,  upon  the  heights,  the  Russians  are  swarming 
to  and  fro,  dragging  guns  into  new  positions  to  meet  attack  from 
the  quarter  so  unexpectedly  occupied  by  Frederick.  All  around 
the  base  of  the  Miihlberg,  which  stands  nearest  to  the  Prussian 
line,  a  thick  abatis  has  been  constructed.  The  redoubts  upon 
its  crest  are  very  strong,  and  if  Frederick  could  but  attack  from 
the  northeast  and  sweep  over  that  height,  he  from  its  summit 
might  "  enfilade  "  the  entire  Russian  line ;  perhaps  roll  them  up 
on  the  centre  as  he  did  the  Austrians  at  Leuthen. 

On  the  night  of  August  iith,  the  Russian  lines,  three  miles 
long,  stuck  out  northeastwardly  towards  him.  His  army  was 
posted  at  right  angles  to  them,  facing  southwest,  for  all  the 
world  like  the  cross  to  a  T  5  a"d,  studying  the  situation  from 
maps  and  histories,  one  cannot  help  wondering  why  he  did  not 


THE   PRUSSIANS   AGAIN   ON   THE   MARCH.  377 

attack  that  exposed  flank  from  that  very  direction.  True :  the 
east  branch  of  the  Hen  Floss  lay  before  the  advance  of  Finck's 
division,  but  it  could  be  crossed.  He  himself,  with  all  the 
main  body,  did  cross  it  higher  up.  The  advantage  he  would 
have  gained  is  apparently  immense,  but  he  adopted  an  entirely 
different  plan,  and  probably  knew  what  he  was  about,  even  if 
the  move  seem  incomprehensible  to  the  student  of  to-day. 

At  three  o'clock  Sunday  morning,  August  I2th,  1759,  the  Prus- 
sian army  is  again  in  march.  Finck  with  12,000  men  in  strong 
formation,  sweeps  down  almost  to  the  east  bank  of  the  Hen  Floss, 
quite  within  long  range  of  the  guns  on  the  Miihlberg,  and  there 
he  halts,  and  begins  making  apparent  dispositions  for  attack. 
His  orders  are  to  induce  the  Russians  to  believe  that  the  grand 
assault  is  to  com,e  from  there.  He  runs  forward  two  strong 
field-batteries ;  he  and  his  generals  ride  forward  making  ostenta- 
tious reconnoissance  of  the  heights ;  the  Russians  bang  away  at 
them  with  their  field-guns  in  the  redoubts,  and  they  fall  back  for 
shelter  but  make  no  reply.  For  hours  they  keep  the  Muscovites 
on  tenter-hooks  of  expectation,  always  threatening,  never  exe- 
cuting a  charge. 

Meantime,  what  has  become  of  Frederick  ?  Even  as  he  keeps 
up  this  aggravating  by-play,  Finck  is  constantly  watching  the 
skirt  of  the  woods  beyond  the  valley  south  of  the  chain  of 
knolls.  Six — seven  o'clock  come,  and  still  no  sign  of  soldiery 
in  that  quarter.  Finck  is  getting  alarmed  and  impatient. 

At  three  A.  M.,  when  Frederick  with  his  main  army  moved  off 
into  the  woods  towards  the  high  road  that  led  to  Reppen  and  the 
east,  he  had  no  idea  of  the  intricacies  of  the  way — pools,  bogs, 
marshy  rivulets,  thickets,  underbrush,  tangled  copsewood — every- 
thing, in  fact,  that  could  impede  the  march  of  an  army,  stood  in 
the  path;  yet  he  had  made  up  his  mind  and  was  determined  to 
go  ahead,  lugging  his  guns  with  him.  Even  before  Seidlitz  with 
his  leading  hussars  succeeds  in  reaching  the  Hen  Floss,  out  of 
sight  of  the  Russian  advance  posts,  the  artillerymen,  time  and 
again,  have  been  compelled  to  unhitch,  turn  their  carriages  round 
ty  hand,  work,  and  pry,  and  push  them  around  all  manner  of 
boggy  corners.  The  large  guns,  like  the  "  Boomers  "  of  Leuthen, 


378  KUNERSDORF. 

are  drawn  by  twelve  horses  each,  and  are  of  immense  bother. 
Frederick,  after  his  talk  with  that  Nimrod  of  a  Major  Linden  who 
had  ridden  all  over  the  country,  thought  he  could  be  in  the  de- 
sired position  by  day-break ;  but  it  is  eight  o'clock  before  his  col- 
umns issue  from  the  ooze  and  tangles  of  the  boggy  woods;  and 
soon  after  eight  the  eagerly  watch'ing  Russians  on  the  heights 
detect  the  fact,  that  while  the  main  attack  may  still  come  from 
the  northeast,  Frederick  and  his  people  are  feeling  around  to- 
wards the  south.  The  skirts  of  the  woods  along  the  low  heights 
across  the  intervening  open  space  are  now  brilliant  with  small 
bodies  of  gayly  dressed  hussars.  Soon  they  can  be  seen  all  along 
that  front  from  the  Walckberg  on  the  northeast,  across  the  Klos- 
terberg — a  wooded  crest  lower  than  the  heights  of  Kunersdorf, 
but  parallel  to  them  and  stretching  southwestward,  intersected 
about  the  middle  by  the  road  to  Reppen.  Beyond  the  road,  on 
both  sides,  in  fact,  are  thick  woods ;  and  in  these  woods,  close  to 
their  edge  around  the  Muhlberg,  Frederick  is  running  up  his 
heavy  guns.  Nine  o'clock  comes,  and  ten,  and  eleven,  of  this  hot 
August  Sunday;  and  still  he  is  not  ready.  Still  the  first  line  of 
battle  (with  Seidlitz  to  the  extreme  left  (the  west),  facing  the  great 
Spitzberg;  and  Prince  Eugene,  of  Wurtemberg,  on  the  right,  lap- 
ping round  so  as  to  join  hands  with  Finck)  waits  for  the  comple- 
tion of  the  batteries  and  for  the  second  line  to  get  straightened  out 
behind  them.  The  main  army  of  the  Prussians  is  facing  north- 
west. It  has  marched  completely  around  the  position  of  the 
Russians  on  the  heights,  and  the  attack  is  to  come  from  the  very 
last  quarter  the  latter  expected.  Eager  to  find  out  what  may  be 
going  on  behind  that  veil  of  light  cavalry  along  the  Klosterberg, 
some  inquisitive  Cossacks  come  loping  out  on  their  shaggy  ponies 
and  prying  into  the  shrubbery.  A  roar  from  a  light  battery  and 
a  whizzing  shower  of  grape  stretches  some  of  their  number  on 
the  ground,  and  scatters  the  rest  to  cover.  Still  it  is  argued  that 
only  a  few  light  guns  and  a  cavalry  scouting  detachment  can  have 
worked  around  therethrough  that  thicket;  and  once  more  Solti- 
koff  gazes  nervously  northeastward.  Much  of  his  cavalry  and 
the  fine  Austrian  grenadiers  are  still  in  reserve  over  there  with 
Loudon  at  the  Red  Grange.  All  goes  well — if  slowly — with  the 


FREDERICK    STORMS   THE    MUHLBERG.  379 

Prussian  lines,  only  Seidlitz  does  not  like  the  looks  of  that  Big 
Hollow  off  to  his  left-front.  It  is  beyond  his  flank;  he  has  not 
force  enough  to  cover  it;  he  cannot  see  into  or  through  it  from 
the  little  Spitzberg  where  he  is  posted,  but  he  shrugs  his  shoul- 
ders and  determines  to  make  the  best  of  it.  At  eleven  o'clock 
the  lines  of  Frederick  envelop  the  Miihlberg  like  a  great  shep- 
herd's crook,  with  Seidlitz  at  the  handle,  Eugene  at  the  shank, 
and  Finck  at  the  curving  tip.  Frederick  is  with  Eugene,  hopeful, 
energetic  as  ever.  He,  at  last,  gets  sixty  guns  into  battery  (there 
are  seventy  Russian  guns  on  the  Miihlberg  alone),  and  just  at 
half-past  eleven,  with  one  simultaneous  crash  and  boom  they  open 
on  the  heights.  Instantly  Soltikoff  sees  that  he  is  enveloped; 
but  so  strong,  so  confident  is  he  in  his  chosen  position  that  it 
makes  no  odds  to  him.  His  gunners  spring  to  work,  and  for  an 
hour  there  rages  the  fiercest,  loudest  cannonade  of  the  Seven 
Years'  War,  with  one  exception — Torgau  in  the  following  year, 
Two  of  Frederick's  batteries  posted  on  the  Walckberg  have 
open,  d  an  enfilading  fire  on  the  lines  of  the  opposite  Miihlberg, 
and  these  guns  are  doing  great  execution,  their  shot  leaping  along 
the  parapets,  springing  from  battery  to  battery,  driving  the  gun- 
ners to  shelter,  and  knocking  gun-carriages  into  toothpicks.  It 
is  magnificent  practice,  and  Soltikoff  rages  in  his  heart  when  he 
sees  that  he  has  not  a  redoubt  or  field-work  so  built  as  to  permit 
him  to  respond  to  those  particular  guns.  By  the  artillery  fire 
alone,  the  Russians  manning  the  shoulder  of  the  Miihlberg  are 
so  hard  hit  that  they  fail  to  serve  their  guns  with  any  care,  and 
after  a  brief  half  hour  of  this  work  Frederick  determines  on  an 
assault.  Sending  word  to  Finck  to  press  vigorously  from  the 
north,  he  orders  forward  eight  pet  battalions — Prussian  grena- 
diers, and  now  comes  the  grandest  sight  of  Kunersdorf. 

"Steady  as  planets,"  marching  with  a  precision  and  accuracy 
that  would  have  been  applauded  at  Potsdam,  these  grand  veterans 
sweep  forward  in  charging  column ;  "  steady  as  planets "  they 
descend  the  slopes,  and  for  a  few  moments  are  sheltered  from  di- 
rect fire  as  they  cross  the  hollow;  then  they  breast  the  Miihl- 
berg— their  alignment  never  wavers.  Up  they  go  till  the  tall, 
pointed  grenadier  caps  rise  above  the  crests;  then  despite  the 


380  KUNERSDORF. 

p 

fury  of  fire  that  greets  them,  forward  they  press  squarely  to  the 
muzzles  of  the  Russian  guns;  one  grand  volley  they  give,  then 
in  with  the  bayonet;  and  ten  times  their  numbers  of  Muscovites 
reel,  stagger,  break  and  run  before  them.  Despite  all  their  offi- 
cers can  do,  the  guardians  of  the  Miihlberg  are  whirling  back  in 
panic — in  terror — before  these  eight  battalions  of  six-footers. 
They  make  no  stand  at  all.  In  ten  glorious,  never-to-be-forgotten 
minutes  the  Miihlberg,  with  its  redoubts,  lines,  batteries,  its  seven- 
ty-two guns,  its  commanding,  enfilading  position,  all  are  Prussia's. 

Then  "  forward  "  is  the  word  along  the  whole  line.  Seidlitz  and 
Eugene  lead  in  their  divisions  and  strive  in  vain  to  cross  arms  with 
the  panic-stricken  Russians.  No  use.  Soltikoff's  army  has  surged 
back  from  the  lines  from  the  shoulder  of  the  Miihlberg  as  far 
southwest  as  Kunersdorf  and  its  hollow,  and  it  is  only  one  o'clock. 

Now,  now  if  the  guns  can  only  be  run  up  here,  all  is  won. 
The  Russian  guns  left  on  the  Miihlberg  are  useless  to  the 
victors  since  they  have  no  ammunition  to  fit  them,  and  little  of 
the  enemy's  ammunition  has  been  left.  Finck  strives  in  vain  to 
get  his  guns  across  the  Hen  Floss,  but  there  are  only  little 
rickety  foot  bridges  (perhaps  this  may  have  been  Frederick's 
reason  for  departing  from  his  Leuthen  tactics),  and  over  an  hour 
is  consumed  in  patching  up  a  suitable  crossing.  Then  the  guns 
that  ought  to  have  been  down  on  Ziethen's  left  by  this  time,  are 
hopelessly  stuck  in  the  mud  a  mile  behind  him,  and  the  infantry 
of  the  second  line  that  ought  to  be  there  to  support  the  grand 
advance,  are  tugging  at  the  muddy  wheels,  hauling  at  the  strain- 
ing ropes,  and  in  the  wild  hour  of  triumph  that  succeeds  the 
capture  of  that  citadel  of  a  Mill  Hill,  Frederick  the  Great  is 
passing  through  the  crisis  of  his  bloody  and  desperate  campaign. 
He  knows  it,  and  is  powerless  to  help  it.  His  assaulting  force 
has  hurled  back  thrice  its  weight  in  Russians.  All  that  is 
needed  now  is  a  sweeping  artillery  fire  upon  the  chain  of  knolls, 
then  all  those  solid  lines  and  masses  near  the  Big  Hollow  must 
go.  They  will  be  driven  helter-skelter  down  the  slopes  towards 
the  morass,  or  the  Oder,  or  else  huddled  within  the  walls  of 
Dam  town.  Oh,  for  the  guns !  With  them  victory  is  in  his 
grasp.  Without  them  it  is  doubtful. 


SOLTIKOFF    RALLIES    HIS    RUSSIANS.  381 

In  all  that  fatal  hour  only  four  light  guns,  Tempelhof's,  can 
be  dragged  to  the  crest.  They  are  too  few,  too  feeble,  and  now 
it  is  too  late.  The  beaten  Russians  have  rallied. 

With  victory  presumably  in  his  grasp  at  one  o'clock,  King 
Frederick  sends  his  jubilant  despatch  by  courier  to  Berlin. 
Tempelhof,  however,  has  only  one  hundred  shot,  and  these  are 
soon  gone — then,  with  vast  labor,  their  twelve  horses  straining 
every  muscle,  men  and  drivers  working  like  horses,  some  few  of 
the  heavy  guns  are  slowly  and  painfully  dragged  to  the  height ; 
but  now,  in  fresh  brigades  and  divisions,  SoltikofT  sends  his 
reserves  in  eastward  along  the  chain,  while  his  erstwhile  panic- 
stricken  left  reforms  and  comes  up  in  support.  Now,  indeed,  is 
Kunersdorf  a  furious  battle.  Seidlitz  gets  his  horsemen  out  of 
the  way,  and  wheels  the  infantry  of  his  left  wing  around  to  face 
Kunersdorf  in  ashes,  and  the  swarming,  charging  Russians  now 
coming  at  him  through  the  Kuh  Grund.  Their  lines  are  deep  and 
doubled  and  massive;  the  crash  of  their  volleys  is  ominous,  and 
the  clash  of  steel  when  the  bayonets  cross  in  the  desperate  hand- 
to-hand  fight  that  ensues,  is  far  more  sullen  and  deadly  than  the 
rattle  of  the  sabres  in  cavalry  onset.  For  some  time,  in  the 
surging  to  and  fro,  'tis  impossible  to  say  which  side  will  prevail ; 
but  presently  some  of  Finck's  eager  footmen  who  have  scaled 
the  slopes  from  the  northeast,  come  charging  down  in  support, 
and,  once  again,  vehemently  pursued  this  time,  the  Russians 
break  and  scatter  beyond  Kunersdorf.  At  three  in  the  after- 
noon, panting,  exhausted,  victorious,  captors  of  the  heights  east 
of  Kunersdorf,  and  180  cannon,  the  Prussians  are  triumphant; 
but — not  a  man  has  had  a  drink  of  water  for  twelve  hours. 
They  have  been  charging,  fighting,  climbing,  shooting  and  stab- 
bing, exhausting  work,  all  of  Jt,  for  three  straight  hours,  and 
men  cannot  stand  everything.  Dense  masses  of  Russians  are 
still  over  there  on  the  Judenberg;  dense  masses  down  on  the 
roadway  under  the  heights,  and  SoltikofF  is  using  every  effort 
to  straighten  them  out.  Officers  are  shouting,  swearing,  beating 
with  their  swords,  forcing  the  patient  Muscovite  soldiery  into 
ranks,  and  ere  long  they  will  be  on  the  heights  again. 

It  is  at  this  stage  of  the  battle  that  some  of  Frederick's  lead- 


382  KUNERSDORF. 

ing  generals,  notably  Finck  and  even  Seidlitz,  urge  the  king  to 
let  well  enough  alone ;  to  attack  no  more  that  day,  but  to  rest 
content  with  winning  180  cannon  and  the  Miihlberg.  His  men 
are  fearfully  tired,  and  the  generals  respectfully  urge  that  he 
should  now  draw  off  to  the  Miihlberg  itself,  plant  his  batteries, 
get  up  his  guns  and  the  reserves  of  "his  second  line  still  out  there 
in  the  woods,  and  give  the  army  its  needed  rest.  But  Frederick's 
blood  is  up.  "  Strike  while  the  iron  is  hot,"  he  argues.  He 
orders  up  the  entire  left  wing,  as  yet  unengaged,  and  forms  it  for 
attack  opposite  the  Great  Spitzberg,  where  heavy  batteries  are 
planted.  The  wing  comes  up  as  ordered,  furiously  assaults  the 
batteries  and  redoubts  of  this  formidable  knoll,  but  with  heavy 
losses  it  is  repulsed  and  driven  back  down  the  slope.  Then  the 
grape  and  canister  of  the  Russian  guns  rake  huge  lanes  through 
the  ranks,  and,  unable  to  stand  against  it,  they  fall  back  in  fair 
order  towards  the  woods  again.  Frederick  is  in  misery  at  this 
repulse.  He  will  not  give  up,  however.  He  again  calls  on  his 
cavalry  and  rides  up  to  Seidlitz.  "  Try  it  you,  then,  Seidlitz : 
you  saved  us  at  Zorndorf,"  and  obediently  the  brave  old  hussar 
leads  in  his  dashing  squadrons.  The  charge  is  superb  but  well- 
nigh  desperate.  Russian  and  Austrian  guns  mow  down  the 
troopers.  Seidlitz  himself  is  wounded  and  borne  off  the  field; 
then,  dazed  and  irresolute  for  want  of  a  leader,  the  cavalry  break, 
whirl  aimlessly  about  the  field  a  few  moments,  raked  and  shat- 
tered by  the  incessant  discharges  from  the  heights ;  and  at  last 
they,  too,  bolt  for  the  rear.  Once  fairly  started,  there  is  no  stop- 
ping them  till  far  from  the  field. 

And  now  Frederick's  chances  are  indeed  desperate.  Em- 
boldened by  their  successful  repulse  of  these  two  spirited  attacks, 
the  Russians  at  Great  Spitzberg  withstand  with  dauntless  front 
these  vehement  charges  led  by  the  king  in  person.  He  cannot 
take  that  battery  on  the  western  heights.  His  men  are  dropping 
around  him  by  scores.  Two  horses  have  been  killed  under  him. 
His  uniform  is  torn  by  bullets,  yet  he  is  unhurt.  He  rides 
hither  and  thither,  striving  to  make  his  people  stand  against  the 
now  rapidly  encircling  masses  of  the  Russians,  but  in  vain. 
Worn,  exhausted,  parched  with  thirst,  the  Prussian  lines  are 


FREDERICK'S   ARMY    PRACTICALLY   ANNIHILATED.       333 

drifting  back  towards  Kunersdorf,  and  in  so  doing,  they  leave 
behind  them  the  heights,  the  guns  they  had  won  and  some  of 
their  own.  Fresh  battalions  of  Russians  press  them  on  their 
right  from  the  north,  and  now,  now  issuing  from  that  fateful 
Big  Hollow,  come  Loudon's  Austrian  grenadiers.  In  superb 
array,  fresh,  vigorous,  enthusiastic,  they  sweep  eastward  up  the 
valley,  strike  the  enfeebled  flank  of  Frederick's  line,  and  it 
crumbles  to  pieces.  In  vain  Eugene  with  the  cuirassiers  rides 
round  to  the  northeast  and  strives  on  Finck's  side  to  break  up 
the  Russian  columns  pressing  upon  Frederick's  line.  The 
cuirassiers  are  mowed  down  before  those  ever  ready  guns  and 
driven  back.  Then  Puttkammer  with  the  gallant  hussars  tries 
the  same  thing.  He  is  killed  and  they  are  put  to  flight.  It  is 
no  use,  no  use. 

Back  of  the  Kuh  Grund,  Frederick  makes  one  last  deter- 
mined stand;  the  lines  not  fifty  yards  apart,  and  blazing  at 
one  another  with  their  musketry ;  and  now  Loudon  with  all  his 
eager  cavalry  trots  out  from  that  inexhaustible  Big  Hollow,  and 
10,000  fresh  horsemen  come  thundering  forward  on  the  stagger- 
ing line.  Human  endurance  can  bear  no  more.  The  valiant 
remnant  of  a  valiant  army  breaks  in  dismay,  and  at  six  o'clock 
swarms  eastward  in  utter  disorder — in  utter  rout.  Frederick 
rides  among  them  exhorting,  commanding,  beseeching;  all  in 
vain.  He  prays  for  death ;  he  longs  to  lie  there  on  the  field  of 
his  bitter  humiliation.  A  little  squadron  of  hussars  rescues  him 
from  swarming  bands  of  Cossacks,  and  staff-officers  seize  his  rein 
and  lead  him  from  the  ground.  At  the  banks  of  the  Hen  Floss, 
they  pass  battery  after  battery  abandoned  to  the  enemy,  they 
pass  struggling,  crowding  fugitives,  but  his  officers  never  let  him 
stop.  They  lead  their  heart-broken  king  back  to  Oetscher,  and 
thereat  the  bridges  Frederick  can  rally  but  three  thousand  of 
his  men.  His  army  is  practically  annihilated. 

That  night  in  his  despair  Frederick  writes  to  the  Count 
Finckenstein  at  Berlin  :  "  The  consequences  of  this  battle  will 
be  worse  than  the  battle  itself.  I  have  no  resources  more ;  and 
to  confess  the  truth,  I  hold  all  for  lost.  I  will  not  survive  the 
destruction  of  my  country.  Farewell  forever." 


384  KUNERSDORF. 

Well  might  he  be  despondent.  Between  Oetscher  and  the 
southern  hamlet  of  Bischoffsee,  where  he  had  so  confidently 
bivouacked  the  previous  night,  the  whole  country  was  covered 
by  stragglers  of  his  proud  army,  now  relentlessly  pursued  and 
lanced  by  those  bloody  Cossacks.  His  guns  were  all  gone — 
165  of  them — left  on  the  hither  bank  of  that  fatal  Hiinerfleiss. 
Flags  and  standards  without  number  dropped  upon  the  field ; 
his  grand  cuirassiers  crushed  and  virtually  unhorsed,  so  many  of 
their  chargers  had  been  killed  ;  his  dashing  hussars  well-nigh 
exterminated  ;  Seidlitz  wounded,  Puttkammer  slain  ;  his  stately 
grenadiers  reduced  from  a  superb  division  to  a  battered  regiment. 
It  was  the  blackest  day  Prussia  had  ever  known.  No  wonder 
consternation  and  dismay  reigned  in  Berlin  when  that  fifth 
courier  arrived.  No  wonder  Frederick  himself  broke  down  and 
temporarily  turned  over  chief  command  to  Finck.  They  got  him 
across  the  Oder  to  Reitwein  on  the  following  day,  and  there 
some  23,000  of  his  50,000  rallied  to  the  colors,  but  so  broken 
and  dispirited,  shorn  of  arms,  equipments,  artillery,  horses  and 
leaders,  that  only  the  peerless  discipline  of  the  Prussian  soldier 
kept  them  from  further  flight. 

But  Russia  and  Austria  failed  to  follow  up  their  great  advan- 
tage. They  had  lost  in  this  desperate  and  furious  battle  18,000 
men  in  killed  and  wounded.  Prussia  had  left  6,000  dead,  and 
13,000  wounded  upon  the  field,  and  vigorous  pursuit  would  have 
scattered  the  remnant  of  the  army  to  the  four  winds.  So  con- 
fident was  Frederick  that  pursuit  would  come,  that  he  caused 
the  queen  and  court  to  abandon  Berlin,  and  make  hasty  flight 
to  Magdeburg.  But  the  second,  then  the  third  day  passed  by. 
Only  a  few  marauding  Cossacks  ventured  westward  from  Frank- 
fort, and  Frederick,  standing  by  his  resting  army,  took  heart  of 
grace,  resumed  command  on  the  i/th,  and  ordered  up  artillery 
and  supplies  from  Berlin. 

SoltikofT  it  seems  was  drunk  with  triumph  if  nothing  else,  and 
the  officers  to  whom  he  intrusted  the  pursuit  got  drunk  with 
something  else,  if  not  with  triumph.  The  former  remained  at 
Kunersdorf  sending  elated  despatches  to  his  imperial  mistress, 
the  tsarina,  at  St.  Petersburg ;  the  latter  dismounted  from  their 


AN   UNFRUITFUL   TRIUMPH.  385 

horses  and  held  a  symposium  before  setting  forth  for  Reitwein, 
and — never  got  any  further. 

And  thus  it  happened  that  what  should  have  been  one  of  the 
decisive  battles  of  the  world ;  what  could  have  been  and  would 
have  been  the  death-blow  to  Frederick  and  to  Prussia,  was  per- 
mitted to  remain  an  unfruitful  triumph — a  valueless  victory. 

Loudon  the  Austrian,  who  had  so  contributed  to  the  victory 
itself,  was  powerless  to  act  when  it  came  to  pursuit.  Already, 
grievous  jealousy  had  broken  out  in  the  Russian  ranks,  and 
robbed  him  of  his  due  merit.  His  counsels  were  neglected, 
even  snubbed ;  and  this  worthy  soldier  was  forced  to  look  on 
and  see  the  one  great  opportunity  of  giving  the  finishing  stroke 
to  the  arch  enemy  of  his  country,  utterly  neglected.  In  the 
general  paralysis  which  seized  upon  the  enemies  of  Prussia  after 
the  blow  at  Kunersdorf,  even  the  great  Field-Marshal  Daun  was 
involved.  He,  with  a  large  army,  was  only  about  eighty  miles 
south  of  Frankfort — could  easily  have  joined  Soltikoff,  or,  inde- 
pendently, marched  on  Frederick ;  but  they  seemed  to  be  wait- 
ing for  each  other ;  the  golden  moment  passed  by,  and  in  six 
weeks,  despite  the  fearful  blow  of  Kunersdorf,  Frederick  was 
himself  again. 
25 


TORGAU. 

1760. 

HANKS  to  the  inaction  of  his  adversaries, 
Frederick  the  Great  was  enabled  to  assemble 
some  28,000  men.  The  Russians  were  afraid 
of  him,  and  backed  into  Poland.  There  was 
a  lack  of  cordiality  between  them  and  the 
Austrians  after  Kunersdorf,  that  was  of  ma- 
terial service  to  Prussia.  But  the  king  was 
destined  to  suffer  another  severe  blow  in  this 
eventful  fourth  campaign.  General  Finck,  with  11,000  men,  was 
captured  at  Maxen  in  Saxony  on  November  2ist,  and,  in  the  deso- 
late winter  that  followed,  with  an  exhausted  treasury  and  a  well- 
nigh  exhausted  country,  the  indomitable  monarch  prepared  for 
his  fifth  campaign.  In  the  spring  of  1760,  he  could  muster  all 
told,  in  all  parts  of  his  beleagured  kingdom,  only  90,000  men. 
Then  Fouque  with  8,000  men  was  captured  in  Silesia,  and  that 
bone  of  contention  once  more  fell  into  Austrian  hands.  When 
autumn  came,  the  gallant  old  soldier  was  well-nigh  hounded  to 
death.  He  was  hemmed  in  on  every  side.  The  Austrians  and 
Russians  seized  and  sacked  Berlin  early  in  October ;  the  Swedes 
came  down  from  Pomerania ;  the  Austrians  under  Loudon  up 
from  Silesia ;  the  French,  who  had  attempted  a  forward  move 
from  the  west,  were  fortunately  easily  disposed  of  in  two  sharp 
engagements,  Einsdorf  and  Marburg ;  but  Frederick  was  fairly 
in  the  toils,  and,  like  a  hunted  lion,  was  well-nigh  goaded  to 
desperation.  It  was  then  that  he  turned  like  a  flash  on  his  old 
antagonist,  that  famous  Field-Marshal  Daun,  and  on  November 
3d,  just  north  of  the  Saxon  frontier,  won  from  him  the  great  and 
(386) 


DAUN  AND    FREDERICK   AGAIN   MEASURE   SWORDS.      38? 

decisive  battle  of  Torgau.  Just  when  his  fortunes  were  at  their 
lowest  ebb,  he  fought  the  fight  and  gained  the  victory  that 
proved  the  turning  point  of  the  whole  war.  From  this  time  on, 
all  was  triumph. 

Of  Daun  it  is  said,  that  though  chief  in  command  of  the  Aus- 
trian forces  this  ydar,  he  had  lost  something  of  his  old  energy 
and  skill.  Possibly  it  may  be  that  by  this  time  Frederick  had 
fathomed  all  his  methods  and  he  could  originate  no  more.  Of 
Frederick  himself  it  must  be  said,  that  in  his  extremity  he  resorted 
to  devices  as  questionable,  if  not  as  criminal,  as  those  of  his  auto- 
cratic old  father  in  the  recruitment  of  his  armies.  He  had  agents 
and  crimps  everywhere ;  and  able-bodied  men,  young  and  old, 
were  spirited  away  from  home  and  off  to  the  front  before  any- 
thing could  be  done- to  rescue  them.  Once  there,  the  case  was 
hopeless. 

A  favored  rascal  named  Colignon  was  one  of  the  king's  most 
successful  recruiting  officers.  This  man  had  a  roving  commis- 
sion— went  everywhere  or  anywhere  under  the  royal  safe-guard, 
picking  up  young  clerks,  apprentices,  wild  and  wayward  younger 
sons,  discontented  with  the  humdrum  life  of  country  homes, 
promised  them  lieutenancies,  captaincies  even,  in  the  crack  regi- 
ments, guards,  cuirassiers,  hussars ;  advanced  them  small  sums  of 
money,  gave  them  orders  for  uniforms  and  outfit,  ran  them  off 
from  home  stupefied  with  liquor,  and  when  they  came  to  their 
senses  it  was  to  find  themselves  in  a  recruit  camp,  learning  the 
rudiments  of  the  art  of  war  to  the  accompaniment  of  a  caning 
for  every  blunder.  There  was  no  time  for  extended  explanation. 
And  yet  in  this  fifth  campaign  the  Prussian  army  fought  superbly, 
as  we  shall  see,  and  these  enforced  recruits  were  better  off  in  the 
end — those  who  were  not  maimed  for  life. 

Late  in  October,  1760,  Field-Marshal  Daun  with  some  60,000 
Austrians  was  encamped  around  Torgau,  a  city  about  the  size  of 
Frankfort-on-the-Oder,  of  12,000  inhabitants.  It  lies  ten  miles 
north  of  the  Saxon  frontier  on  the  west  bank  of  the  Elbe,  and 
perhaps  ninety  miles  west  of  south  from  Berlin.  Off  to  the  south- 
west, across  the  Saxon  lines  and  thirty  miles  away,  lay  Leipsic, 
and  here  some  40,000  of  the  "  Reich's "  army,  also  Austrian, 


388  TORGAU. 

had  fallen  back  before  Frederick's  advance.  Mid-way  between 
the  two  cities,  and  on  a  good  road,  lay  Eilenburg,  and  only  a  few 
miles  north  of  Eilenburg,  the  little  town  of  Diiben. 

With  one  of  his  wonderfully  quick  marches  Frederick  sud- 
denly swooped  upon  Diiben,  built  a  little  magazine  and  store- 
house there,  sent  General  Hiilsen  With  a  good-sized  corps  to  give 
battle  to  the  Reich's  army  at  Leipsic,  while  he  himself  seized 
the  high-road  to  prevent  Daun  from  attempting  to  help  his  breth- 
ren. The  Reich's  people  never  gave  Hiilsen  a  chance  to  fight. 
The  night  he  arrived  before  the  north  gates  of  the  city,  they 
slipped  out  by  the  south,  and  scurried  off  into  mid-Saxony.  They 
had  no  stomach  for  unsupported  battle,  even  with  a  Prussian 
force  vastly  their  numerical  inferior.  Hiilsen  left  a  little  garrison 
at  Leipsic,  October  3ist,  and,  like  the  prompt  soldier  he  was, 
hastened  back  to  join  his  king.  The  Reich's  army  thus  summa- 
rily disposed  of,  Frederick  was  ready  to  measure  swords  again 
with  his  old  adversary.  They  must  have  had  a  good  deal  of  re- 
spect for  each  other  by  this  time — Daun  and  Frederick — for 
though  Frederick  leads  only  44,000  men,  Daun  dares  not  move 
out  from  his  intrenched  position  to  meet  him;  and  though  Fred- 
erick has  whipped  Austrians  and  Russians  when  the  odds  were 
three  to  one  against  him,  he  knows  well  that  he  can  afford  no 
odds  to  Daun. 

On  November  2d  the  Prussian  army  is  en  route  for  Torgau. 
That  night  they  encamp  at  Schilda,  seven  miles  south  of  the  Aus- 
trian position,  and  this  position  is  so  strong  as  to  be  deserving 
of  extended  description. 

At  Torgau,  the  Elbe,  which  has  been  flowing  northwest,  turns 
suddenly  northward,  and  from  the  elbow  or  bend  there  starts  a 
ridge,  low  at  first,  with  gradual  slopes  north  and  south,  but  bolder, 
higher,  steeper  toward  the  west,  until,  three  miles  out,  the  south- 
ern sides  are  well-nigh  precipitous,  while  those  to  the  west  and 
north  are  easy  of  ascent.  It  is  perhaps  200  feet  in  height  at  the 
highest  point,  three  miles  long  from  the  west  end  to  the  walls 
of  Torgau,  and  a  mile  to  a  mile  and  a  half  across.  Close  into 
Torgau  on  the  southern  side,  there  is  another  point  where  the 
bank  is  very  steep,  but  here  the  elevation  is  inconsiderable.  This 


FREDERICK  AGAIN   DECEIVES   DAUN.  339 

broad-backed  ridge,  mostly  covered  with  vineyards,  is  known  as 
"The  Heights  of  Siptitz,"  and  here  within  strong  earthworks 
are  Daun's  45,000  Austrians.  Lacy  with  his  corps,  the  rear 
guard,  is  farther  to  the  east  under  Torgau. 

All  along  under  the  southern  slope  runs  a  dirty,  sluggish  stream, 
the  Rohrgraben,  which  empties  into  as  dirty  a  pond  or  series  of 
ponds  south  of  Torgau.  Daun's  army  is  facing  south,  and  his 
front  is  covered  by  a  score  of  these  exasperating  puddles.  The 
whole  country  between  Schilda  and  the  Siptitz  Heights  is  cut  up 
by  these  lagoons  of  stagnant  water,  vastly  in  Frederick's  way ; 
but  from  Schilda  as  far  north  as  the  eye  can  reach,  way  beyond 
the  western  end  of  the  heights,  the  country  is  level  and  covered 
with  a  dense  growth  of  forest. 

Frederick  sees  quickly  enough  that  he  cannot  carry  that  invul- 
nerable position  from  the  south.  He  means  to  let  Daun  think 
he  is  going  to  try,  however,  and  on  the  night  "of  November  2d 
makes  his  plans  with  all  deliberation,  but  takes  no  one  into  his 
confidence.  Small  as  is  his  force,  he  has  determined  to  attack  on 
both  sides  at  once.  We  have  seen  him  massing  his  whole  com- 
mand against  an  exposed  flank  at  Leuthen,  attacking  in  one 
long  encircling  line  at  Kunersdorf,  now  we  come  upon  him  adopt- 
ing a  third  and  desperately  hazardous  course,  dividing  his  army 
into  two  independent  corps,  leaving  one  to  threaten  Daun  from 
the  south,  while  the  other  marches  miles  away  through  the  woods 
to  the  west  and  north,  makes  a  great  circuit,  comes  out  on  the 
northern  side  of  the  Heights  of  Siptitz  and  attacks  from  there. 
What  if  Daun  were  to  pounce  on  that  20,000  on  the  south  side 
while  Frederick  is  miles  away  to  the  west  in  the  woods  ? 

But  Frederick  means  that  Daun  shall  not  know  of  the  separa- 
tion. At  half-past  six  on  Monday  morning,  the  3d  of  Novem- 
ber, he  faces  the  entire  army  westward,  marches  out  of  camp  in 
that  direction  in  four  columns.  On  the  right  is  Ziethen's  corps, 
next  the  grenadiers  and  foot-guards,  then  the  hussars  and  cuiras- 
siers, and  farthest  to  the  left  the  baggage.  Once  well  into  the 
woods  the  heads  of  columns  are  turned  to  the  right,  and  move 
northward  through  the  shadowy  aisles  of  the  forest  along  little 
bridle-paths  and  wood-roads ;  and  here  the  king  takes  General 


390  TORGAU. 

Ziethen  into  his  carriage.  In  a  short  time  they  will  reach  the 
highway  from  Eilenburg  on  the  west  to  Torgau  on  the  east. 
Before  they  get  there,  Frederick  unfolds  his  plan  to  his  loyal 
subordinate.  "  You  with  20,000  men  will  follow  the  road  to 
Torgau,  until  you  reach  the  '  Butter  Road '  which  crosses  the 
highway  near  Klitschen,  and  leads  up  to  the  heights  of  Siptitz. 
Here  begin  your  deployment  to  the  left.  Prepare  to  attack 
from  the  south  along  the  line  of  heights,  but  move  slowly  and 
deliberately.  Be  in  no  hurry.  I  have  to  march  completely 
around  to  the  north,  and  our  attack  must  be  simultaneous. 
You  have  barely  six  miles  to  march ;  I  have  sixteen ;  so  keep 
here  in  the  woods  for  an  hour  or  so,  to  give  me  a  good  start," 
and  by  the  time  they  have  reached  the  Eilenburg  road,  Ziethen 
thinks  he  has  the  plan  clearly  settled  in  his  mind.  Yet  he  goes 
amiss. 

It  is  a  dreary,  drizzling  morning.  The  wood-roads  are  soft 
and  slippery,  but  leaving  Ziethen  there  along  the  Eilenburg 
highway,  the  king  pushes  on  northward.  He  reforms  along  the 
road  and  now  is  marching  in  four  columns  :  baggage  to  the 
extreme  left,  the  west,  then  Holstein  with  most  all  the  cavalry, 
the  cuirassiers,  hussars  and  dragoons,  and  a  small  brigade  of  foot; 
then  Hiilsen  with  two  divisions  of  infantry  of  the  line ;  then, 
nearest  to  the  Siptitz  heights,  but  still  hidden  from  them  in  the 
woods,  Frederick  himself  with  8,000  grenadiers  and  guardsmen, 
and  800  picked  hussars  under  Kleist.  The  roads,  though  practi- 
cally parallel  in  their  general  direction,  are,  after  a  while,  some- 
what baffling  and  intricate.  The  baggage  is  halted  under  strong 
guard  well  out  in  the  forest,  and  the  other  three  columns  trudge 
ahead  through  the  dripping  woods.  Daun  has  scouts  out  there, 
of  course,  and  presently  Frederick's  column  runs  up  against  a 
small  force  with  a  light  battery ;  the  battery  fires  a  salvo,  then 
limbers  up  and  trots  off  towards  Siptitz,  and  couriers  galloping 
in,  warn  Daun  that  the  enemy  are  moving  around  him.  All  the 
previous  night  he  has  had  Lacy  with  the  rear  guard,  a  corps  of 
20,000  in  itself,  down  south  of  Torgau  to  avert  surprise  from 
that  quarter ;  now  he  sends  word  to  Lacy  to  close  in  on  the 
heights,  and  take  post  facing  southwest  between  the  Rohrgraben 


•ZIETHEN'S   PREMATURE    MOVE.  391 

and  Torgau.  So  towards  nine  o'clock  Lacy  is  filing  into  his 
new  position,  while  his  cavalry  go  adventurously  out  to  the 
southwest  in  search  of  possible  Prussians.  All  the  Austrian 
baggage  is  across  the  Elbe,  sent  there  the  previous  day,  for 
Daun  believes  in  being  on  the  safe  side  in  the  event  of  disaster. 
Besides  the  great  stone  bridge,  he  has  three  pontoons  from  Tor- 
gau to  the  opposite  bank,  and  can  cross  at  a  moment's  notice. 

Meantime  the  three  Prussian  columns  are  steadily  plodding 
northward,  invisible  to  one  another;  and,  unknown  to  Frederick, 
Holstein  is  getting  altogether  too  far  out  to  the  west.  He  is 
following  the  road  and  really  cannot  help  himself.  Out  here  a 
regiment  of  Austrian  dragoons,  scouting,  gets  between  the 
columns  of  Hiilsen  and  Holstein,  and  is  very  cleverly  trapped 
and  taken  prisoner,  but  in  doing  it  several  batteries  get  into 
miry  ground,  are  delayed  an  hour  or  more,  and  just  now  delays 
are  very  dangerous. 

But  while  Holstein  is  groping  there  to  the  west,  Frederick 
continues  pushing  ahead.  He  has  got  to  the  northwest  of  the 
heights  by  this  time,  and  Daun,  following  his  move  with  sharp- 
eyed  cavalry,  readily  divines  his  purpose  of  attacking  from  the 
north,  and  makes  great  preparations  to  meet  him.  He  has  im- 
mense store  of  artillery.  Never  before  did  so  many  cannon  appear 
in  battle.  Austrian  officers  say  that  they  had  400  guns,  and 
200  of  these  are  hurriedly  run  into  battery  on  the  northern 
slopes  to  command  the  wood-skirts  only  800  yards  away. 
Somewhere  along  there  Frederick  must  emerge. 

Meantime,  Lacy  from  the  southwest  has  been  marching  up 
the  Rohrgraben  with  the  Austrian  rear  guard,  sending  forward, 
as  we  have  seen,  cavalry  and  some  light  guns  to  hunt  for  Prus- 
sians out  towards  the  "Butter  Street;"  and  old  Ziethen  with  his 
20,000  has  by  this  time  decided  that  Frederick  has  gone  so  far 
as  to  render  his  own  move  necessary.  He  has  therefore  marched 
east  along  the  Eilenburg,  turned  north  towards  the  heights  at 
the  Butter  road,  and  there,  runs  slap  into  Lacy's  explorers. 
These  fellows,  instead  of  scurrying  back,  unlimber  their  guns 
and  show  fight.  Ziethen  has  to  order  up  a  few  batteries  to  reply, 
and  the  next  thing  grim  old  Frederick  hears,  six  or  eight  miles 


392  TORGAU. 

away,  is  the  booming  of  artillery  south  of  the  Siptitz,  whereat 
he  begins,  soldier  fashion,  to  swear.  "  Ziethen  engaged  already, 
and  we  won't  be  ready  for  two  hours,"  is  his  reflection.  Could 
he  see  just  what  Ziethen  is  doing,  he  would  probably  rage. 
The  Austrian  advance  retires  in  good  order  before  Ziethen,  and 
the  latter,  intent  on  picking  up  all  he  can,  pursues  them.  His 
instructions  were  to  be  in  readiness  to  attack  along  the  Butter 
.road,  which  runs  up  on  the  west  end  of  the  heights.  Instead  of 
that,  he  has  faced  eastward  again,  and  is  following  up  that  ad- 
mirably handled  reconnoitring  brigade.  Full  two  miles  he  goes, 
emerges  from  the  woods,  and  finds  himself  engaged  in  artillery 
duel  with  Lacy  across  the  Rohrgraben,  and  there  he  is  planted 
the  rest  of  the  live-long  day.  He  has  found  an  enemy  strongly 
posted  and  equal  numerically  to  his  own  force.  He  knows  he 
is  out  of  position,  yet  he  cannot  bear  to  fall  back  in  apparent 
defeat;  so  there,  in  chafing  irresolution,  he  lingers,  waiting  for 
news  from  Frederick,  and  for  want  of  something  better  to  do 
keeping  up  this  languid  and  sullen  artillery  practice. 

Meantime,  noon  has  come  and  gone ;  so  has  one  o'clock,  and 
Frederick  with  his  grenadiers  and  Kleist's  handful  of  hussars  is 
now  at  the  skirts  of  the  wood  north  of  Siptitz  waiting  for  Hiil- 
sen  and  Holstein.  Not  a  word  can  he  hear  of  either.  StafF- 
ofrlcers  go  spurring  through  the  forest  to  the  northwest  in  search 
of  them,  but  another  hour  goes  by,  Hvilsen  is  found  and  turned 
in  the  right  direction,  but  no  Holstein.  Frederick  can  bear  the 
suspense  no  longer.  The  steady  thunder  of  Ziethen's  and  Lacy's 
guns  grows  louder  as  he  pushes  through  the  wood  towards  the 
heights.  At  last  he  halts  his  Potsdammers  close  to  the  edge 
of  the  open  fields  under  Daun's  batteries,  and  looks  out.  The 
position  is  well-nigh  as  formidable  as  that  at  Kunersdorf,  and 
the  guns  and  gunners  are  far  more  so ;  but  those  superb  grena- 
diers, the  flower  of  his  army,  carried  the  heights  there,  and  they 
can  do  it  here.  In  his  impatience  he  cannot  wait;  the  devoted 
guards  are  ordered  to  make  the  first  attack ;  the  grenadiers  form 
in  two  lines ;  Ramin's  brigade  acts  in  support  as  a  third ;  and, 
in  magnificent  order,  despite  the  pelting  rain,  they  issue  from 
the  woods,  crush  through  the  old  rotten  half-burned  abatis  left 


MAGNIFICENT   CHARGE   OF   FREDERICK'S   GRENADIERS.    393 

there  a  year  before,  and  stalk  out  on  the  unsheltered  slopes,  the 
target  for  three  hundred  and  fifty  guns.  Pickett  at  Gettysburg 
is  a  recent  parallel.  Daun's  left  is  their  objective  point ;  and 
Daun's  left,  like  Nadasti's,  at  Leuthen,  is  thrown  back  en  potcnce, 
and  to  the  bellowing  accompaniment  of  those  twenty  score  of 
guns,  Prussia's  best  and  bravest  move  slowly  and  steadily  up 
that  natural  glacis.  "  Did  you  ever  hear  such  an  infernal  can- 
nonade before  ?  "  asks  King  Frederick,  as  he  rides  to  his  place 
between  the  two  lines  of  his  grenadiers ;  for  now  and  always, 
this  superb  old  soldier  fights  with  his  men  in  the  thickest  of  the 
battle. 

There  is  something  grand  in  this  desperate*  charge ;  some- 
thing inexplicable,  however,  in  the  motive  that  could  inspire  and 
direct  it.  Eight  thousand  men,  unsupported  by  artillery,  unsup- 
ported by  anything  in  fact,  for  Hiilsen  has  not  yet  shown  a 
bayonet,  to  attempt  to  carry  even  the  shoulder  of  a  line  held  by 
such  overpowering  force,  and  defended  by  such  vast  numbers 
of  guns  !  It  looks  like  madness  !  Whole  companies  are  swept 
to  earth  at  a  time ;  one  regiment,  the  left  of  the  leading  line,  is 
practically  annihilated;  only  its  colors  and  a  handful  of  bleeding 
officers  and  men  represent  it  when  the  line  reaches  the  crest ; 
but  it  gets  there,  what  there  is  of  it,  fighting  superbly,  and  the 
thinned,  ragged,  breathless  line  stands  flashing  through  the 
battle-smoke,  triumphant  over  all  effort.  But  at  what  fearful 
cost !  There  were  6,000  grenadiers  in  those  two  lines  twenty 
minutes  ago ;  now,  though  right  in  among  the  Austrian  guns, 
they  number  not  2,000.  Two-thirds  of  their  stern,  battle-tried 
brethren  lie  stretched,  dead,  dying  or  crippled  upon  the  north- 
ern slope  of  the  Siptitz.  And  now,  swarming  around  the  de- 
voted remnant,  the  Austrian  foot-regiments  pour  in  furious  volleys 
of  musketry;  still  the  carnage  goes  on,  and,  with  absolutely 
nothing  won  except  honor,  with  almost  everything  lost  except 
honor,  Frederick  orders  them  to  fall  back.  Only  1,000  can  obey, 
another  thousand  is  lying  there  around  the  guns  at  the  crest. 

Slowly  and  in  sullen  order  they  give  way,  once  more  for  an 
instant  becoming  the  target  of  the  thundering  guns ;  then  the 
exulting  footmen  of  the  enemy  rush  forward,  envelop  their  flanks, 


394  TORGAU. 

protect  them  from  artillery  fire  but  substitute  their  own  musketry. 
They  make  the  rush  in  tumultuous  disorder.  There  is  no  break- 
ing that  indomitable  Potsdam  front,  and  suddenly  the  brigade 
of  Ramin,  right  and  left,  sweeps  forward  in  disciplined  support. 
Then  united  the  Prussians  leap  upon  the  mobs  of  the  enemy, 
bear  them  backwards  up  the  slope,  enter  the  lines  with  them, 
through  the  guns,  over  the  earthworks,  never  giving  them  time 
to  reform  or  rally,  and  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye,  Daun's  left  is 
thrown  into  grievous  disorder  and  swept  away,  and  Daun  him- 
self, striving  to  mend  matters,  is  shot  in  the  leg.  It  is  three 
o'clock  now,  and  luckily  for  Frederick  and  his  exhausted  men, 
here  comes  Hiilsen. 

Like  grim  death,  the  guardsmen  and  Ramin  cling  to  what 
they  have  won  while  Hiilsen's  lines  deploy  under  the  fire  of 
those  terrible  guns  farther  east.  At  half-past  three  he  moves 
forward.  The  rain  has  stopped  now,  "  blown  away  by  the  tre- 
mendous artillery,"  writes  an  artillery  officer  who  saw  it  all,  and 
Hiilsen's  attack  is  vigorous  and  well  led.  Daun's  left,  already 
disordered  and  the  " potence"  broken,  is  in  a  bad  way,  but  he  has 
right  there  on  the  west  side  of  the  heights  along  the  Butter 
Street  a  strong  reserve,  the  very  people  wrhom  Ziethen  was  to 
hold  and  keep  busy,  and  Ziethen  is  not  there  to  do  it.  He  is 
off  to  the  east  dallying  with  Lacy.  Instantly,  Daun  summons 
taj  reserve  to  the  rescue,  and  now  with  overpowering  numbers 
xie  rushes  on  Frederick.  Frederick  himself  is  struck  nearly 
senseless  by  a  half-spent  grape  shot,  and  this  time  Prussia  is 
carried  back  in  some  dismay.  The  second  attack  has  failed,  and 
both  on  his  side  and  Daun's  the  losses  have  been  terrible. 
Never  had  such  a  roar  of  artillery  been  heard.  In  this  respect, 
Torgau  was  the  Gettysburg  of  the  Seven  Years'  War.  Four 
o'clock  has  come :  Frederick  is  again  in  saddle ;  Daun,  bleeding 
but  determined,  is  straightening  out  his  shattered  left.  The  sun 
is  going  down  through  the  dripping  clouds  and  murky  smoke 
to  the  west;  and  just  at  this  juncture,  Holstein  with  the  long  lost 
cavalry  comes  trotting  into  line. 

There  is  no  time  to  waste  in  explanations  or  inquiries.  Fred- 
erick calls  once  more  upon  his  infantry,  hurls  Holstein  in  with 


ZIETHEN'S   NIGHT   ATTACK.       .  395 

his  whole  force  upon  Daun's  right,  and  so  the  third  attack  begins. 
The  infantry,  worn  and  wearied,  make  little  impression;  the  cav- 
alry do  some  superb  work,  but  cannot  hold  what  they  win.  Dark- 
ness is  settling  upon  the  field.  Neither  side  can  much  longer  see 
to  fight;  and,  utterly  disheartened,  Frederick  turns  over  charge 
of  the  bivouacking  and  night  guards  to  Hiilsen,  and  rides  back 
to  the  rear  for  rest  and  a  rap  at  Ziethen ;  while  Daun  turns  over 
charge  to  his  third  in  command  (his  second,  Buccow,  is  killed), 
"  an  Irish  Graf  O'Donnell,"  and  goes  into  Torgau  to  get  his 
wound  dressed. 

"  If  Holstein  had  not  lost  his  way  and  that  stupid  Ziethen  his 
head,  we  would  have  won  the  fight  three  hours  ago,"  thought 
Frederick  as  he  gloomily  rode  away.  Now  it  seemed  that  all 
was  over  for  the  day,  and  perhaps  for  good.  Who  could  tell  what 
Daun  might  not  accomplish  on  the  morrow,  now  that  he  knew 
how  the  Prussian  army  was  divided  ?  He  might  annihilate  Zie- 
then at  daybreak ;  then  turn  on  the  king. 

But  Daun  never  had  the  chance.  The  battle  of  November  3d 
that  had  apparently  closed  at  sunset — drawn,  was  not  yet  done. 
It  was  stupid,  much-abused  old  Ziethen  who  was  to  renew  and 
to  win  it. 

Way  off  at  Elsnig,  four  miles  back  of  his  lines,  King  Frederick 
is  dictating  a  furious  letter  to  his  old  hussar  leader  whom  he  had 
left  on  the  Eilenburg  road  that  morning,  when  everybody  starts 
to  his  feet  and  listens.  Thundering,  booming,  crashing  through  the 
sodden  air  there  comes  the  uproar  of  sudden  cannonade  far  away 
to  the  south.  It  grows  in  vehemence  with  every  moment;  is 
presently  supplemented  by  the  roll  and  rattle  of  musketry.  The 
southern  horizon  flashes  like  heat  lightning  with  the  reflecting 
glare  of  the  volleys  and  salvos.  It  cannot  be  Hiilsen;  he  is  on 
this  side  or  lapping  around  to  the  west  side  of  the  heights.  It 
can  only  be  Ziethen.  It  must  be  Ziethen.  What  can  the  old 
madman  be  up  to  now?  Staff-officers  spring  into  saddle  and  go 
sputtering  off  through  the  muddy  roads  and  the  murky  darkness 
to  inquire  the  meaning  of  this  strange  night-attack. 

It  is  old  Ziethen.  Disgusted  with  having  accomplished  noth- 
ing all  day,  determined  to  have  some  part  in  the  battle  before  the 


396  TORGAU. 

3d  of  November  shall  have  passed  away  at  midnight,  just  when 
Daun's  wearied  army  has  thrown  itself  upon  the  ground  around 
the  bivouac  fires  for  such  rest  as  it  can  secure,  Ziethen  slips  away 
from  Lacy's  unseeing  front,  plods  back  two  miles  through  the 
woods  towards  the  Butter  road,  his  eager  division  commanders, 
Saldern  and  Mollendorff,  pointing  out  the  way.  The  latter  seizes 
the  passage  across  the  Rohrgraben  and  deploys  on  its  northern 
side,  pushes  on  towards  the  Austrian  watch-fires  on  the  heights ; 
while  Saldern,  farther  east,  takes  for  his  beacon  the  lights  in  and 
around  Siptitz.  Presently  they  strike  the  out-posts,  paying  no 
heed  to  guttural  challenge  and  orders  to  halt,  and  the  next  thing 
the  Austrians  know,  a  fresh  corps  is  thundering  at  their  battered 
and  exhausted  front.  Ziethen  is  stumbling  up  the  heights  of 
Siptitz  by  the  light  of  his  own  musketry,  and  if  not  driven  back, 
in  ten  minutes  he  will  be  master  of  the  key-point  of  the  whole 
ridge,  the  westernmost,  the  loftiest  of  the  heights.  . 

It  is  dark — so  dark  that  one's  hand  cannot  be  seen  before  the 
face ;  so  dark  that  those  who  do  not  want  to  fight  readily  excuse 
themselves  from  taking  part ;  not  so  dark  but  what  those  who  do, 
manage  to  get  there.  Of  the  former  is  Lacy,  who,  with  20,000 
fresh  troops,  is  only  three  miles  away,  and  to  whom  O'Donnell 
sends  frantic  and  frequent  appeals.  Of  the  latter  are  gallant 
Hiilsen  and  Lestwitz,  who  have  been  fighting  hard  all  day,  but 
spring  to  arms  and  come  filing  through  the  pitchy  night  to  aid 
their  comrades  in  the  new  and  gloriously  promising  assault. 
Daun,  way  off  in  Torgau,  has  been  speeding  jubilant  despatches 
to  Vienna,  as  Frederick  did  from  Kunersdorf  to  Berlin.  Now 
he  sends  fervid  injunctions  to  O'Donnell  to  hold  those  western 
heights  at  all  hazards;  and  O'Donnell"  tries — tries  hard.  But  the 
ascent  is  gradual  and  open ;  the  Austrian  guns  had  all  been, 
lugged  over  to  the  north  side  during  the  day;  now,  those  they 
manage  to  hurry  back,  fire  high  and  send  their  shrieking  missiles 
clear  over  the  heads  of  the  assaulting  columns ;  while  Saldern's 
guns,  sighted  by  the  glare  of  burning  Siptitz,  rake  the  breast- 
works and  sweep  away  their  defenders.  In  one  hour's  superb 
effort,  Saldern  from  the  south,  MollendorrT  from  the  west,  Hiilsen 
and  Lestwitz  from  the  northwest,  have  stormed  and  carried  the 


FREDERICK   EMBRACES   ZIETHEN.  397 

heights  of  Siptitz  at  the  highest  point,  and  now  are  fighting  down 
hill  towards  Torgau  and  the  east,  driving  the  Austrians  before 
them.  O'Donnell  is  whipped.  The  principals  being  out  of  the 
way,  the  seconds  are  finishing  up  the  fight,  and  most  conclusively. 
Lacy,  it  is  said,  is  always  more  successful  in  getting  out  of 
the  Prussian  way  than  in  getting  in ;  and  so  when  nine  o'clock 
comes,  and  with  it  a  disordered  mass  of  Austrian  fugitives  swarm- 
ing eastward  for  the  pontoons  and  the  bridge,  Lacy,  who  swears 
it  was  far  too  dark  to  march  into  battle,  finds  it  light  enough  to 
march  out;  and  when  the  firing  gradually  dies  away  at  ten  o'clock, 
he  and  his  corps,  in  most  creditable  order,  file  through  Torgau  en 
route  for  the  other  side  of  the  Elbe. 

The  Prussians,  closing  in  towards  the  city  with  its  fortifica- 
tions, form  in  rude  semi-circle  outside  the  works,  deeming  it  best 
not  to  attack  them  in  the  night.  Couriers  are  sent  to  Frederick 
to  apprise  him  of  the  state  of  affairs,  but  the  king  is  still  gruff 
and  out  of  temper.  He  must  be  vastly  relieved  at  the  thought 
that  the  heights  are  won,  and  the  battle  will  not  have  to  be  fought 
again  on  the  morrow;  but  he  possibly  hates  to  think  that  after 
all  it  was  old  Ziethen's,  not  his  doing.  At  all  events,  he  does 
not  come  down  to  the  army.  He  spends  the  night  in  the  church 
at  Elsnig,  using  the  altar  for  a  desk,  and  sending  orders  and  des- 
patches. 

Daun  in  Torgau  has  meantime  had  to  send  a  very  mournful 
missive  to  Vienna.  Then  he  goes  on  with  the  work  of  retreat 
By  one  in  the  morning  he  is  ripping  up  his  pontoon  bridges  be- 
hind his  last  battalions,  and  Prussian  officers,  prowling  under 
the  walls  to  find  out  what  they  can  of  movements  within,  gradually 
discover  that-  they  are  unguarded;  and  along  towards  morning 
gloomy  Frederick,  wrapped  in  his  cloak,  and  wandering  among 
the  hospital  fires  around  Elsnig,  is  approached  by  a  shadowy 
form.  A  wearied  but  exultant  soldier  dismounts,  and  greets  his 
commander-in-chief  with  the  news  that  Torgau  is  evacuated — 
Hiilsen  in  possession.  It  is  old  Ziethen  himself,  and  the  story- 
tellers of  the  day  would  have  us  believe  that,  in  the  joy  of  the 
moment,  the  monarch  forgot  his  ire  and  embraced  his  forgiven 
general.  Then  he  qrdered  his  horse,  and  with  Ziethen  rode  into 
the  captured  city. 


398  TORGAU. 

Torgau  was  Frederick's  last  battle,  and  Daun's :  the  latter's 
star  had  set  never  again  to  rise.  With  the  most  elaborate 
artillery  ever  intrusted  to  any  commander  in  the  field,  with  an 
almost  impregnable  position,  with  strong  numerical  superiority 
he  had  met  a  disastrous  defeat.  He  had  lost  12,000  killed  and 
wounded,  8,OOO  prisoners  (left  behind  straggling  in  the  dark- 
ness), forty-five  guns  and  thirty  flags  or  standards;  and  Fred- 
erick's final  victory  was  won  at  the  fearful  cost  of  at  least 
io,OOO  killed  and  wounded  (one-fourth  of  his  command),  besides 
some  4,000  who  were  taken  prisoners  and  carried  off  across  the 
Elbe. 

Pursuit  was  immediate.  Even  while  Ziethen  himself  rode  to 
Elsnig  to  bear  the  news  to  Frederick,  his  corps  was  crossing  at 
the  heels  of  prudent  Lacy.  Back  went  the  Austrians  through 
Silesia.  Loudon,  storming  at  Kosel,  had  to  drop  it  and  join  in 
the  retreat.  The  Russians,  off  to  the  northeast  near  the  Oder, 
hearing  the  astonishing  news  of  Daun's  defeat,  concluded- that 
they  had  seen  enough  of  Frederick's  dominions,  and  his  fight- 
ing tactics ;  so  faced  about,  and  for  the  third  time  made  for 
Poland — this  time  to  stay.  The  tide  had  indeed  turned.  In 
every  direction  the  enemies  of  Prussia  around  the  great  circle 
were  recoiling  as  though  exploded  from  an  immense  central 
mine.  The  end  of  the  fifth  campaign  was  most  triumphant  for 
Frederick. 

Still  fortitude  and  courage  were  demanded.  Severe  reverses 
had  to  be  encountered  in  the  following  year,  when  the  Russians 
and  Swedes,  sworn  enemies  a  few  years  back,  joined  forces  and 
ravaged  Pomerania,  and  the  death  of  George  II.  deprived 
Frederick  of  the  valued  aid  of  England.  The  end  of  the  sixth 
campaign — a  campaign  of  manoeuvres,  not  battles — found  the 
Prussians  hemmed  in  again  on  every  side  and  well-nigh  crushed; 
but  in  January,  1762,  the  beginning  of  the  seventh  year,  the 
bitterest  of  Prussia's  enemies,  the  Empress  of  Russia,  was  called 
to  her  last  account,  and  with  her  death  Russia  abandoned  the 
contest. 

Now  began  the  seventh  campaign,  Austria  and  France  alone 
keeping  up  the  fight,  and  when  the  proposition  to  submit  the 


FREDERICK   ACKNOWLEDGED    LORD   OF   SILESIA.         399 

cause  to  arbitration  was  refused  by  Austria,  Frederick  found 
an  unexpected  ally  in  Peter  III.  of  Russia.  True,  no  troops 
actually  came  to  his  aid  in  battle,  for  they  were  recalled  by, 
Catherine  II.  almost  immediately;  but  Russian  neutrality  was 
all  Frederick  asked  for.  In  May,  1762,  he  and  Daun  were  facing 
each  other  on  the  old  ground  near  Leuthen,  but  they  did  not 
come  to  blows.  Their  subordinates  conducted  the  fights  at 
Burkersdorf  and  Reichenbach,  and  both  there,  and  again  at 
Freiberg,  the  Austrians  were  badly  beaten. 

Then  France  gave  up  a  contest  in  which  she  had  hardly  won 
a  battle,  and,  on  field  after  field,  had  lost  the  little  military 
renown  she  had  claimed  since  Fontenoy.  The  Empress  Maria 
Theresa  of  Austria  was  left,  at  last,  without  an  ally,  and  in  sore 
disappointment  was  finally  compelled  to  sign  the  treaty  of  peace 
of  Hubertsburg  on  the  I5th  of  February,  1763,  by  which  Fred- 
erick the  Great  was  finally  acknowledged  lord  of  Silesia.  So 
ended  the  great  Seven  Years'  War,  leaving  Prussia  the  military 
leader  of  Europe,  with  a  moral  power  vastly  increased,  and  a 
war-like  prestige  that  clung  to  her  until  her  flag  was  lowered 
before  Napoleon  at  Jena. 


BATTLE-FIELD 

OF 
TORGAU. 


1.  Prussian 

Camp. 

2.  Austrian 

Army. 

3.  Austrian  rear- 

guard under 
Lacy. 

4.  General 

Ziethen. 

5.  Frederick. 

6.  Hulsen. 

7.  Holstein. 


SARATOGA. 


1777. 

HE  story  of  our  war  for  independence  is  so 
well  known  to  American  readers  that  but 
little  need  be  said  by  way  of  prelude  to 
the  memorable  events  which  brought  about 
the  surrender  of  the  British  in  October,  1777. 
For  years  we  have  been  accustomed  to  speak 
of  the  scene  as  Saratoga,  and  for  old  associa- 
tion's sake  the  name  is  preserved  here.  In 
point  of  fact  no  battle  was  fought  at  Saratoga, 
so  called,  and  the  Saratoga  near  which  the 
gallant  and  unlucky  Burgoyne  laid  down  his  arms  was  a  little 
hamlet  on  the  west  bank  of  the  Hudson  river,  close  by  the  old 
home  of  our  noble-hearted  Schuyler.  Even  then  it  was  more 
properly  termed  Schuylerville,  and  the  modern  town  of  Sara- 
toga, which  has  grown  up  around  the  celebrated  springs  of 
that  name,  is  far  west  of  the  scenes  we  have  here  to  describe, 
and  the  two  battles  which  preceded  the  surrender  occurred 
some  miles  south  of  Schuylerville — where  the  Fishkill  empties 
into  the  Hudson — were  fought  in  the  woods  and  ravines  of  Mill 
Creek,  and  are  properly  known  by  the  names  of  Freeman's  Farm 
(September  iQth),  and  Bemis'  Heights  (October  7th). 

By  the  general  name  of  Saratoga,  however,  we  include  both 
these  engagements  and  the  surrender  which  ensued,  and  so  it  is 
understood  in  England. 

Trivial  as  were  the  numbers  engaged  in  comparison  with  the 
battles  that  have  been  hitherto  described,  Saratoga  ranks  with 
the  greatest   of  them   in   political   and   historical   importance. 
(400) 


BURGOYNE'S   ARMY   MARCHING   TO   SARATOGA. 


ONE    OF    THE    FIFTEEN    DECISIVE    BATTI.KS.  4()1 

One  eminent  writer,  Professor  Creasy,  places  it  among  his 
"Fifteen  Decisive  Battles  of  the  World,"  and  as  he  adopts 
Hallam's  definition,  "  Those  few  battles  of  which  a  contrary 
event  would  have  essentially  varied  the  drama  of  the  world  in 
all  its  subsequent  scenes,"  no  American  need  hesitate  to  claim 
for  Saratoga  that  which  so  scholarly  and  learned  an  English- 
man has  so  conscientiously  accorded.  "  Essentially  varied,"  in- 
deed, would  have  been  "  the  drama  of  the  world,"  had  Burgoyne 
been  able  to  hold  out  a  week  longer  and  join  his  forces  with 
those  of  Sir  Henry  Clinton. 

The  American  army  had  been  driven  out  of  Canada.  It  had 
been  soundly  whipped  at  the  Battle  of  Long  Island.  Washing- 
ton had  abandoned  New  York  and  was  striving  to  keep  up  a 
gallant  front  in  the  Jerseys ;  but  matters  looked  dark  enough 
for  the  young  colonies  when,  in  the 'summer  of  1777,  Lieutenant- 
General  John  Burgoyne  came  marching  down  the  shores  of 
Lake  Champlain  with  orders  to  sweep  the  valley  of  the  Hudson 
to  Albany,  and  then  unite  with  Sir  Henry  Clinton,  who  was  to 
move  up  the  river  from  New  York. 

Burgoyne  was  a  gallant  soldier,  and  a  gentleman  of  stainless 
character.  He  had  won  distinction  in  Portugal,  and  was  especially 
selected  by  the  ministry  at  London  to  head  this  elaborately 
planned  expedition.  He  set  forth  in  high  hope ;  he  took  with 
him  some  of  the  most  thoroughly  disciplined  and  "seasoned" 
regiments  of  the  British  army ;  his  Hessian  and  German  allies 
were  old  regulars ;  his  officers  were  loyal  and  accomplished  sol- 
diers ;  but  he  was  hampered  by  certain  orders  and  instructions 
that  were  destined  to  cause  him  infinite  embarrassment  and  much 
mental  suffering,  and  the  worst  of  these  was  an  imperative  man- 
date that  he  should  employ  the  savage  tribes  as  allies. 

Assembling  his  command  on  the  river  Boquet,  on  the  west 
side  of  Lake  Champlain,  in  June,  he  gave  his  Indians  a  war-feast 
and  a  lecture.  They  accepted  the  former  with  customary 
avidity  and  paid  no  earthly  attention  to  the  latter.  Burgoyne 
adjured  them  through  their  interpreters  to  abstain  from  torture, 
or  from  the  murder  of  unarmed  persons.  The  Indians  made  no 
definite  reply,  and  probably  remained  stolidly  unimpressed  by 
26 


402  SARATOGA. 

his  eloquence,  for  the  brutal  murder  of  Miss  McCrea  at  their 
hands  occurred  soon  after,  and,  despite  his  reluctance  to  employ 
them  at  all,  and  his  earnest  efforts  to  control  the  allies  forced  upon 
him  by  orders  from  London,  the  English  general  was  compelled 
to  bear  the  abuse  and  hatred  of  the  Americans,  for  our  generals 
found  in  this  one  circumstance  a  most  powerful  recruiting  agent. 
^Except  as  guides,  and  very  rarely  as  skirmishers,  the  Indians 
•were  no  help  whatever  to  Burgoyne;  whereas  by  their  employ- 
ment he  saw,  as  he  had  predicted,  all  the  colonists  now  vehemently 
arrayed  against  him.  Men  who  had  been  lukewarm  to  the 
American  cause  before,  now  joined  in  heart  and  soul,  and  even 
the  stolid  phlegmatic  Dutch  of  the  Hudson  and  Mohawk  val- 
leys, who  up  to  this  time  had  been  counted  on  as  leaning  tow- 
ards the  side  of  the  crown,  flocked  to  the  American  camp  by 
dozens,  and  after  Stark's  success  at  Bennington,  by  scores. 

"All  is  fair  in  love  or  war  "  seems  to  have  been  the  motto  of 
;his  majesty's  ministry  in  dictating  the  employment  of  Indians, 
and  of  our  own  generals  in  abusing  Burgoyne  as  though  the  idea 
originated  with  him.  His  colleague,  St.  Leger,  did  go  so  far, 
when  demanding  the  surrender  of  Fort  Stanwix,  as  to  threaten 
the  garrison  with  the  vengeance  of  the  Indians  in  the  event  of  a 
refusal  to  come  to  immediate  terms ;  but  Burgoyne  from  his 
inmost  soul  revolted  at  the  idea,  and  never  could  be  induced  to 
yield  to  the  Indian  demands,  that  they  should  do  as  they  wished 
with  their  captives.  Like  St.  Leger's  brief  campaign,  the  sub- 
ject of  the  Indian  allies  may  be  summed  up  in  very  few  words. 
Far  more  harm  than  benefit  was  the  result  to  the  British 
.arms. 

St.  Leger,  who  was  to  co-operate  with  Burgoyne,  was  sent  up 
the  St.  Lawrence  with  a  mixed  force  of  regulars,  Hessians, 
Canadians  and  Indians.  His  orders  were  to  land  at  Oswego, 
reduce  Fort  Stanwix  (or  Schuyler),  near  where  Rome  now  stands, 
then  come  down  the  Mohawk,  punishing  the  American  sympa- 
thizers by  the  way,  and  join  Burgoyne,  who  by  that  time  was  to 
be  in  Albany.  Neither  of  them  ever  got  there.  St.  Leger  ob- 
tained a  temporary  success  at  Oriskany,  where  our  General 
Herkimer  stumbled  into  ambuscade ;  but  his  threat  to  turn  over 


ST.  LEGER'S    AND    BAUME'S    EXPEDITIONS    FAIL.          4Q3 

the  garrison  of  Stanwix  to  the  tomahawk  and  scalping  knife  led 
to  a  defiant  reply  and  vehement  resistance,  and  then,  alarmed  at 
the  mere  report  that  American  reinforcements  were  coming,  he 
and  his  men  fled  precipitately  to  Oswego,  where  at  the  end  of 
August  he  confessed  his  expedition  a  failure,  and  had  the  grace 
to  attribute  much  of  the  ill-success  to  the  fact  that  his  soldiers 
were  in  pitiable  plight  owing  to  the  plunder  of  the  Indians. 

In  this  way  Burgoyne's  flankers  on  the  right  were  successfully 
disposed  of — a  moral  victory  for  the  Americans  that  gave 
great  encouragement  and  satisfaction  throughout  the  hard- 
pushed  colonies.  Almost  simultaneously,  there  came  a  gallant 
blow  at  his  left.  The  British  advance  had  been  uniformly  suc- 
cessful. The  strong  post  of  Ticonderoga  had  fallen  before  their 
artillery,  and  was  justifiably  abandoned  by  St.  Clair  in  time  to 
save  his  command  from  being  surrounded  and  captured.  By 
July  3<Dth  the  army  of  Burgoyne  was  encamped  at  Fort  Edward. 
Provisions  were  needed,  and  it  was  known  that  the  Americans 
had  large  stores  at  Bennington,  just  over  the  Vermont  line,  so 
on  the  1 5th  of  August  a  strong  detachment  of  Hessians  under 
Colonel  Baume,  subsequently  strengthened  by  reinforcements 
under  Breyman,  made  an  attempt  to  seize  the  magazines.  They 
were  met  by  the  Americans  under  General  Stark  and  severely 
whipped,  losing  nearly  a  thousand  men  in  killed,  wounded  and 
prisoners,  while  the  total  loss  of  General  Stark  was  not  more 
than  eighty.  This  spirited  little  affair,  followed  so  closely  by  the 
news  of  St.  Leger's  discomfiture,  created  a  blaze  of  enthusiasm, 
and  from  all  quarters  recruits  and  volunteers  came  pouring  into 
the  American  camp. 

Crippled  in  this  way  on  both  wings,  and  by  this  time  deprived 
of  the  services  of  many  Canadians,  and  many  more  Indians,  all 
of  whom,  said  the  gallant  gentleman,  he  "  would  rather  lose  than 
connive  at  their  enormities,"  Burgoyne,  when  essaying  the 
advance  upon  the  Hudson,  was  far  from  being  over-confident. 
He  had  thrown  a  bridge  of  rafts  across  the  river  near  Saratoga 
on  the  1 4th  of  August,  and  made  preparations  to  cross  as  soon 
as  the  supplies  from  Bennington  were  brought  in;  but  those 
supplies,  as  we  have  seen,  did  not  come,  neither  did  the  majority 


404  SARATOGA. 

of  the  troops  sent  to  fetch  them ;  and  the  British  were  compelled 
to  lie  for  nearly  a  month  in  idleness  in  their  camps.  It  is  now 
time  to  take  a  look  at  the  composition  of  their  forces. 

On  the  ist  of  July,  just  before  the  investment  of  Ticonderoga, 
the  muster-rolls  show  the  British  column  to  have  consisted  as 
follows  (and  we  owe  the  details  to  Colonel  Carrington) : 

Regulars  from  England 3,724  men 

Regulars  from  Germany 3,016     " 

Light  artillery 473      " 

Canadians  and  Tories 250     " 

Indians  (Iroquois,  Algonquins  and  Ottowas)       .  400     " 


Total,     7,863     " 

Before  the  affairs  around  Saratoga,  the  force  of  Indians  was 
increased  to  about  one  thousand,  but  such  was  Burgoyne's  dis- 
trust and  dislike  of  them,  that  they  rapidly  left  him — a  good 
riddance. 

Now  these  numbers  are  so  small  in  comparison  with  those 
with  which  we  have  been  dealing,  that  it  may  seem  as  though 
their  deeds  were  unworthy  of  mention ;  but  seldom  have  better 
troops  taken  the  field:  especially  was  this  the  case  with  the 
regulars  from  England.  For  some  strange  reason  no  complete 
regiment  was  with  Burgoyne,  a  detachment  from  each  one  being 
retained  in  Canada  ostensibly  for  its  defence,  or  to  accompany 
the  St.  Leger  expedition  along  the  Mohawk.  All  the  grenadiers 
and  light  infantry,  some  1,500  men,  were  organized  as  a  brigade 
and  placed  under  command  of  a  skilled  and  gallant  soldier, 
Brigadier-General  Eraser.  A  second  brigade  was  formed  of  the 
companies  of  the  Ninth,  Twenty-first,  and  Forty-seventh  regi- 
ments of  the  line,  1,194  men;  and  a  third  of  the  Twentieth,  Fifty- 
third  and  Sixty-second  regiments,  another  1,194.  The  artillery 
accompanying  the  column  consisted  of  twenty-six  guns,  ten  of 
these  being  formed  in  a  special  park  under  General  Philips ;  the 
others,  light  three  and  six-pounders,  being  distributed  among 
the  brigades.  So  long  as  he  could  move  parallel  with  the  lakes, 
Champlain  and  George,  his  guns  could  be  transported  on  rude 


GATES   SUPERSEDES   SCHUYLER.  405 

bateaux,  but  Burgoyne  found  them  vastly  in  his  way  when  it 
came  to  dragging  them  over  the  stony  and  narrow  mountain 
roads. 

Some  of  these  troops  were  left  behind  as  garrisons  of  the  cap- 
tured posts,  and  some  changes  were  made  in  their  brigade  organi- 
zation, but  the  fact  must  not  be  lost  sight  of  that  the  soldiers  of 
Burgoyne  were  drilled,  disciplined,  war-tried  regulars  under  ac- 
complished officers.  On  the  i/th  of  August  they  were  in  line, 
facing  south  within  thirty-four  miles  of  Albany,  with  their  advance 
on  the  same  side  of  the  river.  At  that  moment  a  forward  move- 
ment could  have  been  made  with  far  better  hopes  of  success  than 
a  month  later,  but,  stunned,  or  at  least  grievously  embarrassed, 
by  the  disasters  to  St.  Leger  and  Baume,  General  Burgoyne 
halted.  The  American  army,  poorly  equipped,  badly  clothed 
and  shod,  and  only  indifferently  armed  and  instructed,  was  thrown 
across  their  path. 

For  months  the  defence  of  northern  New  York  had  been  in- 
trusted to  a  patriotic,  energetic  and  hard-working  officer — General 
Philip  Schuyler,  a  man  so  loyal,  so  unselfish,  so  honorable  that 
even  when  relieved  from  command  by  a  junior  who  had  wronged 
and  intrigued  against  him,  he  continued  to  serve  faithfully  and 
with  the  greatest  zeal,  and  posterity  has  rendered  him  the  honors 
he  deserved.  Daniel  Webster  himself  has  said,  "  I  was  brought 
up  with  New  England  prejudices  against  him,  but  I  consider  him 
second  only  to  Washington  in  the  services  he  rendered  to  the 
country  in  the  war  of  the  Revolution."  Schuyler  was  not  the 
equal  of  Greene  as  a  general.  It  was  in  his  single-hearted  devo- 
tion to  the  best  interests  of  his  country  that  he  was  second  to  no 
man. 

On  the  ipth  of  August  there  arrived  at  the  American  camp, 
with  orders  to  supersede  him,  General  Horatio  Gates,  a  man  who 
had  been  for  some  time  previous  under  his  command,  and  who, 
it  has  since  transpired,  was  industriously  engaged  in  circulating 
all  manner  of  stories  to  his  detriment,  and  writing  all  manner  of 
unsoldierly  letters  to  congressional  and  political  friends.  He  was 
a  born  intriguer — was  Gates,  and  Congress  was  quite  as  ready 
to  open  its  ears  to  men  of  his  low  character  in  the  old  days  of 


406  SARATOGA. 

1776-7,  as  it  was  in  the  nation's  bitter  struggle  of  1861-5.  Gates 
carried  his  point  and  many  other  points  with  it.  He  was  received 
by  Schuyler  with  the  utmost  courtesy  and  respect,  which  this 
i'l-bred  and  malignant  general  rewarded  by  excluding  him  from 
the  council  of  war  summoned  immediately  after  the  new  com- 
mander's arrival. 

And  now  Congress  proceeded  to  send  to  its  new  favorite  all 
that  it  had  denied  General  Schuyler,  in  money,  men  and  supplies; 
and  in  his  arrogance  and  success,  Gates  sent  his  letters  and  re- 
ports direct  to  that  body,  utterly  ignoring  the  commander-in- 
chief.  He  had  overthrown  Schuyler,  and  it  is  recorded,  was  now 
bent  on  the  removal  of  Washington  and  the  establishment  of  him- 
self in  the  general  command.  Fortunately  for  the  country  he 
failed  in  this. 

After  three  weeks'  delay  the  army  of  General  Gates  moved 
forward  and  took  up  a  position  selected  for  it  by  Kosciusko, 
twenty-four  miles  north  of  Albany,  along  the  valley  of  Mill  Creek 
and  close  to  the  Hudson.  Redoubts  and  earthworks  had  been 
thrown  up  on  the  high  ground  south  of  the  streams,  so  that  an  in- 
trenched camp  was  formed.  Nearly  two  miles  away  to  the  west 
and  north  was  a  rang?  of  hills  or  bluffs — Bemis'  Heights;  south 
of  which  flowed  Mill  Creek  and  its  branches,  cutting  up  the  in- 
tervening valley  into  ugly  ravines.  Thick  forests  covered  almost 
every  portion  of  the  heights,  and  the  country  west  and  north  of 
the  American  camp;  but  out  opposite  the  American  left,  and  be- 
tween the  north  and  south  forks  of  Mill  Creek,  was  a  cleared  en- 
closure and  some  rude  log-houses  and  barns — Freeman's  Farm. 

By  the  i$th  of  September  the  American  works  were  well-nigh 
completed,  and  were  very  strong.  Behind  them,  close  to  the 
river,  were  the  brigades  of  Nixon,  Patterson  and  Glover,  forming 
the  right  wing.  In  the  centre  was  Learned's  brigade,  made  up 
of  three  full  Massachusetts  and  one  New  York  regiment;  while 
the  left  wing — a  good-sized  division — was  composed  of  three  New 
Hampshire  and  two  New  York  regiments,  Dearborn's  light  in- 
fantry, Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island  militia,  and  the  celebrated 
rile  corps,  recently  organized  in  the  south,  of  General  Daniel 
Morgan.  This  powerful  division  was  the  command  of  Brigadier- 
General  Benedict  Arnold. 


BURGOYNE    MOVES   ON   THE   AMERICANS.  4Q7 

Turning  now  to  the  British  camp,  we  find  Burgoyne  rebuilding 
his  bridge  of  boats  across  the  Hudson.  He  has  been  scouring 
the  country  for  supplies,  and  at  last  has  gathered  enough  to  last 
his  dwindling  army  a  month.  A  few  " provincials"  remain  with 
him  in  addition  to  his  regular  troops,  but  he  has  but  few  vora- 
cious Indian  mouths  to  feed.  On  the  I3th  and  I4th  of  Septem- 
ber he  crossed  the  entire  army  to  the  west  bank,  encamped  on 
the  open  ground  near  old  Saratoga.  On  the  I5th  and  i6th  he 
moved  cautiously  southward,  feeling  his  way  towards  the  lines 
of  Gates  and  thoroughly  scouting  the  forests  to  guard  against 
surprise.  On  the  i/th  he  encamped  along  a  line  of  bluffs  north 
of  Mill  Creek  valley,  and  within  four  miles  of  the  American  in- 
trenchments.  On  the  i8th  a  rattling  fire  was  kept  up  most  of 
the  day  between  reconnoitring  parties  as  they  met  in  the  woods 
and  ravines,  and  on  the  1 9th  of  September  Burgoyne  advanced 
to  the  attack. 

The  buildings  of  Freeman's  Farm  lay  nearly  two  miles  from 
the  Hudson.  The  main  road  from  Saratoga  to  Albany  hugged 
the  river  bank,  but  along  Bemis'  Heights  and  up  Mill  Creek  val- 
ley there  ran  three  country  roads,  nearly  at  right  angles  to  the 
river,  and  these  east  and  west  thoroughfares  through  the  forest 
were  connected  with  one  another  by  winding  wood-roads,  quite 
practicable  at  this  season  for  light  guns  and  cavalry.  Two  well- 
traveled  roads  led  from  the  American  camp  towards  the  north- 
west ;  one  running  between  Freeman's  Farm  and  the  southernmost 
bluff  of  Bemis'  Heights  to  the  west  of  the  farm;  the  other  fol- 
lowing up  the  valley  of  the  south  fork  of  Mill  Creek.  The  in- 
stant the  pickets  reported  the  British  marching  down  on  Free- 
man's Farm,  General  Gates  issued  orders  sending  forward  troops 
to  meet  them.  The  designated  regiments  (mainly  from  Arnold's 
division)  moved  out  by  these  northwest  roads.  Gates  himself 
remained  in  camp. 

The  American  commander  may  have  judged  from  the  reports 
that  the  British  move  was  only  a  "  reconnoissance  in  force ; " 
but,  if  so,  he  was  in  error.  Burgoyne  left  only  the  Forty-seventh 
Foot  to  guard  the  bateaux  and  camp,  sent  the  Germans  under 
Riedesel,  and  the  artillery  park  under  Phillips,  by  the  Albany 


408  SARATOGA. 

road,  close  to  the  Hudson.  Eraser  with  the  grenadiers,  British 
and  German,  the  light  infantry  and  the  volunteers  moved 
around  by  the  road  on  the  heights,  so  as  to  be  the  westernmost 
of  the  English  line,  while  Burgoyne  with  four  regiments  of  foot 
marched  directly  on  the  farm  itself. 

Eraser  with  his  disciplined  troops  was  the  first  to  strike  our 
hurrying  column.  His  Canadian  friends  and  the  provincials  went 
scurrying  back  through  the  woods  the  moment  they  caught  sight 
of,  and  a  volley  from  Morgan's  riflemen ;  but  wheeling  to  the 
left  and  facing  eastward,  Eraser's  grenadiers  poured  several  rapid 
volleys  into  the  flank  of  our  forming  lines  and  drove  them  in 
some  little  confusion  into  thicker  woods  to  their  right.  Here  a 
number  of  the  riflemen  from  the  shelter  of  the  trees  sent  well- 
directed  shots  at  Eraser's  tall  red-coats  and  checked  their 
advance,  while  the  supporting  regiments  forming  in  front  of  the 
farm  arrived  just  in  time  to  greet  with  withering  volleys  the 
centre  brigade  of  the  British  army  as  it  came  marching  for- 
ward through  the  cleared  ground.  Riedesel  and  Phillips,  hear- 
ing the  bursting  storm  to  their  right  up  the  valley,  turned  the 
heads  of  their  columns  westward  and  hurried  to  the  support  of 
the  centre — and  support  was  needed.  Morgan's  men  with  their 
deadly  rifles  kept  Eraser  from  coming  farther  towards  the  east, 
and  the  firing,  which  had  begun  about  one  o'clock,  now  at  three 
in  the  afternoon  raged  around  the  British  brigade  fighting  for 
life  on  that  unsheltered  little  plateau.  Burgoyne,  apprised  of 
Eraser's  success,  had  ordered  a  spirited  advance  for  the  purpose 
of  turning  the  American  left,  but  once  well  out  in  front  of  the 
farm  buildings  he  found  the  woods  before,  and  on  both  sides  of 
him  crammed  with  Arnold's  men ;  their  aim  was  deadly,  their 
fire  most  destructive,  and  his  volleys  crashing  among  the  trees 
seem  to  have  had  but  little  effect.  An  Englishman  hates  to  fall 
back  even  when  it  is  death  to  stand,  and  the  gallant  Twentieth 
and  Sixty-second  Foot  were  almost  annihilated  before  help  came. 
Four  light  guns  manned  by  forty-eight  men  were  so  swept  by 
the  American  fire  that  they  were  silenced,  thirty-six  of  the 
battery-men  being  killed  or  wounded,  and  of  the  infantry  force 
not  a  hundred  men  were  left  unhit.  The  Ninth  and  Twenty- 


4 

ATTACK   ON   ARNOLD'S   DIVISION".  409 

first  regiments  supporting  them  were  also  severely  handled,  for 
by  this,  time  Arnold  had  pushed  forward  his  entire  division  in 
support  of  the  regiments  of  Scammel  and  Cilley  that  had  gone 
out  at  one  o'clock  to  back  up  Morgan  and  Dearborn.  But  by 
this  time,  too,  the  British  grenadiers  and  light  infantry  had 
forced  their  way  into  the  right  of  Burgoyne's  hard-pushed  cen- 
tre ;  and  Riedesel  had  worked  up  the  valley  and  formed  line  on 
Burgoyne's  left.  The  battle  was  renewed  with  great  spirit  and 
kept  up  until  dark  without  much  advantage  to  either  side;  but 
the  whole  brunt  of  the  battle  had  fallen  on  Arnold's  division. 
Gates  never  gave  him  any  assistance,  and  kept  sedulously  out  of 
the  way  himself.  The  British  attempted  several  charges  with 
the  bayonet,  and  claim  that  in  the  final  charge  at  sunset  they 
drove  back  Arnold's  line ;  but  at  dark  his  division  with  its  guns 
was  in  perfect  order,  either  to  resist  further  assault  or  to  resume 
the  battle  on  the  morrow.  The  .British  held  Freeman's  Farm  at 
night,  and  extended  their  lines  to  the  bank  of  the  Hudson  along 
the  north  bank  of  Mill  Creek.  They  built  five  strong  redoubts 
and  brought  forward  their  artillery,  so  that  while  their  losses 
had  been  far  heavier  than  those  of  the  Americans  they  could 
justly  claim  to  have  won  the  day. 

Gates  made  but  brief  report  of  the  affair  of  Freeman's  Farm  to 
Congress.  He  had  lost  sixty-five  killed  and  two  hundred  and 
fifty  wounded  and  missing.  Neither  he  nor  any  of  his  favorite 
generals  took  any  part  in  the  fight,  but  did  their  best  to  belittle 
the  conduct  of  Arnold,  who,  with  Morgan,  was  entitled  to  the 
credit  of  conducting  so  obstinate  and  courageous  a  combat. 

In  a  few  days  more  the  feeling  between  the  commander  and 
Arnold  broke  out  into  open  rupture.  Arnold  hinted  that  he 
desired  to  be  relieved,  and  very  promptly  was  relieved  of  his 
command ;  but  before  he  left  the  camp  the  British  made  their 
second  assault  upon  the  American  lines,  and  on  the  /th  of 
October  fought  and  lost  the  combat  of  Bemis'  Heights. 

'It  seems  that  by  the  3d  of  October,  Burgoyne  found  his  sit- 
uation growing  critical.  He  had  been  unable  to  drive  one  divi- 
sion of  Continentals  at  Freeman's  Farm,  and  could  not  expect 
to  be  successful  against  twice  or  thrice  that  number.  He  had 


410  SARATOGA. 

received  only  one  message  from  Sir  Henry  Clinton,  announcing 
that  he  hoped  to  attack  the  American  forts  near  West  Point 
about  the  22d  of  September.  October  came  and  no  further 
news ;  the  men  were  put  on  half  rations,  desertions  began  to  be 
frequent,  and  on  the  other  hand,  every  day  brought  large  acces- 
sions to  the  American  force.  Far 'from  their  base  of  supplies,  the 
situation  of  Burgoyne's  men  was  really  desperate ;  and  it  was 
determined  as  the  only  proper  course  left  them  to  make  a 
vigorous  attempt  to  turn  the  left  of  General  Gates'  position, 
or  cut  their  way  through  in  hopes  of  finding  Sir  Henry  Clinton 
below.  The  general  and  his  subordinates  were  of  one  mind  in 
the  matter,  and  the  7th  of  October  was  selected  for  the  attempt. 

Leaving  strong  guards  for  the  intrenchments,  the  camp  and 
hospital,  Burgoyne  himself,  with  Generals  Phillips,  Riedesel  and 
Fraser,  fifteen  hundred  picked  men  and  six  guns,  moved  over  to 
the  right  of  their  line,  and  thence  advancing,  deployed  upon  a 
comparatively  open  piece  of  ground  about  three-quarters  of  a 
mile  in  front  of  the  American  left.  Here  Burgoyne's  few  allies, 
the  "  rangers "  and  Indians,  were  detached  with  orders  to  get 
through  the  woods  around  the  American  left,  and  attack  it  from 
the  rear.  The  rest  of  the  command  would  await  the  result. 

The  British  line  had  formed  facing  south  on  the  southernmost 
spur  of  Bemis'  Heights,  with  the  Mill  Creek  road  directly  in 
their  front.  The  light  infantry  was  on  the  right,  the  Hessians 
in  the  centre,  the  guns  in  front  and  the  British  grenadiers  on  the 
extreme  left.  Watchful  eyes  among  the  American  pickets  had 
seen  the  entire  move;  prompt  report  was  sent  in  to  Arnold's  old 
division,  now  commanded  by  General  Lincoln,  and  quick  as  ever 
those  eager  New  York,  New  Hampshire  and  Massachusetts 
regiments  were  pushed  out  to  the  front,  formed  line  in  the  woods 
south  of  the  heights,  and  all  of  a  sudden  the  grenadiers  found 
themselves  the  victims  of  vehement  and  sudden  attack.  The 
three  New  Hampshire  regiments  of  Poor's  brigade  had  dashed 
upon  their  exposed  flank. 

Major  Ackland  made  a  gallant  stand,  but  was  outnumbered 
five  to  one.  The  encircling  fire  swept  away  his  tall  soldiers  faster 
than  he  could  close  his  lines.  The  German  grenadiers  and  Hes- 


BURGOYNE'S   ADVANCE   REPULSED.  41 1 

sian  jagers  from  the  centre  were  ordered  to  hasten  to  the  support 
of  their  English  comrades,  but  no  sooner  had  they  faced  to  the 
left,  to  move  thither,  than  they  themselves  were  as  vehemently 
assailed  from  their  own  front.  The  brigade  of  General  Learned 
and  the  Connecticut  militia  had  moved  promptly  from  the  oppo- 
site woods  and  charged  the  slope  opposite  Burgoyne's  centre. 
In  ten  minutes  Earl  Balcarras,  of  the  light  infantry,  was  the  only 
battalion  commander  not  hotly  engaged,  in  the  entire  command; 
and,  unknown  to  him,  Morgan  with  his  riflemen  had  crept  around 
his  right  flank.  For  half  an  hour  the  battle  was  a  series  of  fu- 
rious charges  and  counter-charges.  The  Americans  dashed 
through  the  English  guns,  killing  and  wounding  most  of  the 
cannoneers.  The  English  made  heroic  efforts  to  recapture  them, 
but  every  instant  added  to  the  strength  of  the  Continentafs,  as 
fresh  troops  came  pouring  up  from  the  rear ;  every  instant  added 
to  the  British  losses.  General  Eraser  fell  mortally  wounded,  and 
was  carried  from  the  field.  Major  Ackland  was  shot  down; 
Major  Williams  seized  and  taken  prisoner.  The  grenadiers  had 
melted  away  to  less  than  half  their  number,  and  Burgoyne,  cool, 
brave,  skillful,  even  in  despair,  ordered  his  line  to  fall  back. 
Bearing  the  message  to  the  line,  his  aide-de-camp,  Sir  Francis 
Clarke,  fell  mortally  hit.  But,  pivoting  on  its  left  so  as  to  cover 
the  intrenchments,  and  face  the  foemen  swarming  around  their 
right  flank,  the  British  force  in  good  order  wheeled  backwards 
toward  the  northeast,  and  retired  upon  the  redoubts  and  earth- 
works around  Freeman's  Farm.  The  guns  were  left  behind. 
The  Americans,  cheering  and  exultant,  pressed  closely  upon  their 
over-weighted  enemy.  Then  the  Germans  in  the  centre  broke 
and  ran,  and  nothing  but  Burgoyne's  cool  courage  and  the  steady 
front  of  Balcarras  with  the  light  infantry,  saved  the  little  army 
from  destruction  then  and  there.  Phillips,  though  his  guns  were 
gone,  and  Riedesel,  though  his  countrymen  had  scattered,  both 
exhibited  devoted  bravery,  and  strove  to  steady  the  retreat ;  so 
that,  thanks  to  the  efforts  of  these  officers,  the  British  reached 
their  redoubts  in  tolerable  order.  Balcarras  moved  into  those 
near  the  Farm,  and  Breyman  with  the  Hessians  into  the  earth- 
work farther  to  the  northwest,  and  once  more  faced  their  pursuers. 


412  SARATOGA. 

It  was  at  this  point  in  the  action  that  Arnold  reappeared.  He 
had  no  command,  but,  all  ablaze  with  excitement,  he  galloped 
upon  the  field.  His  men  recognized  and  cheered  him.  He  drew 
his  sword  and  led  the  way  wherever  he  saw  a  chance  for  attack  ; 
and  the  other  commanders,  knowing  his  magnetic  influence 
among  the  soldiers,  made  no  attempt  to  hinder  him  in  any  way. 
The  battle,  which  had  begun  between  lines  facing  north  and  south, 
had  now  swung  around,  so  that  the  British  were  facing  nearly 
west,  the  Americans  rapidly  enveloping  them.  Maddened  by  his 
rage  for  battle,  Arnold  had  called  on  the  centre  to  follow  him, 
and  led  them  in  a  vehement  assault  on  the  stockaded  redoubt 
held  by  Balcarras  and  the  British  light  infantry;  but  the  islanders 
were  here  too  strong  for  them.  The  attack  was  repulsed,  and 
neve*  waiting  to  renew  it,  Arnold  galloped  furiously  along  the 
line  to  the  left  where  Morgan's  riflemen  and  Learned's  brigade 
were  fighting.  Again  his  old  men  cheered  him,  and  ordering 
Learned's  men  to  follow  him,  he  cleared  at  a  single  charge  the 
redoubts  and  earthworks  between  Balcarras  and  Breyman,  leaving 
the  latter  "  out  in  the  air."  Never  waiting  a  moment,  he  dashed 
still  farther  to  the  left  opposite  this  last  redoubt,  took  command 
of  Morgan's  men  and  James  Livingston's  New  Yorkers,  led  them 
squarely  at  the  Hessian-guarded  fort,  and  fell,  shot  through  the 
leg,  his  horse  killed  under  him  in  the  very  entrance,  and  in  the 
moment  of  victory.  There  too  Breyman  was  killed,  and  the 
German  soldiers  made  no  farther  stand,  but  broke  and  ran  in 
renewed  panic. 

It  was  well-nigh  dark  by  this  time,  and  the  Americans  halted 
on  the  ground  they  had  won,  Lincoln's  division  occupying  the 
position ;  while  Burgoyne,  sadly  dispirited,  fell  back  to  the  heights 
near  the  Hudson,  above  the  north  ravine.  Being  closely  pressed 
here  on  the  8th  by  the  dispositions  of  General  Gates  with  the 
American  right  and  centre,  he  that  night  retreated  northward, 
passed  through  old  Saratoga,  and  occupied  a  strongly  intrenched 
camp  at  the  angle  made  by  the  Hudson  and  Fishkill.  His  losses 
had  been  very  heavy.  He  had  been  compelled  to  abandon  his 
hospital  and  much  baggage,  and  now  his  plight  was  critical  in 
the  last  degree. 


SURRENDER   OF   THE   BRITISH.  413 

The  position  selected  by  Burgoyne,  for  his  last  stand,  was  ad- 
mirably adapted  for  defense.  His  men,  though  half  starved,  were 
brave  and  devoted.  Only  about  four  thousand  remained  fit  for  duty 
by  the  I2th  of  October,  however,  and  the  American  army,  fully 
thirteen  thousand  strong,  hemmed  them  in  on  every  side.  Ticon- 
deroga  had  been  recaptured,  all  his  communications  with  the  north 
were  cut  off,  no  supplies  could  reach  him.  Canadians,  provin- 
cials and  Indians  had  left  him  as  rats  desert  a  sinking  ship.  Night 
and  day  the  Americans  swept  his  works  with  grape  and  mus- 
ketry, and  not  a  word,  after  all,  had  come  from  Sir  Henry  Clin- 
ton. There  was  no  help  for  it.  On  the  I3th  of  October  the 
defeated  general  sent  a  flag  to  Gates,  asking  for  terms  of  capitu- 
lation for  his  starving  army;  and  the  first  reply  of  the  American 
general  was  of  so  humiliating  a  character,  that  Burgoyne  sent 
word  that  sooner  than  comply  with  such  terms  the  British  army 
would  die  to  a  man.  By  the  1 6th,  however,  General  Gates  re- 
lented, and  far  more  considerate  terms  were  offered  and  accepted. 
The  troops  were  to  march  out  with  all  the  honors  of  war ;  were 
to  pile  their  arms  near  the  river  bank  at  the  word  of  command 
of  their  own  officers ;  officers  were  to  retain  their  side-arms  and 
personal  baggage,  and  all  were  to  be  given  free  passage  to  Eng- 
land upon  condition  of  not  serving  again  during  the  war. 

That  very  night  Captain  Campbell,  of  the  British  army,  reached 
camp  with  the  long-expected  despatches  from  Sir  Henry  Clinton, 
announcing  the  capture  of  Forts  Clinton  and  Montgomery,  and 
that  an  expedition  was  on  its  way  for  the  relief  of  Burgoyne ;  but 
it  was  too  late.  The  English  general  had  given  his  word,  and  he 
stood  by  it.  On  the  i/th  of  October  his  entire  force,  sick  and 
well,  was  formally  surrendered,  and  five  thousand  seven  hundred 
and  sixty-three  men  became  prisoners  of  war. 

All  historians  unite  in  saying  that  the  Americans  behaved  on 
this  occasion  with  the  utmost  courtesy  and  kindness  to  their  de- 
feated enemy.  No  signs  of  exultation,  no  demonstration  that 
might  wound  the  feelings  of  their  brave  but  unlucky  foemen, 
were  permitted. 

Congress  refused  to  abide  by  some  of  the  terms  accorded  to 
Burgoyne,  and  his  army  was  marched  to  Charlotteville  in  Vir- 


414 


SARATOGA. 


ginia  during  the  severe  winter  that  followed,  and  it  is  said  that 
most  of  them  decided  to  settle  in  America,  and  did  so  on  the 
closing  of  the  war. 

"  Nothing  succeeds  like  success."  General  Gates  became,  for 
the  time  being,  the  hero  of  the  American  people,  and  the  men 
who  had  labored  hard  to  bring  the"  army  into  the  state  of  disci- 
pline in  which  he  found  it,  were  temporarily  forgotten.  The 
hero  of  the  two  engagements,  Arnold,  received  his  commission 
as  major-general,  together  with  a  most  flattering  letter  from 
Washington  himself.  His  wound  for  some  time  prevented  his 
taking  part  in  active  service,  and  when  he  did  return  to  duty 
— the  country  knows  too  well  the  story  of  his  treason. 

Saratoga  broke  the  back-bone  of  British  aggression.  New 
York,  lying  midway  between  the  frontiers  of  the  rebellion,  as  our 
English  ancestors  called  it,  would  have  been  completely  won  to 
the  British  cause  had  those  two  armies,  Burgoyne's  and  Clinton's, 
united  at  Albany.  The  cause  of  America  would  have  been  cut 
in  two,  and  there  would  have  been  no  life  left  to  us.  As  it  was, 
hope,  courage  and  strength  revived.  The  news  of  our  decisive 
victory  flew  across  the  ocean  fast  as  sail  could  take  it,  and  then 
France  threw  off  her  mask  and  came  to  our  aid.  Saratoga 
turned  the  scale  for  independence  and  the  great  future  of 
America. 


MEDAL  AWARDED  TO  GEN.  GATES   BY  CONGRESS,  1777. 


MARENGO. 


he  was  so 
general   of 


1800. 


T  the  very  time  that  the  colonies  of  North  America 
were  in  the  midst  of  their  struggle  for  indepen- 
dence from  England,  there  was  admitted  to  the 
military  school  of  Brienne,  France,  as  a  king's 
pensioner,  a  sallow,  sad-faced,  ten-year-old  boy 
from  Corsica.  The  little  fellow's  name  was 
Buonaparte.  His  father  was  what  would  now- 
a-days  be  termed  a  persistent  office-seeker,  and 
fortunate  as  to  secure  the  aid  of  the  governor- 
the  island,  and  through  his  influence  to  obtain 
cadetships  for  his  sons  Joseph  and  Napoleon.  The  former 
was  destined  for  the  church,  the  latter  for  the  navy.  The 
former  studying  under  the  Bishop  of  Autun  suddenly  devel- 
oped a  desire  to  enter  the  army.  The  latter  studying  at  Brienne 
became  so  disheartened  with  his  surroundings,  that  he  begged 
his  father  to  take  him  from  the  school  with  its  military  asso- 
ciations and  let  him  turn  his  hand  to  anything  else ;  but  the 
boys  were  kept  at  their  work.  It  was  in  April,  1779,  that 
Napoleon  entered  Brienne.  He  could  then  barely  speak — he 
never  could  write — the  French  language.  He  passed  the  pre- 
liminary examination  after  a  fashion,  speedily  showed  some 
capacity  for  mathematics,  geography  and  history,  had  no  ability 
at  all  in  Latin,  and  from  the  very  start  was  solitary,  dreamy  and 
morose  in  his  habits ;  he  hardly  had  a  friend  at  the  school. 

In  October,  1784,  young  Buonaparte  passed  his  closing  exami- 
nation at  Brienne  and  was  passed  on  to  the  military  school  at 
Paris.  "  Character  imperious,  domineering  and  self-willed,"  was 
what  the  inspectors  wrote  on  his  papers.  Here  at  the  more 


416  MARENGO. 

advanced  school,  the  solitary  young  Corsican  was  employed  in 
studying  modern  languages,  history,  mathematics  and  fortifica- 
tion, and  was  instructed  to  a  limited  extent  in  drawing,  dancing, 
fencing  and  riding.  He  had  one  friend  and  companion,  a  fellow- 
cadet  named  Alexandre  des  Mazis,  son  of  a  poor  soldier  of  for- 
tune. He  had  dozens  of  tormentors  and  almost  enemies  among 
the  cadets,  especially  among  those  who,  like  De  Rohan,  De 
Marcillac  and  De  Montmorency,  belonged  to  the  wealthy  nobility. 
When  only  fifteen  years  of  age  the  little  Corsican,  not  yet  four 
feet  eleven  inches  in  height,  had  imbibed  a  hatred  for  aristocrats 
and  aristocracy.  He  turned  out  to  be,  to  the  full,  as  haughty 
and  exacting  as  the  worst  of  them. 

Cadets  of  the  Royal  Military  School  at  Paris  were  entitled  to 
their  brevets  of  second  lieutenant  when  reaching  the  age  of 
sixteen,  provided  they  could  pass  a  not  very  difficult  examina- 
tion. Only  those  of  very  studious  dispositions  seemed  to  care 
for  the  scientific  branches  of  the  service,  the  engineers  and  artil- 
lery. The  wealthy  and  high-born  preferred  the  dash  and  excite- 
ment of  cavalry  life ;  the  indolent,  the  plodding  existence  of  an 
infantry  garrison.  Napoleon  Buonaparte  was  sensitive  to  the 
last  degree  about  his  poverty,  and  now  that  he  had  given  up  the 
idea  of  becoming^  sailor,  early  decided  that  the  cavalry  would 
be  no  place  for  him.  For  the  infantry  service  he  had  a  contempt. 
"An  infantry  officer,"  he  wrote,  "wastes  two-thirds  of  his  time 
in  dissipation,"  and  the  Corsican  cadet  resolved  to  try  for  the 
artillery.  He  passed,  but  only  a  moderately  good  examination. 
Fifty-eight  young  men  were  commissioned  in  the  army  from  the 
Military  School  of  Paris  in  the  summer  of  1785,  and  among 
those  fifty-eight  the  future  conqueror  of  Europe  stood  forty- 
second.  He  was  assigned  to  the  Regiment  de  la  Fere  at  Va- 
lence, a  regiment  of  heavy  artillery.  Young  des  Mazis  was  ordered 
thither  with  him,  and  so  poor  was  the  Corsican  graduate  that 
autumn,  that  after  trying  in  vain  to  borrow  money  from  a  cloth 
merchant  who  occasionally  lent  it  to  young  gentlemen  of  the 
school,  Lieutenant  Napoleon  Buonaparte — de  Buonaparte  as  he 
then  called  himself — made  the  journey  to  Valence  at  the  expense 
of  his  poor  but  generous  comrade. 


NAPOLEON   LIEUTENANT   OF   ARTILLERY.  417 

This  was  what  the  examiners  of  the  afterwards  greatest  gen- 
eral of  the  world  wrote  of  him  in  September,  1785: 

"  Reserved  and  studious;  he  prefers  study  to  any  amusement, 
and  enjoys  reading  the  best  authors.  .  .  .  He  is  silent  and  loves 
solitude.  ^He  is  capricious,  haughty  and  excessively  egotistical : 
has  great  pride  and  ambition,  aspires  to  anything.  The  young 
man  is  worthy  of  patronage." 

The  prospects  before  Napoleon  Buonaparte  in  1785  were  not 
alluring.  His  total  income  did  not  amount  to  five  hundred 
dollars  a  year.  He  could  not.  hope  to  be  a  captain  until  he  had 
served  fifteen  years  as  a  subaltern.  He  soon  learned  to  hate  the 
routine  of  garrison  life.  His  health  suffered.  He  asked  and 
obtained  incessant  leaves  of  absence,  visited  Corsica  and  domi- 
neered over  his  brothers  and  sisters,  became  involved  in  various 
political  intrigues  and  schemes  with  disaffected  islanders,  one  of 
which  had  for  its  object  the  expulsion  of  all  Frenchmen  from 
Corsica.  He  was  absent  without  leave  nearly  four  months. 
In  fine,  he  was  anything  but  a  model  lieutenant  of  artillery  even 
in  the  days  of  lax  discipline  which  preceded  the  great  French 
revolution,  and  when  that  revolution  came  on,  he  promptly  de- 
clared for  the  popular  side  as  against  the  monarchists. 

It  was  the  French  revolution  which  gave  to  young  Buona- 
parte his  first  real  start  in  his  profession.  It  cost  him  some 
trouble  and  a  good  deal  of  ingenuity  to  provide  satisfactory  ex- 
cuses to  the  military  authorities  for  his  protracted  absences  and 
evasions  of  duty ;  but  the  nation  was  then  in  need  of  educated 
officers.  Buonaparte  was  one,  and  he  suddenly  found  himself  a 
captain  of  artillery  after  only  six  years  of  very  indifferent  ser- 
vice as  lieutenant,  since  more  than  half  the  time  he  had  been 
absent  with  or  without  leave.  Under  ordinary  circumstances  he 
would  have  been  court-martialed  and  dismissed ;  but  the 
Buonapartes  were  exiles  from  Corsica  by  this  time,  and  the 
brothers  Joseph  and  Napoleon  were  not  backward  in  demanding 
commissions  under  the  popular  government.  Toulon  was  then 
being  besieged.  Napoleon  was  sent  thither  as  a  junior  captain 
to  help  manage  the  batteries.  On  the  road  from  Marseilles,  the 
republican  troops  met  the  enemy  at  Olioulles.  The  English 
27 


418  MARENGO. 

and  Spaniards  beat  back  the  French.  Then  came  a  rally,  a 
fresh  advance,  and  the  French  were  victorious ;  but  trivial  as  the 
affair  was  in  point  of  casualties  it  had  this  result :  of  the  two 
men  wounded  and  disabled,  one  was  Donmartin,  chief  of  artil- 
lery, and  though  not  next  in  rank  by  any  means,  Buonaparte 
was  on  ^the  ground,  pushed  for  his  place  and  got  it.  He 
.appeared  at  the  siege  of  Toulon  as  major  of  the  Second  regi- 
ment of  artillery.  And  now  began  his  career  of  phenomenal 
success. 

In  less  than  four  months  after  his  promotion  to  the  majority, 
Toulon  was  taken,  and  no  man  had  been  more  distinguished  for 
skill  and  ability  than  young  Buonaparte.  Brave  old  General 
Dugommier,  in  his  report,  mentioned  his  name  first  of  all,  and  in 
February,  1794,  Napoleon  became  a  general  of  brigade.  He 
•was  not  yet  twenty-five. 

Powerful  and  influential  men — Robespierre,  Barras  and  Sali- 
:cetti,  the  latter  a  Corsican — were  backing  him  by  this  time. 
His  vehement  ambition  was  now  aroused  to  feverish  activity. 
He  kept  in  constant  correspondence  with  the  Directory,  urging, 
planning,  suggesting,  criticizing.  He  was  sent  on  many  mis- 
sions requiring  tact  and  skill.  Everything  he  did  proved  bril- 
liant; everything  he  wrote  was  bold  and  telling.  He  was  called 
to  Paris  as  defender  of  the  convention,  and  when  30,000  na- 
tional guardsmen  attempted  to  force  the  palace  of  the  Tuileries, 
;he  mowed  them  down  remorselessly  with  grape-shot,  and,  as 
his  reward,  was  made  general-in-chief  of  the  army  of  the  in- 
terior, with  his  headquarters  at  Paris.  In  March,  1796,  he  was 
sent  to  take  supreme  command  of  the  Army  of  Italy,  as  the 
.French  forces  operating  against  the  Austrians  southeast  of  the 
Alps  were  then  called.  He  found  but  36,000  half-starved,  half- 
naked  soldiers,  bat  with  them  he  took  the  field,  and  in  a  brief 
•campaign  of  wonderful  dash,  daring  and  brilliancy,  he  ruined  an 
army  of  75,000  foemen,  winning  the  stirring  battles  of  Monte- 
notte,  Mondovi  and  Lodi.  Five  armies,  one  after  another,  all 
under  accomplished  generals,  all  greatly  outnumbering  his, 
were  sent  against  him  by  Austria,  and  the  world  was  amazed  at 
the  marvellous  skill  and  rapidity  with  which  he  met  and  over- 


THE    IDOL   OF   THE   FRENCH    NATION.  419 

threw  them.  Utterly  beaten,  Austria,  in  October,  1797,  sued  for 
peace,  gave  up  to  France  the  Netherlands  and  Lombardy,  and 
Napoleon  went  back  to  Paris  the  idol  of  the  nation. 

Then  came  his  Egyptian  campaign;  the  spirited  battle  of  the 
Pyramids ;  the  storm  of  Jaffa  and  Acre;  then  his  hurried  recall  to 
Paris,  for  the  nation  was  disturbed  by  the  menace  of  many  foes  ; 
and  now,  as  First  Consul  under  the  new  constitution  of  the 
French  republic,  Napoleon  took  up  his  residence  at  the  palace 
of  the  Tuileries  and  became  ruler  of  the  destinies  of  France. 
But  he  was  in  no  mood  to  remain  in  Paris  when  the  glory  and 
excitement  of  battle  called  him  to  the  field.  Austria  was  again 
at  war  with  the  young  republic.  Moreau,  with  a  small  but 
powerful  army,  was  defending  the  frontier  along  the  Rhine,  and 
Napoleon,  assembling  with  remarkable  secrecy  and  speed  an- 
other army  of  36,000  on  Lake  Geneva,  began  in  May,  1800,  his 
wonderful  passage  of  the  Alps,  following  the  example  if  not  the 
actual  footsteps  of  his  great  predecessor  Hannibal.  On  the  2d 
of  June,  to  the  amaze  of  the  Austrians,  he  had  entered  Milan, 
and  was  again  ready  to  give  them  battle  on  the  old  campaigning 
ground,  the  beautiful  valley  of  the  Po. 

The  venerable  Baron  de  Melas  was  the  Austrian  commander 
in  northern  Italy.  He  had  brought  thither  with  him  an  army 
of  nearly  125,000  men.  At  least  30,000  of  these  were  occupied 
in  the  siege  of  Genoa,  where  for  weeks  the  brave  French  General 
Massena,  with  only  some  8,000  soldiers,  had  been  holding  on, 
despite  starvation  and  suffering,  in  hopes  that  the  First  Consul 
might  come  to  the  rescue.  But  Napoleon  needed  the  forces  of 
General  Moncey  from  the  north  before  he  felt  able  to  act  against 
such  strength  as  that  of  de  Melas,  and  Genoa  had  to  go.  When 
the  little  army  of  defenders  had  eaten  even  their  horses,  mules 
and  boots,  Massena  capitulated,  and  was  allowed  to  march  out 
with  the  honors  of  war.  This  left  de  Melas  free  to  concentrate 
a  large  army  on  Napoleon,  and  forthwith  Alessandria,  in  Pied- 
mont, and  Placentia,  southeast  of  Milan,  on  the  Po,  were  desig- 
nated as  the  points  on  which  his  scattered  corps  and  divisions 
were  to  assemble. 

But  Napoleon  too  was  concentrating.      He  was   himself  at 


420  MARENGO. 

Milan,  between  de  Melas  and  Austria,  and  determined  to  give 
the  imperialist  a  severe  lesson  before  reinforcements  could  reach 
him,  or  before  he  could  get  back  homewards.  Three  superb 
generals  were  there  in  readiness  to  carry  out  any  orders  the 
First  Consul  might  give — Murat,  Lannes  and  Victor;  and  to 
Lannes  fell  the  duty  of  blocking  the  Austrian  attempt  with 
18,000  men  to  burst  through  the  pass  of  Stradella  and  reach 
Placentia.  All  unaided,  with  only  12,000  men,  the  gallant  gen- 
eral fought  and  won  the  brilliant  battle  of  Montebello,  driving 
General  Ott  back  upon  Alessandria  with  heavy  loss. 

Then  Napoleon  hastened  from  Milan  across  the  Po  to  Stra- 
della in  order  to  prevent  Baron  de  Melas  from  breaking  through 
to  Placentia,  in  case  he  should  attack  the  French  lines  in  strong 
force. 

Alessandria  and  Placentia  lie  on  the  south  bank  of  the  Po, 
very  nearly  sixty  miles  apart  by  road — Alessandria  being  a 
little  south  of  west  from  Placentia,  and  Milan  being  to  the  north 
at  the  apex  of  a  triangle  formed  by  imaginary  lines  joining  the 
three  cities,  the  sides  being  a  little  shorter  than  the  base,  for 
Milan  is  not  more  than  thirty  miles  north  of  the  Po.  Stradella 
lay  twenty  miles  west  of  Placentia,  and  here  the  bold  foot-hills 
of  the  Apennines  come  nearly  down  to  the  river,  so  that  the 
high-road  was  built  through  what  was  practically  a  defile,  and 
here  Napoleon  posted  the  corps  of  Lannes  and  Victor,  and  the 
cavalry  of  Murat,  to  confront  Melas  and  the  Austrian  army 
should -they  strive  to  come  that  way. 

Now  there  was  every  reason  why  the  Austrian  general  should 
seek  an  immediate  pitched  battle  with  the  French.  He  had 
great  superiority  in  numbers  and  in  cavalry  and  artillery,  he  had 
two  hundred  guns  well  manned,  horsed  and  equipped.  Napo- 
leon was  very  short  of  guns.  He  had  been  able  to  bring  very 
few  across  the  Alps,  and  as  an  artillery  officer,  educated  to  have 
a  high  trust  in  this  arm,  he  felt  his  weakness  keenly.  It  was 
the  very  best  opportunity  yet  afforded  an  Austrian  commander 
to  crush  the  young  upstart  who  had  so  humbled  their  proud 
empire,  and  de  Melas  determined  to  make  the  effort. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  French  had  so  invariably  routed  the 


WATCHING   THE   AUSTRIANS.  421 

Austrians,  no  matter  how  many  there  might  be  of  them,  that  a 
feeling  of  perfect  confidence  possessed  the  entire  army;  and  Na- 
poleon himself  was  oppressed  with  a  fear  that  Melas  might  at- 
tempt to  escape  northward,  or  move  southward  through  the  Apen- 
nines to  the  walls  of  conquered  Genoa,  and  so  avoid  a  fight  until 
great  reinforcements  could  reach  him.  Napoleon  was  far  from 
France ;  Melas  was  but  a  short  distance  from  Austria.  Aid  could 
reach  the  latter  long  before  it  could  the  former,  and  Napoleon 
felt  that  the  decisive  battle  must  be  fought  at  once. 

The  loth  and  I  ith  of  June  were  passed  in  watching  the  move- 
ments of  the  Austrians,  in  concentrating  his  small  army  near 
Stradella,  and  resting  the  divisions  after  the  long  marches  some 
had  had  to  make.  On  the  I  ith,  in  the  person  of  a  single  general, 
there  reached  Napoleon  a  reinforcement  that  was  worth  a  division 
of  veterans — his  tried,  trusted  and  valiant  comrade,  Desaix ;  a 
man  who  loved  his  young  commander  with  almost  passionate 
devotion — a  sentiment  that  Napoleon,  who  was  pre-eminently  a 
judge  of  men',  was  careful  to  cultivate  and  to  utilize.  Of  the 
brilliant  generals  of  France  at  this  time,  Kleber,  Moreau,  Massena, 
Lannes  and  Desaix,  none  stood  higher  as  soldiers  than  the  last 
named,  and  even  Lannes  did  not  love  Napoleon  so  well.  Kleber 
was  in  Egypt,  chief  in  command;  Moreau  on  the  Rhine;  Mas- 
sena had  just  surrendered  Genoa,  after  a  superb  defence  against 
every  foe,  even  disease  and  starvation ;  Lannes  was  with  Napo- 
leon, and  now  came  Desaix,  burning  with  eagerness  for  imme- 
diate employment.  He  was  at  once  put  in  command  of  a  corps 
made  up  of  the  divisions  of  Monnier  and  Boudet. 

Up  to  noon  on  the  I2th  of  June,  the  First  Consul  watched  and 
waited,  but  no  enemy  appeared  to  assault  his  lines.  Then  he 
could  wait  no  longer,  but,  at  the  head  of  his  entire  force,  broke 
camp,  marched  westward  along  the  high  road,  bivouacked  for  the 
night  at  Voghera ;  kept  on  westward  the  next  morning,  crossed 
the  little  stream  known  as  the  Scrivia,  flowing  northward  into 
the  Po,  and  marched  boldly  out  upon  the  broad,  level,  far-reach- 
ing plain  that  lay  between  the  Apennines  and  the  Po,  the  Scrivia 
and  the  broader  Bormida — the  historic  plain  of  Marengo. 

Where  the  high  road,  skirting  the  base  of  the  Apennines,  falls 


422  MARENGO. 

back  from  the  Po  after  passing  westward  through  Stradella,  the 
valley  flattens  out  towards  the  north,  and  a  level  tract  of  coun- 
try spreads,  far  as  the  eye  can  reach,  from  the  foot-hills  towards 
the  river.  At  Tortona  the  road  turns  abruptly  to  the  west,  mak- 
ing almost  a  right  angle  with  its  track,  crosses  the  Scrivia,  passes 
through  a  little  village  called  San  Giuliano,  and  strikes  out  square 
across  the  plain  for  the  walls  and  fortifications  of  Alessandria, 
some  fifteen  miles  away.  Northward  all  is  flat  as  a  floor,  rather 
dreary  and  desolate.  Southward  the  rolling,  tumbling  masses 
of  the  Apennines  give  shelter  in  their  valleys  to  numbers  of  lit- 
tle hamlets,  and  through  one  of  these,  Novi,  passes  a  broad  high- 
way to  Genoa  that  joins  the  main  road  just  before  it  crosses  the 
Bormida,  which  empties  into  the  Po  to  the  east,  and  almost  under 
the  guns  of  Alessandria.  Out  on  the  main  road,  a  league  from 
San  Giuliano  and  near  the  Bormida,  stood  a  little  village — Ma- 
rengo. 

Now  if  the  Austrians  were  still  in  force  at  Alessandria,  they 
would  be  sure  to  have  outposts  on  the  plain  and  strong  guards  at 
the  bridge  across  the  Bormida.  The  French  hussars  scoured  the 
plain  east,  north  and  south  of  Marengo  and  found  nothing.  Na- 
poleon, pushing  ahead  with  Victor's  corps  along  the  highway, 
came  in  sight  of  the  village  towards  night-fall  of  the  I3th  of 
June,  and  then,  and  not  until  then,  the  brisk  rattle  of  musketry 
indicated  that  something  had  been  discovered  of  the  Austrians. 
It  was  nothing  but  an  out-lying  brigade  that  fell  rapidly  back 
pursued  by  the  cavalry,  and  escaped  in  the  darkness  across  the 
Bormida.  The  cavalry  sent  in  word  that  the  bridge  across  the 
Bormida  was  not  held  by  the  Austrians  in  force.  If  that  were  so, 
what  could  have  become  of  them  ?  Leaving  Victor  with  the  di- 
visions of  Gardanne  and  Chambarlhac  in  and  around  Marengo, 
the  First  Consul  rode  back,  turned  Lannes'  corps  out  into  the 
open  plain  where  he  could  bivouac  for  the  night;  posted  Murat 
with  all  the  cavalry  close  by  Lannes,  then  galloped  for  the  head 
of  Desaix's  corps,  just  entering  the  plain  from  the  east.  "March 
south,  take  Boudet  and  his  division,  go  to  Novi,  and  if  the  Aus- 
trians are  moving  that  way,  hold  them  and  send  for  me,"  were 
the  orders  rapidly  issued ;  and  prompt  and  eager,  Desaix  and  his 


AUSTRIA'S   ATTEMPTED   FLANK    MOVEMENT.  423 

one  strong  division  turned  down  towards  the  Apennines  and  were 
soon  out  of  sight.  Napoleon  himself  retained  Monnier's  division 
and  his  own  horse  and  foot-guards  with  him.  He  intended  going 
back  to  Voghera,  where  he  hoped  for  news  from  his  watchful 
generals  along  the  Po  and  the  Tessino ;  but,  to  his  annoyance, 
he  found  the  Scrivia  suddenly  swollen  to  such  a  torrent  that  he 
could  not  cross,  and  so  was  compelled  to  spend  the  night  on  its 
western  bank,  instead  of  twelve  miles  farther  east  at  Voghera, 
where  he  wanted  to  be.  It  little  occurred  to  him  that  he  would 
be  needed  right  there  on  the  plain  early  on  the  coming  day.  The 
night  of  the  I3th  of  June  the  French  army  was  widely  scattered; 
Victor  around  Marengo,  Lannes  and  Murat  out  on  the  plain, 
Monnier  and  the  guard  under  Bessieres  back  at  the  Scrivia,  and 
Desaix  far  southward  toward  Novi.  The  Austrian  army,  40,000 
strong  (with  10,000  more  within  supporting  distance  in  the  garri- 
sons of  Acqui,  Tortona  and  the  valley  of  the  upper  Po),  was  con- 
centrated in  Alessandria,  and  determined  with  the  dawn  of  day 
to  sally  forth  and  cut  its  way  through  to  Placentia. 

Now  if  Napoleon  had  known  the  plan  of  the  Baron  de  Melas, 
he  could  have  crushed  him  before  eight  o'clock  on  the  following 
morning.  There  were  only  two  narrow  bridges,  covered  by  one 
bridge-head  or  field-work,  across  the  Bormida,  and  the  entire  Aus- 
trian army  had  to  cross  them  in  long  column.  General  Ott,  with 
5,000  cavalry  and  5,000  foot,  was  to  turn  to  the  left  (northward) 
after  crossing,  strike  at  the  village  of  Castel-Ceriolo,  which  lay 
about  a  mile  north  of  Marengo,  and  so  "  turn  "  Vict®r's  right 
flank,  while  Generals  Haddick  and  Kaim,  with  the  main  body, 
L^,OOO  strong,  should  assault  along  the  high  road  and  storm  Ma- 
rengo, directly  in  front.  General  Oreilly,  with  6,000  men,  was  to 
move  a  short  distance  up  the  Bormida  and  attack  the  left  of  the 
French  position,  and  the  whole  movement  was  to  be  supported 
by  the  two  hundred  guns,  while  a  large  body  of  cavalry  and 
guards  remained  in  reserve  under  the  fortifications  of  Alessandria. 
It  would  have  been  an  easy  matter  for  Napoleon  to  let  a  few  di- 
visions of  the  enemy  cross  the  stream,  then  fall  on  them  from 
front  and  both  flanks,  and  crush  them  out  of  existence  while 
their  comrades  were  held  helplessly  on  the  opposite  shore;  but 


424  MARENGO. 

he  had  good  reason  to  believe  they  were  making  off  in  some 
other  direction,  and  did  not  in  the  least  expect  their  coming  over 
the  Bormida. 

And  so  it  happened  that  with  the  dawn  of  the  1 4th,  Oreilly, 
with  his  6,000  men  and  half  a  dozen  powerful  light  batteries,  si- 
lently and  stealthily  marched  over  the  bridges  through  the  eddy- 
ing mist,  deployed  on  the  eastern  bank,  and  were  about  to  move 
southward  in  accordance  with  their  orders  so  as  to  make  room 
for  Haddick,  when  they  were  suddenly  discovered  by  the  French 
pickets.  A  lively  fire  began  at  once  between  the  Austrian  flankers 
and  the  outposts  of  Victor's  corps.  The  trumpets  of  the  French 
rang  out  the  alarm  in  the  bivouacs  of  Marengo.  "  To  arms  " 
was  taken  up  and  resounded  over  the  plain,  and  Gardanne's  little 
division  of  infantry  came  jauntily  out  from  among  its  watch-fires 
to  ascertain  what  was  going  on  at  the  Bormida.  It  was  then  too 
late  for  Oreilly  to  think  of  moving  off  by  the  flank.  Unlimbering 
his  batteries  he  turned  savagely  upon  Gardanne,  overwhelmed 
him  with  a  storm  of  grape  and  musketry,  and  after  a  brief  but 
most  ineffectual  stand,  the  astonished  division  was  driven  back 
to  the  shelter  of  the  village  walls,  vastly  perplexed  and  badly 
crippled.  So  sudden,  so  severe  was  the  onslaught  of  the  Aus- 
trians  that  the  Frenchmen  believed  that  the  entire  army  was  al- 
ready across  the  river  and  about  to  assault ;  and,  seeing  Gar- 
danne's shattered  condition,  Victor  made  no  effort  to  find  out  the 
actual  state  of  the  case,  but  began  instant  preparations  for  a 
vigorous  defence  of  the  position  intrusted  to  him. 

And  so  passed  a  golden  moment.  The  oversight  came  near 
proving, the  death-blow  of  the  cause  of  France,  for  while  Victor 
was  engaged  in  strengthening  the  walls  and  hedge-rows  of  the 
village,  battery  after  battery,  brigade  after  brigade  of  Austrians 
kept  crossing  the  bridges  and  deploying  in  his  front,  Oreilly 
meantime  keeping  up  a  lively  fire,  and  occupying  the  attention 
of  the  French.  Two  mortal  hours  did  it  take  Haddick  and 
Kaim  to  cross  and  deploy  their  divisions.  Then  Ott  with  his 
10,000  hurried  over  and  went  on  down  to  the  open  fields  tow- 
ards Castel-Ceriolo,  and  now,  without  waiting  for  Ott  to  reach 
his  position,  covered  by  the  thundering  fire  of  his  batteries, 
Melas  ordered  Haddick  and  Kaim  to  assault  Marengo. 


STUBBORN    DEFENCE   OF   THE   FRENCH.  425 

Unluckily  for  the  Austrians  there  lay  just  west  of  the  village 
a  deep,  muddy  ditch  through  which  flowed  a  sluggish  stream 
called  La  Fontanone.  .It  made  a  semi-circular  sweep  with  the 
concave  side  toward  the  Bormida,  into  which  it  flowed  not  far 
below  Marengo.  It  was  a  natural  obstacle  of  great  value  to  the 
French,  as  it  broke  up  the  assaulting  columns,  and  gave  time  for 
Lannes  to  form  his  lines  in  support  of  Victor.  All  told,  the 
French  had  on  the  ground  not  more  than  18,000  men  to  oppose 
36,000  until  Napoleon  could  arrive,  and  the  preponderance  of 
field-guns  on  the  Austrian  side  was  simply  demoralizing.  But 
Victor  was  a  stubborn  fighter,  and,  despite  the  terrible  cannonade 
which  preceded  the  assault,  he  posted  Gardanne's  broken  but 
still  valiant  brigades  in  the  village  itself;  upon  its  left  Cham- 
barlhac's  three  brigades,  the  Twenty-fourth,  Forty-third  and 
Ninety-sixth ;  and  a  little  in  rear  and  in  support  were  stationed 
the  Second,  Eighth  and  Twentieth  regiments  of  cavalry  under 
their  gallant  and  accomplished  leader,  Kellerman. 

Lannes  moved  up  with  his  one  division,  that  of  Watrin,  and 
formed  on  Victor's  right,  his  lines  extending  towards  Castel- 
Ceriolo,  and  even  as  he  was  marching  into  position  the  shock 
came  on  the  centre.  Marengo  was  shrouded  in  the  smoke  of  a 
half-score  of  batteries. 

With  the  Austrian  division  of  Bellegarde  in  advance,  General 
Haddick  charged  impetuously  at  the  flashing  walls  and  hedge- 
rows held  by  Gardanne's  men.  The  Fontanone,  with  its  muddy 
bed,  aided  by  the  storm  of  bullets,  threw  the  column  into  dis- 
order despite  all  efforts  of  its  officers.  Seeing  this,  the  French 
General  Rivaud  leaped  forward  with  the  Forty-fourth  and  One 
Hundred  and  First  "  demi  brigades,"  and  with  desperate  and 
determined  bravery,  crowded  upon  the  very  lines  as  they  strove 
to  form,  and  hurled  them  back  into  the  ditch.  Three  times 
General  Haddick  rallied  and  led  forward  his  struggling  divi- 
sions, but  they  could  not  shake  the  thin  French  line  on  the  other 
bank,  their  artillery  could  not  help  them  in  such  a  melee,  and  at 
last  the  Austrians  gave  way,  broke  in  rout  and  tumult  for  the 
rear,  bearing  with  them  the  body  of  their  now  mortally  stricken 
general.  Haddick  had  received  his  death-wound,  one-fourth 


426  MARENGO. 

of  the  division  Bellegarde  was  stretched  bleeding  upon  the  banks 
of  the  Fontanone,  and  the  first  attack  on  Marengo  was  a  flat 
and  dismal  failure. 

Then  Melas  made  his  second  attempt.  Kaim's  division  was 
ordered  to  relieve  the  shattered  brigades  of  Haddick  in  front  of 
the  village;  Oreilly  was  sent  well  up  the  Bormida  and  ordered 
to  cross  the  Fontanone  with  all  Pilatis'  brigade  of  cavalry  and 
charge  vehemently  upon  the  left  of  the  French  lines,  while  a 
new  and  more  powerful  attack  was  made  by  Kaim's  fresh  troops 
along  the  highway.  Once  more  the  Austrian  guns  were  brought 
to  bear  along  the  entire  front,  and  grape  and  round  shot  were 
hurled  at  the  devoted  village,  battering  down  walls  and  fences,  and 
sending  splintered  rocks  flying  in  every  direction.  The  hamlet 
was  almost  untenable,  yet  the  gallant  Frenchmen  clung  to  it ;  for 
so  long  as  they  could  hold  Marengo,  there  was  one  point  at  least 
on  which  to  rest  the  line ;  with  Marengo  gone,  there  was  nothing. 
Their  little  force  would  be  driven  out  on  the  open  plain  among 
the  wheat  fields,  and  there  cut  off  by  cavalry  or  mowed  down 
by  the  bellowing  guns  of  the  Austrians. 

Encouraged  by  the  success  of  their  early  defence,  both  Gar- 
danne  and  Chambarlhac  had  advanced  to  the  edge  of  the  Fonta- 
none, and  when  Kaim's  fresh  columns  moved  to  the  assault, 
received  them  with  a  converging  fire  of  musketry  that  proved 
of  terrible  effect.  At  the  same  time,  brave  Kellerman  with  his 
horsemen  received  word  of  the  flank  movement  of  Oreilly,  and, 
moving  over  south  of  the  road,  came  in  sight  of  squadrons  of 
the  Twelfth  regiment  of  cavalry  slowly  retiring  before  Pilatis' 
overwhelming  numbers.  There  lay  the  broad  level  of  the  plain 
of  Marengo,  the  very  place  for  cavalry  manoeuvres  ;  there,  plung- 
ing through  the  Fontanone,  came  the  gay  squadrons  of  Austria's 
dashing  hussars,  the  most  renowned  light  horsemen  of  Europe 
at  this  time,  each  regiment  being  gorgeously  uniformed,  and 
mounted  on  the  finest  horses  money  could  buy.  On  this  sight, 
Kellerman's  grim  troopers  in  their  sombre  dragoon  dress  of 
dark  blue,  gazed  a  moment  with  eager  eyes,'  then  their  trumpets 
sounded  the  charge,  and  with  one  impulse  the  three  massive 
regiments  bore  down  on  the  jaunty  horsemen  of  the  empire. 


FORCING   THE  FONTANONE.  427 

Kellerman  had  well  chosen  the  moment,  for  the  Austrians  were 
not  reformed  after  the  passage  of  the  Fontanone,  and  the  charge 
struck  home  with  terrific  force  and  effect.  The  gay  hussars 
and  lancers  were  tumbled  over  like  ten-pins,  and  rolled  b,  the 
mud  of  the  treacherous  ditch.  Their  array  was  ruined,  dozens 
were  sabred  or  crushed  to  death,  many  prisoners  were  taken, 
and  Pilatis'  cavalry  attack  wound  up  in  grievous  disaster. 

But  by  this  time  it  was  nearly  ten  o'clock.  Gardanne  and 
Chambarlhac  were  well-nigh  exhausted.  Defending  the  line  of 
the  Fontanone,  they  had  been  alternately  subjected  to  hand-to- 
hand  conflicts  with  outnumbering  battalions  of  fresh  'troops,  or 
the  crashing  fire  of  the  Austrian  batteries.  The  slaughter  on 
both  sides  had  been  fearful,  and  with  all  their  daring  and  deter- 
mination it  was  evident  to  Victor  that  he  could  not  much  longer 

o 

resist  the  ceaseless  assaults  on  Marengo.  Down  to  his  right,  the 
one  division  which  constituted  the  entire  command  of  Lannes, 
after  gallantly  beating  off  direct  attacks,  now  found  itself  con- 
fronted by  fresh  and  eager  troops  and  outflanked  by  the  superior 
numbers  of  General  Ott,  who  had  succeeded  in  working  through 
Castel-Ceriolo  and  now  appeared  on  Lannes'  right  and  rear. 
Here  the  battle  raged  fiercely  for  some  time.  Ott  had  5,000  fine 
cavalry,  and  these  he  launched  out  from  behind  the  village,  and 
a  stirring  cavalry  combat  took  place  between  them  and  the  brig- 
ade of  Champeaux,  who  was  supporting  Lannes.  The  French 
horsemen  made  charge  after  charge,  breaking  in  and  through  the 
Austrian  squadrons,  but  failed  to  drive  them  from  the  field — 
their  numbers  were  far  too  great.  Just  at  this  time,  too,  the  Aus- 
trian engineers  succeeded  in  throwing  a  trestle  bridge  over  the 
Fontanone.  Rivaud  with  the  Forty-fourth  rushed  out  from  Ma- 
rengo to  destroy  it,  but  his  little  command  became  the  target  for 
three-score  of  field-guns;  it  was  horribly  cut  up  ;  Rivaud  him- 
self was  mortally  wounded;  the  survivors  were  driven  back  ;  the 
Austrian  grenadiers  swarmed  over  the  bridge  and,  mingling  with 
Rivaud's  retreating  lines,  went  into  the  village  with  them, 
following  up  their  advantage  by  pouring  columns  on  the  cen- 
tre, fast  as  they  could  hurry  them  in.  Once,  though  dying,  Ri- 
vaud drove  them  back,  but  not  for  long ;  fainting  from  loss  of  blood, 


428  MARENGO. 

he  was  borne  to  the  rear.  Then  Chambarlhac's  men,  unable  to 
bear  up  longer  against  the  terrible  storm  of  grape-shot,  gave  way 
and  came  drifting  back  over  the  plain.  Oreilly  made  an  impetuous 
rush  on  the  French  left,  nearly  engulfing  the  Ninety-sixth,  and 
then  began  pouring  around  the  left  flank ;  and  now,  with  the  cen- 
tre pierced  and  both  flanks  turned,  it  was  time  for  the  French 
to  go.  All  was  lost  save  honor.  Gallant  Champeaux  rode  in 
for  one  more  desperate  charge  towards  Castel-Ceriolo,  and  it 
was  the  last,  for  the  brave  soldier  received  his  death-wound,  and 
there  was  no  one  left  to  rally  his  men. 

'  It  was  now  ten  o'clock.  Hundreds  of  Victor's  corps  were  al- 
ready in  full  retreat  eastward  along  the  highway.  The  route  was 
thronged  with  wounded  and  stragglers ;  all  was  disorder,  con- 
fusion and  dismay,  when  "  the  man  of  destiny  " — the  great  leader 
himself — came  trotting  on  the  scene.  With  him  came  the  horse- 
guards  in  their  towering  bearskin  shakos ;  behind  them  marched 
the  compact  little  band  of  the  consular  guard ;  still  further  be- 
hind, the  division  of  Monnier.  He  came  just  in  time,  for  Gar- 
danne,  desperately  clinging  to  the  walls  and  ditches  of  the  village, 
had  well-nigh  exhausted  his  last  cartridge  and  was  loosening 
his  hold  ;  but  the  sight  of  that  calm  and  impassive  face,  the  pres- 
ence of  the  hitherto  indomitable  young  general,  the  disciplined 
valor  of  the  guards,  brought  renewed  hope  and  courage  to  the 
French.  The  Austrian  cavalry  were  at  the  moment  charging 
hither  and  thither  over  the  plain,  for  vast  numbers  had  told  upon 
the  firm  valor  of  Murat's  horsemen,  and  wherever  the  latter 
showed  front,  they  were  stormed  at  by  the  guns  now  advanced 
to  the  curved  line  of  the  Fontanone.  The  whole  effort  of  Melas 
was  directed  on  the  task  of  breaking  down  the  one  barrier  to  his 
triumphant  passage — the  stony  ruin  of  Marengo  ;  but  there  Gar- 
danne  still  fought  behind  the  shattered  walls,  though  now  cling- 
ing only  to  the  outer  edge  of  the  village  ;  and,  just  as  Napoleon 
arrived  upon  the  scene,  with  one  overpowering  rush  the  Austrian 
lines  swarmed  over  the  Fontanone  in  front  of  the  enfiladed  ranks 
of  Lannes ;  the  grenadiers  of  Vienna  burst  through  the  last 
hedge-row  in  the  village,  and,  charged  and  broken  up  by  the  ex- 
ultant hussars,  the  bleeding  and  exhausted  Frenchmen  fell  slowly 


SUPERB   COURAGE   OF   LANNES.  429 

back  along  the  whole  front.  At  last — at  last  the  victorious 
standards  of  the  Republic  were  destined  to  defeat.  Marengo 
was  lost. 

But  Napoleon  proved  as  great  in  adversity  as  hitherto  he  had 
shown  himself  in  the  height  of  triumph.  Throwing  the  foot- 
guards  into  squares  out  on  the  open  plain,  he  himself  stood  with 
them  in  defiant  resistance  of  the  Austrian  horse.  Theirvcool, 
well-aimed  volleys  emptied  hundreds  of  saddles,  and  hurled  back 
upon  their  infantry  supports  the  thronging  squadrons  in  the  gay, 
gold-laced  jackets.  Lannes  withdrew  his  few  guns  in  safety,  and 
opened  furiously  on  the  advancing  footmen  of  Kaim's  division. 
Monnier's  three  brigades,  fresh  and  impetuous,  were  directed  to 
the  right  on  Castel-Ceriolo,  and  there  made  sturdy  stand  against 
Ott's  further  movements  ;  but  the  left,  the  southern  extremity  of 
the  line,  was  gone  irrevocably,  and  Oreilly's  men,  in  vigorous 
pursuit,  were  pushing  along  the  highway.  Seeing  this — seeing 
his  line  of  retreat  threatened,  his  communication  with  Desaix 
cut  off,  the  First  Consul  abandoned  the  idea  that  had  first  occurred 
to  him,  that  of  "  pivoting  "  on  Castel-Ceriolo,  and  swinging  his 
whole  line  around  so  as  to'  draw  back  the  shattered  left,  face 
southward,  permit  the  Austrians  to  march  out  along  the  high- 
way they  coveted,  and  then  perhaps  attack  them  in  flank.  The 
highway  was  lost  already,  but  worse  than  that,  the  left  wing  was 
so  completely  ruined  that  all  order  or  formation  was  gone.  Far 
to  the  rear,  Murat  with  the  reserve  cavalry  was  striving  to  stem 
the  current  of  their  flight,  reorganize  their  commands,  and  at  the 
same  time  beat  back  the  horsemen  from  Oreilly's  division,  who 
scoured  the  plain  south  of  the  road  and  sabred  all  who  fell  in 
their  way. 

On  the  right,  the  superb  courage  and  steadiness  of  Lannes 
and  his  division  saved  the  army  from  destruction.  Had  this 
part  of  the  line  gone  as  had  the  rest,  de  Melas  could  have 
ordered  forward  all  his  horse  batteries  and  cavalry,  and  turned 
retreat  into  absolute  panic  and  rout ;  but  Napoleon  himself 
stood  with  Lannes,  and  as  the  Austrians  in  well-ordered  lines 
marched  simultaneously  forth  from  Marengo  and  Castel-Ceriolo, 
and  with  eighty  rapidly  handled  guns  swept  forward  to  com- 


430  MARENGO. 

plete  the  ruin  they  had  made,  the  First  Consul  himself,  Lannes, 
with  the  division  of  Watrin,  and  Kellerman,  with  the  remnant  of 
his  cavalry,  covered  and  directed  the  retreat.  Austria  had  in- 
deed won  the  day,  but  what  was  left  of  the  French  army  was 
undaunted.  In  vain  the  batteries  stormed,  and  the  dragoons  of 
Lobkowitz  and  hussars  of  Frimonfcharged  their  squares.  Right 
and  left  their  comrades  were  in  flight,  but  the  guardsmen  and 
the  firm  infantry  of  Watrin  breasted  every  shock,  recoiling  but 
never  breaking.  By  noon  Marengo  was  left  far  in  rear,  the 
plain  was  strewn  with  dead  and  dying  and  covered  with  a  thick 
pall  of  smoke ;  but  even  now  the  Austrians  dared  not  press  too 
close,  for  startling  explosions  that  filled  the  air  with  hurtling 
fragments  of  wood  and  iron  occurred  every  moment.  Lannes 
was  blowing  up  the  caissons  he  could  not  carry  away. 

And  now  de  Melas  conceived  the  battle  won.  Worn  out 
with  fatigue  and  anxiety,  but  all  triumph  and  eagerness,  he 
rode  back  to  Alessandria  to  send  despatches  to  the  capitals  of 
Europe,  announcing  that  the  great  general  of  France  had  suf- 
fered ignominous  defeat.  His  chief  of  staff,  de  Zach,  was  left 
on  the  field  to  conduct  the  pursuit,  and  de  Zach,  sharing  the 
belief  of  his  commander  that  there  was  no  more  fight  in  France 
that  day,  drew  in  his  extended  battle-lines,  formed  his  columns 
on  and  near  the  highway,  and  pushed  on  eastward  towards  San 
Giuliano.  Even  the  baggage  was  ordered  up.  Latterman's 
grenadiers  took  the  lead  on  the  road.  Oreilly,  Kaim  and  Ott 
marched  on  the  flanks,  and,  determined  not  to  halt  until  he  had 
driven  the  French  across  the  Scrivia,  and  gone  well  on  his  own 
way  towards  Placentia,  the  Austrian  staff-officer  rode  blithely 
forward. 

But  "he  reckoned  without  his  host,"  and — Desaix.  There  was 
salvation  yet  for  France,  but  only  the  best  of  soldierly  impulse 
could  develop  it.  Turning  his  burning  eyes  southward  across 
the  plain,  Napoleon  looked  longingly  towards  the  cool  green 
heights  of  the  Apennines,  to  the  shadowy  slopes  where  miles 
away  lay  Novi,  whither  the  night  before  he  had  despatched  his 
trusted  general.  He  could  not  have  reached  there ;  he  could 
not  have  gone  more  than  two-thirds  of  the  way  before  halting 


DESAIX   TO   THE   RESCUE.  431 

for  the  night  to  rest  his  men.  Where  was  he  now  ?  Could  he- 
be  recalled  in  time  ?  The  wind  had  been  blowing  southward 
since  early  morn.  He  must  have  heard  the  booming  of  .the 
guns  behind  him ;  must  have  divined  that  his  chief  was  attacked 
by  the  very  army  he  had  been  sent  southward  in  search  of;  must 
have  known  that  Napoleon  stood  in  sore  need  of  his  supporting 
arm.  But  orders  required  him  to  march  to  Novi  and  search 
there  for  de  Melas.  Many  another  general  would  have  argued 
that  he  had  no  choice  but  to  obey  to  the  letter ;  would  have 
turned  his  back  on  the  thunder  of  the  distant  guns  booming 
their  recall  on  the  misty  plain  below,  would  have  marched  on, 
away  from  the  fight  where  honor  called  him,  and  then  defended 
it  by  saying,  those  were  his  orders.  Not  so  Desaix. 

At  the  break  of  day  he  had  heard  the  first  rumble  of  the  bat- 
tle thunder,  and  all  the  soldier  in  him  leaped  to  life  at  the  sound. 
Springing  to  horse  he  had  ridden  out  to  a  point  whence  he 
could  better  listen  to  the  faint  tidings  from  the  north,  tidings 
that  speedily  said  to  him :  "  De  Melas  is  not  on  the  road  to 
Genoa.  He  will  not  be  found  at  Novi.  He  is  here — here  in 
force ;  we  are  but  a  handful  against  him.  Come  back !  come 
back  ! "  His  men  were  worn  and  tired.  Late  into  the  previous 
night,  all  the  previous  day,  they  had  been  marching,  marching, 
but  this  was  no  time  to  think  of  blistered  feet  and  aching  legs. 
Calling  to  Savary,  he  bade  him  take  a  couple  of  squadrons, 
gallop  to  Novi,  scour  the  neighborhood,  satisfy  himself  whether 
the  Austrians  had  or  had  not  gone  that  way,  then  rejoin  him 
with  all  speed.  Then  his  division  was  roused;  breakfast,  such 
as  it  was,  was  served;  ranks  were  formed,  and  Desaix  stood 
ready  to  march.  Soon  couriers  came  foaming  back  from 
Savary,  "  No  signs  of  Austrians  towards  Novi,"  and  sending 
aides-de-camp  ahead  to  tell  him  of  his  coming,  Desaix  faced 
towards  Napoleon  and  marched  for  the  sound  of  the  guns. 

It  was  the  deed  of  a  soldier  and  a  grand  one. 

All  day  he  marched,  reaching  the  skirts  of  the  broad  plain 
about  two  hours  after  meridian,  and  directing  his  column  on 
San  Giuliano,  he  pushed  ahead,  full  gallop,  in  search  of  his 
beloved  chief.  Those  who  saw  it  never  tired  of  telling  how  the 


432  MARENGO. 

pallid,  impassive  features  of  the  great  conqueror  beamed  with 
hope,  delight  and  the  new-born  fire  of  battle  as  Desaix,  covered 
with  dust  and  sweat,  spurred  through  the  group  of  generals  and 
staff-officers  and  saluted  his  commander.  "  I  am  here,  mon 
general,"  and  Desaix  here  meant  Desaix  with  all  his  men. 
Eagerly  they  swarmed  about  him,  the  battle-worn  veterans. 
Few  retained  any  hope.  Marengo  was  lost.  One-fourth  of  the 
army  lay  dead  or  wounded  around  its  burning  walls,  now  three 
miles  behind  them;  and  out  along  the  highway,  across  the 
broad  plain,  came  the  solid  masses  of  Austria.  Already  those 
dreaded  guns  were  again  unlimbering,  and  at  the  sight  the 
beaten  army  cowered  and  quickened  its  huddling  retreat.  Still, 
if  there  were  hope  of  any  kind,  Desaix  would  feel  and  know  it. 
All  other  generals,  even  Lannes,  now  saw  nothing  but  a  retreat 
until  dark,  but  Napoleon  looked  eagerly  at  Desaix,  and  Desaix 
calmly  at  the  field.  "  What  say  you  ?"  was  the  final  question. 

"  The  battle  is  lost,  but,"  glancing  at  his  watch,  "  it  is  only 
three  o'clock ;  there  is  yet  time  to  win  another"  was  Desaix's 
spirited  answer,  and  with  a  shout  of  applause  the  group  gathered 
closer  around  the  two  great  soldiers,  while  the  rapid  orders  for 
renewal  of  the  fight  were  given. 

The  French  at  this  time  were  mainly  north  of  the  highway, 
falling  sullenly  back  toward  the  Scrivia ;  the  Austrians,  except 
Ott's  division,  mainly  on  or  south  of  that  road,  strung  out  in 
long  columns,  pushing  eagerly  forward  for  San  Giuliano,  hoping 
to  beat  the  French  in  the  race  for  the  bridges,  cut  off  their  retreat, 
hem  them  in  along  the  stream,  and  mow  them  down  with  their 
artillery.  Suddenly  there  appeared  across  their  front  the  serried 
ranks  of  a  fresh  division.  Coming  up  from  behind  San  Giuliano 
and  deploying,  facing  west  across  the  plain,  with  their  left  resting 
upon  the  highway,  were  the  resolute  brigades  of  Boudet,  six 
thousand  troops  that  had  not  yet  been  engaged — that  had  never 
yet  known  defeat  at  the  hands  of  the  Austrians.  At  the  same 
instant,  staff-officers  and  generals  galloping  among  the  disordered 
battalions,  shouted  the  glad  news  that  Desaix  had  come,  ordered 
the  troops  to  halt  and  form  line.  Gardanne's  remnant  and  Vic- 
tor's stragglers  took  heart  at  sight  of  the  welcome  reinforcement. 


THE   RALLY   ON   THE   PLAIN.  433 

Lannes  had  already  halted  and  formed  front  out  on  the  plain. 
Farther  still  were  the  squares  of  the  Consular  Guard ;  and  far- 
thest of  all,  still  righting,  retiring  from  the  fields  around  Castel- 
Ceriolo,  the  brigades  of  Carra  Saint  Cyr.  All  were  halted  as 
they  stood,  faced  and  deployed  towards  their  right,  and  so  it  re- 
sulted that  a  long  oblique  line  was  extended  across  the  plain 
between  San  Giuliano  and  Castel-Ceriolo,  while  Desaix's  men 
at  the  former  village  squarely  confronted  the  advancing  Aus- 
trians.  Kellerman,  with  what  was  left  of  his  cavalry,  took  post 
in  support  of  Victor's  shaken  corps,  and  the  twelve  light  guns — 
all  that  the  French  had  left — were  posted  in  front  of  Desaix  to 
sweep  the  high-road. 

Unable  to  account  for  the  sudden  halt  and  formation  of  his 
enemy,  but  never  dreaming  that  it  meant  a  determination  to  re- 
sume the  offensive,  de  Zach  persisted  in  racing  ahead  to  gain  the 
bridges  toward  Tortona.  He  maintained  his  columns  of  march, 
and  ran  stupidly  into  the  trap.  Meantime,  riding  rapidly  along 
his  lines,  Napoleon,  with  that  electric  eloquence  that  ever  dis- 
tinguished him  in  action,  was  reanimating  his  soldiers.  "  You 
have  gone  far  enough,  my  friends ;  remember,  it  is  my  habit  to 
sleep  on  the  field  of  battle,"  he  said  to  them  smilingly,  cheerily, 
and  they  reloaded  their  long  muskets  and  once  more  looked 
eagerly,  vengefully  at  the  dusty  columns  over  the  plain. 

Then  came  the  moment  of  retribution.  The  heads  of  the 
Austrian  columns  nearing  San  Giuliano  came  within  easy  range 
of  the  light  guns,  and  General  Marmont  gave  the  order  "JFire/? 
Instantly  a  storm  of  grape  tore  its  way  through  the  crowded 
ranks,  and  Desaix  was  seen  to  dash  forward  in  front  of 
the  Ninth  light  infantry,  waving  his  sword  and  ordering  the 
charge.  This  gallant  regiment  sprang  to  the  front,  poured  in 
a  crashing  volley  at  the  short  distance  of  two  hundred  yards, 
and  led  on  by  Desaix  himself,  rushed  in  with  fixed  bayonets  on 
the  recoiling  Austrians.  Latterman's  grenadiers  stood  firm,  how- 
ever, and  their  answering  volley  took  terrible  effect.  A  bullet 
struck  gallant  Desaix  full  in  the  breast  and  stretched  him  on  the 
sward.  The  hero,  the  saviour  of  the  day,  had  arrived  in  time  not 
only  to  retrieve  the  fortunes  of  France,  but  to  consecrate  with 
28 


434  MARENGO. 

his  life-blood  her  glorious  and  decisive  victory.  "  Do  not  let  the 
men  know  it,"  he  faintly  whispered  to  General  Boudet,  who  bent 
over  him ;  but  the  Ninth  had  seen  him  fall,  and  burning  for  ven- 
geance, had  redoubled  the  fury  of  their  attack.  They  won  that 
day  the  proud  title  of  "  The  Incomparable."  Even  as  they  were 
hurled  upon  the  head  of  column,  and  the  Thirtieth  and  Fifty- 
ninth  crossed  the  road  and  attacked  from  the  east  and  south,  Kel- 
lerman's  dragoons  came  sweeping  down  with  furious  shout  and 
onslaught  through  the  gap  between  the  lines  of  Desaix  and  Lan- 
nes, burst  through  the  Austrian  columns,  then  wheeling  right  and 
left,  doubled  them  up  in  huddled  confusion.  General  de  Zach 
and  two  thousand  grenadiers  found  themselves  surrounded  and 
cut  off  by  the  very  troops  whom  ten  minutes  before  they  thought 
to  be  in  utter  rout;  and  to  his  bitter  mortification  de  Zach  was 
compelled  to  yield  up  his  sword,  his  grenadiers  to  throw  down 
their  arms  and  surrender,  and  now  the  Austrians  were  left  with- 
out a  leader. 

Opposite  Lannes  the  Austrian  centre  was  now  striving  to 
form  to  meet  the  new  and  utterly  unlooked-for  situation,  but 
Kellerman  gave  them  no  time.  He  whirled  about  after  securing 
de  Zach  and  charged  the  dragoons  of  Lichtenstein,  driving  them 
back  on  the  infantry.  Lannes  at  the  same  instant  sounded  the 
charge  and  threw  himself  upon  the  division  of  Kaim.  The 
Guards  and  the  division  of  Monnier  once  more  turned  savagely 
on  General  Ott  and  raced  him  back  through  the  streets  of  Castel- 
Ceriolo.  The  Austrian  centre  rallied  around  the  blazing  hamlet 
of  Marengo  for  one  last  stand,  but  it  was  useless.  Ott's  cavalry, 
panic-stricken,  were  galloping  back  to  the  Bormida,  riding  down  all 
who  got  in  their  way,  shrieking,  "  To  the  bridges !  to  the  bridges ! " 
The  guns,  hastily  limbered,  were  being  driven  madly  to  the  rear, 
and  finding  the  bridges  jammed,  the  drivers  were  directed  to 
plunge  into  the  stream  and  strive  to  ford  it.  In  a  moment,  drown- 
ing horses  and  men  and  mud-stalled  gun-carriages  dammed  the 
waters.  The  Fontanone  was  once  more  thronged  with  fugitives, 
as  the  Austrian  centre  fled  before  the  madly  cheering  lines  of 
Lannes.  Off  to  the  south,  Oreilly's  cavalry  still  made  vehement 
charges  to  stay  the  French  advance,  but  the  horse-guards  under 


A   GLORIOUS   DAY   FOR   FRANCE.  435 

Bessieres  and  Eugene  Beauharnais  rode  through  the  intervals, 
crossed  the  highway  and  charged  them  with  fiery  impetuosity, 
and  then  there  was  nothing  left  for  Austria  but  demoralized  and 
panicky  flight — "  horse,  foot  and  dragoon."  Abandoning  guns, 
baggage,  dead  and  wounded,  the  leaderless  rabble  struggled  back 
across  the  Bormida,  and  as  the  sun  dropped  low  in  the  west,  de 
Melas,  hastening  forward  from  Alessandria,  met,  instead  of  the 
victorious  army  whose  prowess  he  had  already  vaunted  in  exult- 
ant despatches  to  Vienna,  a  shattered,  broken  and  utterly  defeated 
mob.  The  army  was  gone.  The  hopes  of  Austria  were  ruined. 

In  vain  Melas  sought  for  his  generals  and  strove  to  regain  his 
guns.  Haddick  was  dead ;  de  Zach  a  prisoner ;  Oreilly  miss- 
ing ;  Kaim  and  Ott  without  commands ;  Latterman,  Belle- 
garde,  Vogelsang  and  Goldesheim  severely  wounded ;  his  Staff- 
officers  scattered ;  all  his  baggage,  all  his  batteries  in  the  hands 
of  the  enemy,  and  one-third  of  his  men  killed,  wounded  and 
prisoners.  It  was  a  sorry  day  for  de  Mplas.  He  had  indeed 
beaten  Napoleon,  but  that  victory  was  his  defeat  It  turned  his 
head.  He  had  gone  to  tell  the  glad  tidings.  Desaix  had  come 
to  turn  the  tide. 

And  so  closed  the  bloody  day  of  Marengo,  a  day  of  which 
Napoleon  was  ever  so  proud  that  he  named  his  favorite  gray 
charger  in  honor  of  it.  Yet  it  was  not  his  victory — it  was  that  of 
Desaix ;  and  could  Desaix  have  lived,  and  lived  in  Grouchy 's 
place  fifteen  years  later,  who  can  say  that  Waterloo  would  not 
have  been  for  France  a  victory  even  greater,  even  more  decisive 
than  Marengo? 

Few  as  were  the  forces  engaged,  viewed  from  the  stand-point 
of  its  results  this  hard-fought  battle  was,  up  to  this  point  at 
least,  the  most  important  of  Napoleon's  career.  He  had  lost 
heavily ;  one-fourth  of  his  army  was  now  "hors  de  combat!'  four 
of  his  generals  were  severely  wounded,  and  Desaix,  devoted, 
daring  Desaix  was  killed,  but  the  army  of  Austria  was  in  his 
grasp. 

"  What  a  glorious  day  !  "  said  his  old  school-mate  Bourrienne 
to  him  that  evening.  "  Yes,  glorious  indeed  !  could  I  only  have 
embraced  Desaix  upon  the  field/'  was  the  sad  reply 


436 


MARENGO. 


But  triumph  and  joy  ran  riot  in  the  army  of  France.  They 
knew  well  that  by  their  victory  of  this  day  another  campaign 
was  decided,  and  so  it  proved.  Piedmont  with  all  its  fortresses, 
and  Lombardy  (for  the  second  time),  were  surrendered  to  Napo- 
leon. Tortona  with  its  citadel,  Milan,  Arona,  Alessandria  and 
Placentia,  with  their  fortifications,  Genoa  with  its  harbor,  all 
the  military  stores  and  artillery,  were  yielded  up  to  France ;  and 
by  the  terms  of  the  capitulation  of  Alessandria,  Austria  let  go 
her  hold  of  northern  Italy,  fell  back  behind  the  line  of  the  river 
Mincio,  retaining  only  Mantua  and  Venice. 

But  Marengo  gave  something  more  to  France.  Before  setting 
forth  from  Paris  to  fight  another  battle  for  her  glory  or  her 
defence,  Napoleon  Buonaparte  had  become  her  Emperor. 


DEATH    OF    MARSHAL   DESAIX. 


AUSTERLITZ. 

1805. 

,  RANGE  and  England  and  Austria  had  signed 
treaties  of  peace — France  and  Austria  as 
the  result  of  the  campaign  of  Marengo,  and 
Moreau's  victory  at  Hohenlinden ;  France 
and  England  at  Amiens  in  March,  1802; 
but  the  rapidly  increasing  honors  bestowed 
upon  Napoleon  by  the  French,  and  his  cor- 
respondingly rapid  aggressions  in  Italy,  ex- 
cited the  jealous  anxiety  of  both  these 
nations.  Made  President  of  the  Cis- Alpine  Republic  in  January, 
1802,  and  declared  Consul  for  life  by  the  French  Senate  in  the 
following  August,  Napoleon  became  arrogant — so  said  England 
and  Austria — refused  to  modify  his  Italian  policy  to  suit  the 
views  of  the  former,  and  once  more  the  "  tight  little  island  " 
bristled  with  steel ;  war  was  declared  against  France ;  the  Eng- 
lish fleets  swept  the  seas  and  devastated  her  commerce ;  Napoleon 
threatened  to  invade  the  British  Islands,  and  gathered  a  large 
army  at  Boulogne  as  though  to  carry  out  the  threat ;  and,  carried 
away  by  their  mercurial  enthusiasm,  the  French  people  by  a  pop- 
ular vote — some  3,000,000  against  3,000 — resolved  to  confer  upon 
their  now  almost  worshiped  leader  the  crown  and  title  of  em- 
peror. The  Pope  of  Rome  was  called  upon  to  perform  the  cere- 
mony of  coronation,  but  Napoleon  brusquely  set  the  Holy  Father 
aside  and  placed  the  crown  with  his  own  hands  upon  his  head. 
In  May,  1805,  he  was  crowned  King  of  Italy,  and  now  Austria 
once  more  sprang  to  arms. 

From  first  to  last  the  most  bitter  and  unrelenting  enemy  of 

(437) 


438  AUSTERLITZ. 

France — or  rather  of  Napoleon — was  England.  Ships  and  sail- 
ors, guns  and  gold  she  furnished  in  lavish  profusion.  Her 
statesmen  were  in  every  court  in  Europe  stirring  up  the  un- 
willing governments  to  renewed  efforts  against  the  Corsican 
upstart,  as  she  was  pleased  to  term.  him.  No  ruler,  born  of  the 
people  could  be  tolerated  on  any  throne  by  aristocratic  England, 
and  though  it  was  plain  to  all  that  France  was  vastly  benefited 
and  enriched  by  the  home  policy  of  Napoleon,  his  foreign  policy 
was  what  alarmed  the  nations.  His  elevation  to  the  throne  was 
a  violation  of  his  solemn  obligations,  so  said  England  and  Aus- 
tria, and  now  a  grand  coalition  was  formed  by  England,  Austria, 
Russia  and  Sweden  with  the  avowed  purpose  of  driving  him 
back  to  the  obscurity  from  which  he  came.  England  was  to 
blockade  the  ports,  destroy  the  navies  and  ruin  the  commerce 
of  France,  while  the  other  nations  were  to  unite,  form  an  im- 
mense army  and  launch  it  upon  her  eastern  frontier.  This  was 
in  September,  1805. 

Now  indeed  was  Napoleon  in  extreme  peril,  and  all  Europe 
thought  his  day  had  come. 

But  they  did  not  know  him  yet.  He  was  no  man  to  stand 
quietly  at  home  and  let  his  enemies  concentrate  beyond  his  bor- 
ders. With  astonishing  speed,  in  wagons,  coaches,  carriages, 
"  diligences"  anything  on  wheels  that  could  carry  men,  he  rushed 
his  infantry  from  Boulogne,  assembled  a  large  and  powerful 
army  at  Mayence  in  Hesse-Darmstadt  on  the  Rhine,  and  while  the 
Austrians  were  composedly  waiting  for  the  Russians  to  come 
and  join  them  in  the  contemplated  inroad  on  France,  Napoleon, 
with  his  veteran  soldiers,  now  soldiers  of  the  Empire  of  France, 
was  creeping  like  a  cat  upon  their  advanced  posts.  His  columns 
were  moving  southeastward  through  Bavaria  and  the  Black 
Forest,  and  all  on  one  day,  with  the  sudden  leap  of  the  panther, 
the  French  cavalry  burst  from  half  a  dozen  roads  into  the  valley 
of  the  Danube — all  along  where  Marlborough  and  Eugene  had 
marched  and  fought  in  the  glorious  Blenheim  year,  a  century 
before — while  with  massive  artillery  and  solid  battalions,  Napo- 
leon himself  appeared  before  the  fortress  of  Ulm,  and  pointing 
out  to  its  veteran  commander  that  his  retreat  was  cut  off,  that 


ORGANIZATION   OF   "THE   GRAND   ARMY."  439 

he  could  not  get  away,  nor  could  succor  reach  him,  the  emperor 
demanded  the  surrender  of  his  army;  and  Ulm,  with  its  vast 
stores,  supplies  and  arsenals,  with  30,000  troops  all  ready  for 
the  campaign,  was  handed  over  by  General  Mack  to  this  aston- 
ishing young  leader  of  men.  This  was  on  the  2Oth  of  October. 
Three  weeks  thereafter  Napoleon  with  his  army  had  entered  the 
proud  capital  of  Austria.  Vienna  was  at  his  mercy :  the  army 
of  Austria  was  scattered  to  the  four  winds.  France  was  in 
one  blaze  of  triumph  and  delight,  and  Europe  was  aghast  with 
dismay.  But  more  yet  was  in  store  for  them — a  grander  tri- 
umph for  France,  a  louder  thunderbolt  for  Europe.  The  Em- 
peror of  Russia,  with  an  army  of  over  100,000  men,  had  arrived 
in  Austria  in  the  performance  of  his  portion  of  the  compact. 
The  Emperor  of  Austria,  driven  from  his  own  capital,  had 
hastened  to  join  him;  the  broken  fragments  of  the  Austrian 
army  were  rallying  upon  the  advancing  column,  and  Napoleon 
boldly  pushed  forward  to  meet  the  combined  array.  He  had 
thrice  humbled  Austria ;  now  he  was  to  meet  and  vanquish  the 
combined  strength  of  Austria  and  Russia,  and  to  win  the  ever 
glorious  and  memorable  battle  of  Austerlitz. 

For  two  years  France  may  be  said  to  have  been  steadily  pre- 
paring for  war,  and  in  the  fall  of  1805,  as  reorganized  by  Napo- 
leon, "  The  Grand  Army  of  the  Empire  "  was  at  its  best. 

It  was  divided  into  seven  corps,  commanded  each  by  a  mar- 
shal of  France  who  had  won  his  baton  by  valiant  and  approved 
services  under  the  eye  of  Napoleon  himself,  or  by  some  veteran 
general.  They  were  as  follows  : 

First  corps,  17,000,  Marshal  Bernadotte;  Second  corps,  20,- 
ooo,  General  Marmont;"  Third  corps,  26,000,  Marshal  Davout; 
Fourth  corps,  40,000,  Marshal  Soult;  Fifth  corps,  16,000,  Mar- 
shal Lannes.  (These  corps  were  soon  equalized  by  the  transfer 
of  Suchet's  division  from  the  Fourth  to  the  Fifth.)  Sixth  corps, 
24,000,  Marshal  Ney ;  Seventh  corps,  14,000,  Marshal  Auge- 
reau  ;  Cavalry  corps,  22,000,  Horse  Artillery,  1,000,  Marshal 
Murat ;  the  Imperial  Guard,  7,000,  Marshal  Bessieres. 

Each  of  the  seven  corps  was  complete  in  infantry  only. 
Napoleon  did  not  approve  of  the  system  that  had  prevailed  on 


440  AUSTERLITZ. 

the  Rhine  of  making  the  "corps  d'armee"  complete  in  themselves, 
with  full  complement  of  heavy  and  light  cavalry  and  their 
own  artillery.  He  desired  to  hold  in  his  own  hand  and  be  able 
to  send  at  once  to  any  desired  point  the  heavy  cavalry  of  the 
army ;  and,  old  artilleryman  that  he  was,  he  preferred  also  to 
retain  personal  control  of  the  movements  of  the  larger  portion 
of  his  guns.  The  corps  were  fully  supplied  with  all  the  light 
cavalry,  hussars,  lancers  and  chasseurs  they  might  need  for 
guard  and  scouting  duty,  and  each  corps  had  its  batteries  of 
field-artillery;  but  the  greatest  number  of  batteries  was  held 
subject  to  the  orders  of  the  emperor,  and  as  for  the  grand  corps 
of  cavalry — all  "  heavies  " — Napoleon  and  Murat  alone  con- 
trolled them.  This  was  a  superb  command,  6,000  cuirassiers 
under  Generals  Nansouty  and  d'Haurpoul,  and  16,000  dragoons 
under  five  brigadier-generals,  made  seven  brigades  of  disciplined 
and  heavily  equipped  horsemen,  each  brigade  being  accom- 
panied by  its  battery  of  flying  artillery;  and  as  for  the  guards, 
they  were  the  very  elite  of  the  French  army.  None  but  tried 
and  valorous  men  could  find  their  way  into  those  ranks.  The 
grenadiers  were  the  delight  of  Napoleon's  heart;  and  the 
Italian  regiment,  the  Mameluke  squadrons,  the  gendarmerie 
and  horse-guards  were  commands  that  were  the  envied  and  ad- 
mired of  the  whole  army.  Here,  too,  the  emperor's  love  for  his 
old  arm  showed  itself  in  the  formation  of  the  four  batteries  of 
the  guard,  manned,  horsed  and  equipped,  drilled  and  taught 
with  the  utmost  care;  and  these  organizations,  this  corps  by 
itself,  marched,  camped  and  bivouacked  always  near  the  emperor. 

Other  grenadiers  there  were  who  formed  a  division,  and  often 
marched  near  the  guard,  and  were  associated  with  it,  but  they 
belonged  to  the  Fifth  corps,  and  were  led  by  Oudinot. 

All  told,  there  were  present  with  the  colors  in  the  Grand  Army 
as  it  crossed  the  Rhine  for  the  advance  on  Austria,  340  guns  and 
186,000  men,  38,000  of  whom  were  mounted.  When  it  became 
necessary  to  march  forward  to  meet  the  allied  armies,  however, 
Napoleon  had  with  him  but  45,000  men,  and  late  in  November, 
1805,  the  three  emperors  with  their  forces  were  in  the  field  north 
of  Vienna,  between  Briinn  and  Olmutz,  some  ninety  miles  away. 


THREE   EMPERORS   IN   THE   FIELD.  441 

Fixing  his  headquarters  at  Briinn,  Napoleon  had  carefully  studied 
the  ground  in  his  front,  feeling  well  assured  that  it  was  the  pur- 
pose of  the  allies  to  advance  to  the  attack  as  soon  as  they  had 
gathered  in  what  they  deemed  sufficient  strength ;  and  he  was 
impatient  for  the  battle  to  come  for  the  simple  reason  that  the 
relations  of  France  with  Prussia  were  becoming  much  involved. 
Prussia  was  showing  signs  of  hostility,  and  it  was  very  necessary 
that  the  allies  should  be  crushed  before  Prussia  could  unite  her 
forces  and  fortunes  with  theirs. 

Alexander  of  Russia  and  the  Emperor  Francis  were  at  Ol- 
miitz,  forty  odd  miles  northeast  of  Briinn,  and  their  combined 
armies,  as  they  moved  forward  to  the  attack,  consisted  of  90,000 
men.  English  writers,  like  Sir  Archibald  Alison,  tell  us  that  the 
French  had  90,000  to  the  allies,  80,000.  French  writers,  like  M. 
Thiers,  put  it  far  the  other  way  ;  but  it  may  be  said  of  Austerlitz 
that  there,  at  least,  the  numbers  of  the  combatants  engaged  on 
the  two  sides  were  more  nearly  equal  than  in  any  of  Napoleon's 
great  battles.  The  anxiety  with  which  he  awaited  the  result  of  this 
one,  therefore,  was  due  probably  to  the  immense  issues  involved, 
rather  than  any  doubts  as  to  the  success  of  his  arms.  In  fact,  the 
advantage  seemed  to  lie  with  the  French  emperor  from  the  very 
start.  Himself  the  invader,  he  yet  proposed  to  fight  a  defensive 
battle ;  one,  at  least,  in  which  he  would  invite  and  compel  attack 
on  ground  carefully  surveyed  and  chosen  by  himself,  and  over 
which  he  had  ridden  with  his  generals,  causing  them  to  study  it 
with  him.  His  army  was  in  superb  condition,  mentally  and  phys- 
ically ;  a  trifle  wearied,  perhaps,  with  their  long  and  incessant 
marching,  but  hardened,  toughened  and  vigorous,  full  of  high 
faith  in  him  and  in  one  another — a  Grand  Army,  indeed,  in  its 
discipline,  its  patriotism  and  its  unity.  Never  yet  had  their 
young  emperor  suffered  defeat,  and  never  should  he.  Yet,  in 
order  to  concentrate  at  Briinn  in  time,  he  had  been  obliged  to 
call  on  Davout  to  make  a  forced  and  fatiguing  march  with  his 
corps  from  the  western  borders  of  Hungary,  and  Bernadotte,  with 
his  stalwart  infantry,  tramped  all  the  way  from  Iglau  on  the  Bo- 
hemian border  in  two  days.  The  march  of  Friant's  division  of 
the  former  corps  was  something  phenomenal,  for  with  all  their 


442  AUSTERLITZ. 

heavy  campaign  kits,  they  traversed  a  distance  of  a  little  over 
ninety  miles  in  forty-eight  hours,  bivouacking  at  Gros  Raigern, 
behind  the  field  of  Austerlitz,  late  on  the  night  before  the  battle. 
So  much  for  the  spirit  and  enthusiasm  of  Napoleon's  army,  which, 
on  the  morning  of  December  2d,  was  at  least  75,000  strong. 

Now,  on  the  other  hand,  there"  was  no  unity  in  the  camp  of 
the  allies.  Never  having  fought  the  French,  the  majority  of  the 
Russian  officers  openly  taunted  the  Austrians  with  cowardice  at 
being  so  persistently  beaten,  and  in  the  conceit  of  their  utter  in- 
experience in  war,  were  ready  to  boast  their  ability  to  overthrow 
the  self-made  emperor  single-handed.  Around  the  headquarter 
court  of  Alexander  were  scores  of  young  Muscovite  noblemfen, 
who  eagerly  discussed  the  grand  times  they  proposed  to  have  in 
Paris  with  the  coming  of  the  new  year.  Thither  they  confidently 
expected  to  march,  and  there  to  spend  the  winter.  The  Russians 
were  brave  beyond  question,  but  their  artillery  was  crude  com- 
pared with  the  French  ;  their  cavalry  was  raw  and  undisciplined  ; 
their  infantry  was  cool,  impassive,  but  clumsy;  and  their  generals ! 
Napoleon  scouted  them.  In  the  sharp  fight  where  some  of  the 
Russians  had  encountered  his  men  at  Hollabriinn,  the  emperor 
was  able  to  make  up  his  mind  as  to  the  capacity  of  the  Russian 
leaders ;  and  these  Russians  who  had  fought  at  Hollabriinn  were 
by  no  means  the  self-confident  set  that  thronged  about  the  per- 
son of  the  young  tsar.  The  persistent  flatteries  of  such  courtiers 
as  Prince  Dolgorouki  outweighed  with  Alexander  the  advice  of 
his  older  and  wiser  generals.  He  was  induced  to  issue  orders, 
as  though  personally,  directing  the  movements  of  his  armies, 
and  he  was  in  no  way  fitted  for  the  command.  He  had  some 
few  experienced  and  educated  soldiers  among  his  generals:  no- 
tably, Prince  Bagration,  a  noble  Georgian  of  great  ability ;  General 
Kutusoff,  a  wily,  fawning,  indolent,  but  shrewd  officer;  Langeron, 
a  renegade  Frenchman,  who  had  no  business  there,  a  persistent 
grumbler  and  fault-finder,  but  a  fine  tactician  and  fighter ;  and 
General  Doctorow,  an  earnest,  faithful  and  devoted  soldier. 
Then  he  had,  as  chief  of  staff,  an  arrogant  and  conceited  Ger- 
man, General  Weirother,  who,  having  seen  service  in  previous 
campaigns,  and  drifted  into  the  employ  of  the  Russian  govern- 


THE   FIELD   OF  AUSTERLITZ.  443 

merit,  was  given  to  laying  down  the  law  on  all  occasions,  and 
this  General  Weirother  devised  the  plan  upon  which  the  allies 
agreed  to  act.  , 

Olmiitz  lay  something  like  forty  miles  by  road  northeast  of 
Briinn,  whither  Napoleon  had  advanced.  '  Weirother  proposed 
that  they  should  march  upon  the  French  position,  instead  of 
awaiting  attack;  should  work  around  south  of  the  high-road 
joining  Briinn  and  Olmiitz,  and  attack  the  extreme  right  of  Na- 
poleon's lines,  double  him  up,  throw  his  right  wing  back,  seize 
the  Vienna  road  and  so  interpose  between  him  and  all  his  other 
forces  in  Austria ;  then  it  would  be  an  easy  matter  to  throw  him 
northwest  into  Bohemia,  and  there  destroy  him.  It  all  looked 
plausible  enough.  It  was  known  that  the  French  had  formed 
their  lines  facing  nearly  east,  well  out  in  the  open  country  be- 
tween Briinn  and  the  chateau  of  Austerlitz,  and  Weirother  easily 
talked  the  tsar  into  its  adoption.  Whatever  the  Austrian  em- 
peror may  have  thought,  he  and  his  few  generals  were  too  much 
in  the  minority  to  have  any  voice ;  and  so  the  fatal  orders  were 
issued.  In  five  columns  the  allied  army  pushed  out  from  Ol- 
miitz, marched  on  Austerlitz,  and  proceeded  to  do  just  what^  Na- 
poleon hoped  and  prayed  they  might  do,  and  for  which  he  had 
made  every  preparation. 

Let  us  take  a  look  at  the  field.  It  is  early  winter,  remem- 
ber; the  ground  is  covered  in  many  places  with  light  patches  of 
snow ;  the  weather  has  been  sharply  cold  and  many  of  the 
streams  and  all  the  lakes  and  ponds — and  there  are  many  of 
them  in  the  hollows — are  coated  with  ice  thick  enough  to  bear 
the  weight  of  a  farm-sled  or  wagon.  Briinn  is  a  fortified  town 
in  the  centre  of  a  well-watered  valley,  whose  streams  uniting 
make  quite  a  formidable  river  of  the  March  before  it  tumbles 
into  the  Danube  a  hundred  miles  below.  Northwest,  fifteen 
miles  away,  rises  the  rugged  mountain  range  that  divides  Mora- 
via from  Bohemia.  Eastward,  a  like  distance,  is  a  still  higher 
and  bolder  range  that  shuts  out  Hungary.  Northeastward  lie 
Olmiitz,  Cracow,  the  head-waters  of  the  Oder  and  Vistula,  and 
the  grand  route  to  Russia.  Briinn  guards  the  highway  to 
Vienna  which  runs  north  from  the  Austrian  capital  until  it  reaches 


444  AUSTERLITZ. 

Briinn,  then  makes  a  right  angle  with  itself  and  goes  out  east- 
ward, dipping  and  rising  over  the  undulating  country,  crosses 
the  valleys  of  several  little  streams  all  flowing  southward,  sends 
out  an  arm  to  Austerlitz  which  it  leaves  a^  little  to  its  right,  and 
then  streaks  away  across  the  uplands  northeastward  again  for 
Olmutz.  These  streams  unite,  and  while  all  the  hollows  and 
depressions  down  south  of  the  high-road  are  filled  with  ponds, 
they  form  with  their  united  contributions  a  very  considerable 
little  lake,  which  lies  east  of  but  not  very  far  from  the  Vienna 
road.  All  the  heights  were  then  covered  with  coppices  and 
dense  growth  of  firs,  but  the  slopes  and  valleys  as  a  rule  were 
bare.  Here,  there  and  everywhere  in  sheltered  nooks  along  the 
streams  were  little  hamlets  whose  names  need  not  be  repeated 
here.  The  stream  in  which  we  have  the  greatest  interest,  with  its 
shallow  valley,  was  known  locally  as  the  Goldbach  ;  most  of  the 
villages  clustered  along  its  banks  from  the  Olmutz  road  on  the 
north,  to  the  ponds  or  lakes  of  Satschau  and  Menitz  into  which 
it  empties  on  the  south.  East  of  the  Goldbach  and  well  to  the 
south  of  the  high-road  the  ground  rose  to  a  considerable  height, 
forming  what  was  called  the  plateau  of  Pratzen.  .It  sloped  gently 
down  to  the  chateau  and  hamlet  of  Austerlitz  on  the  east,  and 
sharply  and  abruptly  down  into  the  ponds  on  the  south  and 
southwest. 

It  was  here,  on  the  west  bank  of  the  Goldbach,  that  Napoleon 
established  his  lines  as  soon  as  he  knew  of  the  arrival  of  the 
Russians  near  Austerlitz.  Facing  now  a  little  southeast,  with 
his  left  resting  on  steep  and  jagged  knolls  to  the  south  of  the 
Olmutz  road,  he  placed  the  centre  opposite  the  heights  of 
Pratzen,  and  his  right  down  by  the  lake  and  facing  the  smaller 
ponds.  It  was  a  strong  line  and  he  knew  it.  It  was  a  perilous 
one  if  the  heights  on  the  left  should  be  carried,  but  he  fortified 
the  main  height,  the  Santon,  as  the  soldiers  called  it,  placed  there 
eighteen  guns  in  "  batteries  of  position,"  supported  them  with  a 
tried  brigade  of  infantry  under  General  Claparede,  whom  he 
required  to  take  an  oath  that  he  would  die  sooner  than  abandon 
it,  and  then,  giving  to  Lannes  the  charge  of  this  part  of  the 
field,  he  felt  safe.  Now  for  the  "  order  of  battle." 


THE   ORDER   OF   BATTLE.  445 

Beginning  at  the  north,  or  left,  was  the  corps  of  Marshal 
Lannes  fronting  the  open  country  on  both  sides  of  the  Olmiitz 
road — country  so  open  and  unobstructed  that  here  if  anywhere, 
said  Napoleon,  will  be  the  fiercest  cavalry  fighting;  so  here,  and 
acting  under  the  orders  of  Lannes  for  the  time  being,  he  placed 
the  grand  cavalry  corps  of  Murat,  with  such  splendid  "  sabreurs  " 
as  Milhaud,  Kellerman,  Nansouty  and  Beaumont. 

In  the  centre  were  placed  the  divisions  of  Vandamme  and  St. 
Hilaire  directly  opposite  the  Pratzen  plateau,  and  a  glorious 
part  in  the  coming  battle  were  they  destined  to  play.  Two 
little  hamlets  lay  in  their  front  down  in  the  valley  or  ravine  of 
the  Goldbach  :  they  were  called  Girzikowitz  and  Puntowitz. 
Farther  down  to  the  south  was  another  little  hamlet  with  marshy 
ground  about  it — Kobelnitz — and  behind  this  was  posted  Le- 
grand's  division.  These  three  were  all  of  the  Fourth  corps 
(Soult's),  and  they  with  their  guns  covered  most  of  the  ground 
from  the  centre  down  to  the  vicinity  of  the  ponds,  back  of  which 
stood  another  little  country  hamlet,  Telnitz.  Far  off  to  the 
right  rear,  three  miles  away,  was  posted  Friant's  hard-marching 
division  of  Davout's  corps,  so  that  except  by  certain  light  brig- 
ades of  chasseurs  and  cavalry,  the  ground  immediately  behind  the 
ponds  looked  almost  unoccupied.  This  was  to  draw  the  Rus- 
sians thither,  should  they  have  any  idea  whatever  of  coming 
that  way. 

Having  ten  divisions  of  infantry  present  and  ready  for  action, 
it  thus  resulted  that  only  six  appeared  in  line ;  Napoleon  meant 
to  keep  heavy  reserves,  and  for  a  definite  purpose.  He  would 
be  content  with  no  moderate  victory.  If  his  plans  proved  suc- 
cessful he  meant  to  annihilate  the  allies.  For  this  object,  besides 
the  splendid  battalions  and  batteries  of  the  Imperial  Guard, 
Oudinot's  entire  division  of  grenadiers  was  drawn  up  well  to 
the  rear  of  Lannes,  while  Bernadotte  with  Drouet's  and  Rivaud's 
divisions  of  his  corps  formed  in  support  of  Soult.  Napoleon 
thus  had  25,000  men  in  readiness  to  move  whithersoever  they 
were  needed,  and  by  their  weight  and  numbers  burst  through 
any  defence  the  allies  might  make  when  it  came  time  for  Napo- 
leon to  advance.  He  by  no  means  meant  to  stand  and  fight. 


446  AUSTERLITZ. 

And  everything  worked  to  a  charm.  He  had  marched  up  with 
great  boldness  from  Vienna  until  within  thirty  miles  of  Olmiitz, 
and  then  with  admirably  counterfeited  timidity,  began  to  hesitate, 
and,  as  though  afraid  to  meet  the  allies  with  the  force  at  hand, 
he  drew  back  his  lines,  retiring,  slowly  until  he  had  produced 
the  desired  effect  in  the  Russian  councils — until  they  were  in- 
duced to  believe  him  frightened,  and  so  launched  out  to  .assail 
him.  By  the  first  day  of  December  the  Russian  army  was  en- 
camped around  Austerlitz,  and  the  staff-officers  were  eagerly 
scanning  the  French  lines.  Napoleon  from  the  high  ground 
where  his  tent  was  pitched  in  the  midst  of  his  reserves,  could  see 
the  whole  eastern  horizon  reddened  with  their  watch-fires  night 
after  night,  as  their  divisions  closed  on  the  heights  of  Pratzen 
and  reached  out  southward  to  feel  their  way  around  that  right 
flank.  Everything  in  their  movements  and  reconnoissances 
indicated  to  his  analytical  mind  that  they  were  thinking  of  the 
very  plan  he  wished  them  to  adopt — that  of  attacking  in  force 
down  by  Telnitz  and  the  ponds.  The  whole  front  covered  by 
the  hostile  lines  was  some  five  miles  in  length,  and  the  main 
Russian  army,  early  on  the  1st  of  December,  was  posted  well 
back  on  the  plateau  of  Pratzen.  On  that  afternoon,  however, 
there  were  signs  of  movement;  guns  and  dense  masses  of  troops 
were  being  drawn  off  southward.  "  Then,"  said  Napoleon,  "  we 
shall  fight  on  the  morrow,  and  we  will  end  the  war  with  a 
thunderbolt." 

The  night  of  December  1st  had  come.  Sharply  cold,  but  with 
not  a  puff  of  wind  to  stir  the  mists  that  rose  above  the  streams, 
the  air  of  this  upland  valley  chilled  to  the  marrow  the  soldiers 
of  France,  who  huddled  about  their  bivouac  fires  for  warmth  and 
comfort.  The  emperor,  who  had  issued  a  stirring  proclamation 
to  them  to  be  read  at  sunset,  now,  soon  after  dark,  started  around 
the  lines  to  visit  the  different  battalions  in  person.  One  year  ago 
he  had  been  crowned  with  great  pomp  and  ceremony ;  to-night, 
in  the  bleak  wilds  of  Moravia,  but  surrounded  by  his  devoted 
men,  he  was  preparing  to  fight  vehemently  in  defence  of  that 
crown. 

Catching  sight  of  him  as  he  rode  in  among  them  on  "Ma- 


THE   RUSSIAN   PLAN   OF  ATTACK.  447 

rengo,"  the  nearest  soldiers,  eager  to  light  his  way,  snatched 
wisps  of  straw  from  their  rude  pallets  and  lighted  them  at  the 
fires.  Then  sticking  these  torches  in  the  muzzles  of  their  mus- 
kets, they  raised  them  on  high  with  joyous  shouts  of ."  Vive 
rempereur!"  It  spread  indeed  like  wild-fire.  Battalion  after 
battalion  sprang  to  its  feet,  took  up  the  shout,  followed  the  ex- 
ample of  the  leaders,  and  in  ten  minutes,  all  up  and  down  the 
western  slopes  of  the  Goldbach  a  blaze  of  torches  burst  upon 
the  night,  and  a  grand  illumination  of  the  western  skies  startled 
the  councils  of  the  Russian  officers.  Riding  out  on  the  Pratzen, 
one  could  easily  hear  the  enthusiastic  cheering  in  the  French 
camp.  No  wonder  growler  Langeron  went  back  to  Kresnowitz 
with  gloomy  forebodings.  "  You  said  the  French  army  was  de- 
moralized and  ready  to  run.  What  say  you  to  that  ?  "  he  asked, 
pointing  to  the  ruddy  glare  across  the  Goldbach — and  no  one 
could  answer. 

Late  at  night  the  Russian  generals  were  assembled  at  grim 
old  Kutusoff's  quarters,  and  there  listened  to  a  lecture — "  a  me- 
morial containing  the  whole  plan  of  the  battle,"  from  the  lips  of 
that  self-sufficient  chief  of  staff,  Weirother.  He  had  few  friends 
among  them ;  his  dictatorial  manner  annoyed  them.  Their  best 
soldier,  Bagration,  was  not  present;  the  others  listened  with 
what  patience  they  could  assume.  KutusofT  went  sound  asleep 
in  his  chair  and  snored. 

It  was  settled  that,  at  daylight,  Prince  Bagration,  with  the  Rus- 
sian right,  was  to  advance  along  the  Olmutz  road  and  attack  the 
position  of  Lannes  with  all  his  force,  and  to  keep  with  him,  con- 
necting him  with  the  Russian  centre  on  the  Pratzen,  the  whole 
mass  of  the  cavalry.  This  would  bring  the  horsemen  of  the  two 
armies  face  to  face  on  the  level  upland,  and  stirring  fighting  was 
to  be  expected  there.  Bagration  was  to  strive  to  carry  the  height 
of  Santon,  and  thus  command  the  ground  held  by  the  French 
left.  But,  leaving  behind  them  the  plateau  of  Pratzen,  separating 
themselves  thereby  from  their  own  right,  the  main  body  in  three 
columns,  led  by  Generals  Doctorow,  Langeron  and  Pribyschew- 
ski,  were  to  descend  southward  from  the  heights,  cross  the  Gold- 
bach near  the  ponds,  hurl  themselves  with  full  force  upon  the 


448  AUSTERLITZ. 

French  right,  turn  it  and  seize  the  Vienna  road.  "  That,"  said 
Weirother,  "  will  end  the  battle." 

So  it  might — if  Napoleon  woifld  stand  still  and  let  them  do 
it;  but  he  had  other  views.  At  four  o'clock,  in  the  biting  cold 
of  the  early  wintry  morn,  he  mounted  and  rode  quietly  forward. 
At  the  crest  of  the  slopes  of  the  Goldbach  he  paused,  and  looked 
long  and  earnestly  over  the  dimly  outlined  plateau  on  the  other 
side.  Hundreds  of  the  Russian  fires  had  dwindled  away  to  mere 
embers.  He  knew  what  that  meant — they  were  up  and  moving. 
Riding  down  into  the  valley  and  out  still  farther  among  his  out- 
posts up  the  ravines  on  the  other  side,  he  could  faintly  hear  the 
distant  rumble  of  gun-carriages  and  the  dull  thud  of  horses' 
hoofs  creeping  off  to  the  south.  With  grim  delight  the  em- 
peror listened.  It  was  full  confirmation  of  his  theory.  At  six 
o'clock  he  was  back  at  his  post  in  rear  of  the  centre.  All  the 
lines  of  France  were  now  aroused  and  in  battle  order.  Sur- 
rounded by  his  brilliant  staff  and  all  the  marshals  of  the  empire 
present  on  the  field,  the  emperor  sat  in  saddle  on  a  knoll  which 
commanded  an  extended  view  in  every  direction.  Little  by  little 
the  gray  light  of  the  wintry  dawn  crept  over  the  sky,  and  the 
fog-bank  over  the  valley  rose  thick  and  damp.  In  low  tones  the 
orders  of  the  officers  of  the  lines  at  the  centre  called  their  men 
into  action.  The  divisions  of  Vandamme  and  St.  Hilaire  silently 
moved  to  the  front  and  disappeared  from  sight  down  in  the  mists 
of  the  Goldbach. 

Suddenly,  far  down  to  the  right,  a  few  scattering  shots  are 
heard  ;  then  a  dozen — then  a  rattle  and  roar.  It  is  not  yet  broad 
daylight,  and  the  mist  is  so  thick  that  nothing  can  be  seen,  but 
all  at  the  French  headquarters  know  the  meaning.  The  Russian 
advance  has  struck  the  outposts  of  the  right  wing.  Louder  and 
heavier  grows  the  fire ;  now  the  field-guns  begin  ;  that  means 
that  the  main  lines  are  getting  in;  and  now  crashing  volleys  light 
with  lurid  glare  the  fog-bank  over  Telnitz.  The  lines  must  be 
in  plain  sight  of  one  another,  then.  Davout,  at  the  emperor's 
side,  is  chafing  with  impatience.  Those  are  his  men  and  he  knows 
how  weak  in  numbers  they  must  be.  "  Go,  then,  Davout,"  laughs 
the  emperor;  "bring  up  Friant  and  hold  them  there,"  and  Da- 
vout spurs  off  at  mad  gallop. 


"THE   SUN   OF   AUSTERLITZ."  449 

Murat,  Soult  and  Lannes,  with  their  aides,  are  still  in  saddle 
around  Napoleon,  eagerly  awaiting  his  orders.  Louder  grows 
the  roar  of  battle  down  at  their  right,  and  they  are  burning  with 
impatience  to  begin  on  their  own  account,  but  still  he  holds  them 
there.  He  means  to  give  those  groping  Russians  abundant  time 
to  get  well  off  the  Pratzen  before  making  his  counter-move — 
but  then  !— 

And  now  at  last,  over  the  eastern  hills,  a  dull-red,  lurid  ball 
creeps  up  through  the  fog ;  then  a  shimmer  and  cadiance  dances 
through  the  frosty  air.  Stray  wisps  of  cloud  float  upward  tinged 
with  gold;  and  then,  then  in  brilliant,  dazzling  glory  the  King 
of  Day  mounts  above  the  misty  veil.  The  arms,  standards, 
plumes  and  helmets  of  France  blaze  and  sparkle  in  the  joyous 
light,  and  Napoleon  with  flashing  eyes  turns  to  his  comrades, 
saying,  "  Behold  the  sun  of  Austerlitz ! " 

What  wonder  that  he  greets  it  with  triumphant  thrill  at  heart. 
Now  at  last  he  sees  the  heights  of  Pratzen  before  him  well-nigh 
clear  of  troops.  Russia  has  massed  her  columns  on  his  right, 
as  he  has  hoped  and  intended ;  only  thin  lines  connect  the  two 
widely  separated  wings.  Now  comes  the  moment  of  his  great 
move.  "  Forward,  Soult ;  seize  the  Pratzen — cut  them  in  two!  " 
and  the  marshal  speeds  eastward  to  the  valley,  while  at  the  same 
instant  Lannes  and  Murat  gallop  to  the  north  to  join  their  corps. 

Let  us  for  a  moment  follow  the  heavy  columns  of  the  Russians. 
Early  in  the  morning,  long  before  day,  the  movement  begins. 
An  Austrian  division,  General  Kienmeyer's,  is  in  the  advance, 
and  directs  its  march  on  Telnitz.  The  entire  left  wing  of  the 
allies  is  under  the  command  of  General  Buxhovden,  a  hard- 
drinking  old  personage,  who  owes  his  high  position  entirely  to 
the  influence  of  his  wife  at  St.  Petersburg.  Instead  of  having 
Doctorow's  strong  column  in  close  support  of  the  Austrian 
advance,  he  has  it  strung  out  in  long  columns  nearly  an  hour 
behind,  and  as  for  Langeron's  divisions,  he  cannot  tell  where 
they  are.  Eager  to  prove  their  mettle,  and  too  impatient  to 
wait,  Kienmeyer's  men  push  forward  just  as  soon  as  it  is  dimly 
light  enough  to  see  the  huts  in  Telnitz,  and  it  is  here  that  Aus- 
terlitz begins.  The  Third  infantry  and  the  Corsican  chasseurs 
29 


450  AUSTERLITZ. 

of  Soult's  extreme  right  are  there  in  readiness,  and  theirs  are 
the  shots  that  first  waken  the  morning  echoes  along  the  Gold- 
bach.  From  behind  hedges  and  village  walls,  these  old  cam- 
paigners coolly  pick  off  the  leaders  in  Kienmeyer's  hussars, 
and  when  the  latter  hurries  forward  his  infantry  in  support,  they 
rise  and  give  them  volley  after  volley.  Kienmeyer  and  the 
Austrians  are  twice  driven  back,  but  then  Doctorow's  divisions 
come  swarming  out  upon  the  misty  flats,  and  now  the  volleys 
thunder  in  g0od  earnest.  Twenty-four  solid  battalions  are 
pounding  at  four,  while  Kienmeyer's  squadrons  spur  across  the 
lowlands  to  the  south,  and  dash,  sabre  in  hand,  upon  Margaron's 
little  brigade  of  horse.  But  by  this  time  Davout  with  Friant's 
gallant  division  is  hurrying  forward,  deploying  as  they  run. 
The  First  dragoons  are  sent  at  full  gallop  towards  Telnitz,  for 
there  the  Austrians  and  Russians  have  at  last  gained  a  footing, 
and  now  are  forming  beyond  it  to  breast  the  slopes.  It  is  just 
broad  daylight  down  in  the  valley  as  those  cheering  dragoons 
come  thundering  in  upon  them,  and  hurl  them  into  the  stream- 
bed,  while  Friant  and  his  leading  battalions  dash  into  Telnitz, 
and  with  butt  and  bayonet  drive  out  all  who  oppose  them. 
Pursuing,  the  One  Hundred  and  Eighth  regiment  and  the  volti- 
geurs  cross  the  stream,  and  there  a  sad  mishap  occurs.  Some 
of  Legrand's  men,  marching  down  to  the  assistance  of  their 
comrades  in  Telnitz,  catch  sight  of  the  forming  ranks  across  the 
Goldbach,  and  seeing  them  only  indistinctly  through  the  eddy- 
ing mist,  assail  them  with  furious  volleys,  that  lay  low  many 
gallant  men,  and,  supposing  themselves  outflanked,  the  survivors 
break  and  fall  back  in  some  confusion.  By  this  time  Langeron 
has  arrived.  He  and  his  men  have  been  detained  by  getting 
mixed  up  with  the  cavalry  on  the  plateau,  but  now,  seeing  the 
French  staggered  and  in  retreat,  both  columns,  Doctorow's  and 
Langeron's,  dash  forward,  one  on  Telnitz,  the  other  on  Sokolnitz, 
seize  them  and  deploy  their  lines  in  strong  force  on  the  western 
slopes,  and  despite  the  heroic  efforts  of  Davout  and  Friant, 
some  30,000  Russians  are  across  the  Goldbach,  and  the  French 
right  is  indeed  in  jeopardy.  Fast  as  possible  the  Russian  light 
batteries  are  lashed  into  position  and  open  on  the  French  squares, 


STORMING   THE   HEIGHTS   OF   PRATZEN.  451 

formed  to  resist  the  incessant  charges  of  the  Austrian  squadrons, 
but  Davout  runs  up  his  answering  guns,  and  now,  far  thicker, 
heavier,  more  dense  and  suffocating  than  the  fog-bank  of  the 
early  morn,  the  valley  of  the  Goldbach  is  filled  with  the  battle- 
cloud  of  sulphur-smoke,  and  still  yielding  no  further  ground 
but  backed  valiantly  by  Legrand  and  his  division,  Davout  fiercely 
bars  the  way  to  the  Vienna  road. 

Now  what  of  Soult  and  the  centre  ? 

Up  a  long  ravine  that  opens  into  the  valley  of  the  Goldbach 
in  front  of  Puntowitz,  lies  the  little  village  from  which  the  heights 
of  Pratzen  take  their  name.  Near  here,  at  dawn,  the  allied  em- 
perors had  taken  their  station  and  the  imperial  guard  of  Russia, 
the  Austrian  infantry  of  Kollowrath,  and  the  Russian  foot  of 
Miloradovich  are  deployed  upon  the  plateau  in  place  of  Bux- 
hovden's  main  body,  which  has  gone  down  into  the  valley  and  is 
now  in  furious  combat  with  Davout.  Old  General  Kutusoff  is 
in  command  on  the  plateau,  and  Prince  Czartoryski  is  at  his 
accustomed  place  beside  the  emperor. 

Despite  the  move  of  Buxhovden,  there  are  still  some  15,000 
infantry,  a  dozen  batteries  and  a  powerful  array  of  horse  there 
on  the  Pratzen,  but  they  are  far  back  from  the  crest,  and  the  last 
thing  on  earth  they  expect  at  this  moment  is  attack  from  any 
source.  The  young  gallants  around  Alexander  are  already 
exultingly  talking  of  the  retreating  French,  when  suddenly  the 
skirmishers  out  at  the  edge  of  the  plateau  begin  a  rapid  fire,  and 
then,  before  the  startled  eyes  of  Russia  and  Austria,  come  falling 
back  upon  their  supports.  In  utter  amaze  the  generals  listen  to 
the  reports.  "The  French  are  advancing,"' and,  spurring  to  the 
front,  Prince  Czartoryski  comes  in  view  of  a  picture  that  sends 
him  back  with  blanching  cheek,  brave  as  he  is,  to  the  side  of  his 
emperor.  It  is  indeed  true.  The  valley  of  the  Goldbach  is  crowded 
with  the  solid  battalions,  and  in  two  powerful  columns  the  men 
of  Vandamme  and  St.  Hilaire,  laughing  at  the  sputtering  skir- 
mish fire,  are  jauntily,  eagerly  swarming  up  the  western  slope  of 
the  Pratzen.  Already  the  leading  light-troops  are  springing  up  the 
ravine  and  driving  the  Russian  skirmishers  out  of  the  village, 
and,  north  and  sputh,  Vandamme  and  St.  Hilaire  are  deploying 


452  AUSTERLITZ. 

their  lines  preparatory  to  a  general  advance.  Thiebault's  brig- 
ade on  the  flank  meets  with  a  sudden  volley  from  some  Russian 
regiments  lying  in  the  ravine  about  Pratzen.  Its  general  daringly 
rides  forward,  facing  his  ready  men  towards  the  fire,  and  with  a 
ringing  cheer  leads  them  into  the  depression  in  search  of  their 
foe.  In  five  minutes  those  Russians  are  surrounded,  overpow- 
ered and  disarmed,  artd  Thiebault  is  once  more  forming  line  to 
the  support  of  General  Morand,  now  advancing  on  the  Russian 
headquarters,  while  Vandamme's  whole  division,  firing  by  bat- 
talion as  they  move  forward  in  line,  are  steadily  driving  back 
the  foremost  lines  of  Miloradovich's  Russians,  and  gradually 
encircling  the  knoll  or  hillock  of  Stari  Winobradi  which  com- 
mands the  plateau,  and  on  which  Kutusoff  has  planted  his 
heaviest  batteries  supported  by  strong  masses  of  infantry.  In 
front  of  St.  Hilaire's  lines  the  French  light  batteries  moving 
forward  at  rapid  trot  suddenly  unlimber  and  deluge  the  Austrian 
division  with  grape.  Kollowrath's  men  are  thrown  into  the 
utmost  disorder  by  the  storm,  and  St.  Hilaire  follows  up  the 
batteries  by  a  rousing  charge  with  the  bayonet,  driving  the 
Austrians  pell-mell  back  towards  Austerlitz.  Vandamme,  further 
north,  has  had  equal  success.  The  Russian  lines  are  broken  and 
drifting  eastward ;  Stari  Winobradi  with  all  its  guns  is  taken  by 
the  rush  of  the  Fourth  regiment  and  the  Twenty-fourth  light 
infantry,  Vandamme  leading  them  in  person. 

Ten  o'clock  is  near  at  hand,  and  the  Russian  army  that  at 
dawn  had  set  forth  to  turn  the  French  right  finds  itself  in  ex- 
traordinary plight.  Crowded  between  the  ponds  and  those  in- 
flexible lines  of  Friant's  and  Legrand's,  stupid,  half-drunken  old 
Buxhovden  is  unable  to  act  with  any  success,  and  to  the  dismay 
of  the  allied  emperors  Soult  has  seized  the  whole  plateau  of 
Pratzen,  the  Russian  centre  is  pierced,  and  Kollowrath  and 
Miloradovich  are  in  full  retreat  on  Austerlitz. 

Now  was  the  time  for  Kutusoff,  had  he  been  alive  to  the  sit- 
uation, to  recall  the  columns  of  Langeron  and  Doctorow  and, 
reascending  the  heights  from  the  south,  take  Soult  in  flank;  but 
Napoleon  was  prepared  even  for  that  contingency.  Delightedly 
watching  the  grand  assault  of  his  centre  on  the  plateau,  and  see- 


FORWARD!    IMPERIAL   GUARD.  453 

ing  the  two  wings  of  the  allies  now  thrown  wide  apart,  he  calls 
up  the  corps  of  Bernadotte,  the  glorious  Imperial  Guard  and 
Oudinot's  grenadiers,  and  with  25,000  fresh  men  at  his  back, 
crosses  the  Goldbach,  and  by  eleven  o'clock  his  entire  reserve 
is  deployed  on  the  Pratzen. 

Thanks  to  the  vehement  efforts  of  old  Kutusoff,  who  rides 
storming,  swearing  and  bleeding  through  the  crowd  of  fugitives, 
and  to  the  admirable  conduct  of  Miloradovich,  the  allies  are 
brought  up  standing  near  the  eastern  base  of  the  plateau,  and 
here,  aligned  on  the  strong  division  of  the  Russian  imperial 
guard,  they  await  with  greater  confidence  the  renewed  advance 
of  Soult.  They  are  strong  enough  now  to  engulf  him  com- 
pletely, provided  he  is  not  promptly  supported.  They  cannot 
see  that  the  French  emperor  with  all  his  grand  reserve  is  now 
climbing  the  slopes  far  behind  him,  and  with  a  renewal  of  hope 
they  align  their  ranks  and  wait.  For  half  an  hour  there  is  a  lull 
in  the  battle  on  the  heights.  Now  let  us  go  northward  and 
look  after  Lannes  and  the  cavalry  corps  of  Murat. 

All  this  time  they  have  been  engaged  in  a  brilliant  battle  of 
their  own. 

Not  waiting  for  Prince  Bagration  to  attack  him,  Marshal 
Lannes  had  formed  the  left  wing  in  beautiful  order,  and,  the 
moment  he  saw  the  columns  of  Soult  climbing  the  slopes  of 
the  Pratzen,  marched  forward  across  the  glistening  plain  in  his 
front. 

North  of  the  Olmiitz  road  were  numerous  fir-covered  knolls 
and  ridges.  South  of  it,  open  and  rolling  and  bare,  the  land 
sloped  very  gradually  up  to  the  Pratzen  heights,  and  here,  his 
guns  and  infantry  sweeping  the  road  and  the  broken  country 
north  of  it,  and  with  all  the  superb  Austrian  cavalry  and  rugged 
Russian  horse  drawn  up  in  the  open  ground  to  the  south,  Prince 
Bagration  had  been  "  waiting  orders."  He  was  not  present  at  the 
"  lecture"  of  Weirother  the  night  before,  and  not  until  after  eight 
o'clock  did  he  receive  from  that  valuable  staff-officer  his  instruc- 
tions for  the  day.  Lannes  and  Murat  relieved  him  of  any  un- 
certainty he  might  have  felt,  however,  for  even  as  he  was  study- 
ing with  vague  anxiety  the  steady  advance  of  Soult  on  the 


454  AUSTERLITZ. 

allied  centre,  he  found  himself  fiercely  attacked.  Suchet's 
division  north  of  the  road,  CafTarelli's  to  the  south,  had  assaulted 
his  lines,  while,  covering  the  open  upland,  the  glittering  array 
of  Murat's  horsemen  advanced  at  steady  walk  in  support.  In 
spite  of  the  vigorous  service  of  his  batteries,  Bagration  found 
that  Caffarelli's  division  was  driving  in  his  left,  and  now  he  gave 
the  order  to  Prince  John  of  Lichtenstein,  commanding  the  allied 
cavalry,  to  charge  to  the  rescue.  Then  began  the  magnificent 
cavalry  combat  of  Austerlitz.  Just  as  Napoleon  had  anticipated, 
the  open  upland  was  the  scene,  and  some  30,000  horse  the 
actors.  Constantine's  division  of  Hulans  of  the  Russian  corps 
were  hurled  in  on  Caffarelli's  infantry.  The  latter  quickly 
sprang  into  squares,  while  Kellerman,  waiting  until  the  Hulans 
had  become  well  broken  up  by  the  fire  of  the  infantry,  held  his 
light  horse  in  readiness.  The  flashing  volleys  of  the  French 
linesmen  answered  the  savage  yell  of  the  Russian  cavalry.  Four 
hundred  of  the  Hulans,  with  their  general,  Essen,  were  stretched 
upon  the  ground ;  then  with  ringing  trumpet-call  and  flashing 
sabres  Kellerman's  hussars  tore  down  upon  them.  Lichtenstein 
sent  a  fresh  brigade  to  their  assistance.  Murat  launched  in  the 
division  of  dragoons.  The  ground  shook  with  the  thunder  of 
their  hoofs,  and,  in  smoke,  dust  and  terrific  din,  the  horsemen  of 
France  and  Russia  crashed  together  in  mighty  struggle.  For 
some  time  the  infantry  could  only  cease  firing  and  look  on;  the 
gunners  dropped  their  sponge-staves  and  hand-spikes,  and  clam- 
bered on  the  limbers  for  a  better  view.  At  last,  without  decided 
gain  to  either  side,  the  horsemen  were  called  off,  leaving  the 
ground  strewn  with  dead  and  wounded  troopers  and  chargers. 
Then  the  infantry  again  pressed  forward,  though  mowed  down 
by  the  missiles  of  forty  Russians  guns.  Caffarelli's  division 
south  of  the  road  made  splendid  progress,  though  General 
Valhabert  was  cruelly  wounded,  and  Colonel  Castex,  charging 
the  hamlet  held  by  the  detachment  of  the  Russian  guard,  was 
killed  at  the  head  of  the  Thirteenth  light  infantry. 

Suchet's  division  was  having  a  harder  time.  Prince  Bagra- 
tion had  at  last  received  his  orders  to  assault  the  Santon.  His 
left  was  already  driven  in,  but  he  struck  out  boldly  with  his 


THE    RUSSIAN    RIGHT  RUINED.  455 

right,  through  the  rugged  country  north  of  the  road.  Suchet's 
guns  and  footmen,  however,  made  superb  stand,  and  the  Russian 
infantry,  finding  itself  in  danger  of  being  outflanked  on  the 
left,  began  slowly  to  fall  back.  Suchet  at  once  pressed  forward 
in  pursuit,  firing  as  he  went,  and  driving  rapidly  ahead  along  the 
highway.  Seeing  this,  Lannes  delightedly  ordered  Murat  to 
follow  up  the  move,  urged  forward  Suchet's  right  and  CafTa- 
relli's  left,  and  then  with  a  superb  stroke  of  genius  wheeled 
them  pivoting  on  their  outer  flanks,  so  that  Suchet,  swinging 
around  to  the  left,  swept  all  Bagration's  infantry  north  of  the 
Olmutz  road.  Caffarelli  sent  the  cavalry  whirling  back  before 
his  volleys  towards  the  Pratzen.  The  grand  divisions  of  Nan- 
souty's  and  D'Haurpoul's  cuirassiers  burst  forward  to  hold  the 
interval  thus  created  between  the  foot  divisions,  and,  fighting  a 
battle  of  his  own,  Lannes,  the  hero  of  Montebello,  had  split  in 
twain  the  Russian  right  wing — a  second  wedge  had  torn  through 
the  allied  line.  In  vain  Lichtenstein  hurled  in  his  horsemen  to 
charge  Caffarelli's  flank.  Four  thousand  iron-clad  swordsmen 
with  tremendous  impact  met  their  charge,  overwhelmed,  over- 
turned and  crushed  them.  The  last  of  Lichtenstein's  troopers 
scurried  off  for  Austerlitz,  and  appeared  no  more  upon  the 
scene.  The  Russian  right  was  ruined. 

And  now  the  combat  is  again  raging  on  the  Pratzen.  KutusofT 
has  rallied  and  reformed  the  strong  divisions  of  Miloradovich  and 
Kollowrath  upon  the  yet  unengaged  line  of  the  Imperial  Guard 
of  Russia;  and  one  fine  brigade  of  Langeron's  command, 
Kamenski's,  hearing  the  uproar  on  the  plateau  they  had  so  re- 
cently quitted,  has  faced  about,  reascended  the  slopes,  and  is 
now  pouring  in  its  heavy  volleys  on  the  flank  of  Soult's 
extreme  right.  General  Langeron  himself,  disgusted  with  the 
way  things  are  going  in  the  neighborhood  of  Telnitz,  and  be- 
lieving that  old  Buxhovden  is  sacrificing  the  army  in  his  besotted 
condition,  comes  spurring  up  the  heights  and  instantly  assumes 
command  at  the  south  end  of  the  Pratzen.  Thiebault's  brigade 
of  St.  Hilaire's  division  is  thus  enclosed  with  a  wall  of  fire,  and 
Colonel  Pouzet,  of  the  Tenth  light  infantry,  eagerly  implores  of 
St.  Hilaire  permission  to  charge  with  the  bayonet,  as  the  only 


456  AUSTERLITZ. 

soldierly  means  of  escaping  the  carnage.  "  Forward  !  "  is  the 
order,  and  with  a  glad,  fierce,  ringing  battle-cry  the  three  regi- 
ments spring  upon  the  opposing  lines,  not  forty  yards  away, 
drive  Kamenski's  men  helter-skelter  down  the  southern  slopes, 
and  then  turn  furiously  on  Kollowrath's  half-shaken  Austrians. 
It  is  the  last  stand  the  latter  make.  Thiebault  never  sounds  the 
recall  until  his  men  have  chased  them  well  down  the  eastern 
slopes  across  the  Austerlitz  road ;  and  now  the  Russian  left  is 
cut  off  from  the  centre,  for  St.  Hilaire  promptly  posts  the  re- 
forming brigade  to  hold  the  ground  thus  won,  while  under  the 
eye  of  Napoleon  himself,  Vandamme,  supported  by  the  grand 
reserve,  sweeps  forward  to  demolish  the  allied  centre. 

Too  brave  to  retreat  farther,  the  Emperors  of  Austria  and 
Russia  have  rallied  their  staunchest  troops  around  the  imperial 
standards  well  to  the  northeast  of  the  burning  roofs  of  Pratzen, 
and  in  full  view  of  the  chateau  and  hamlet  of  Austerlitz. 

The  eager  charge  of  Thiebault's  brigade  is  seen  and  envied 
by  all  the  extended  lines  of  St.  Hilaire  and  Vandamme,  and  the 
latter,  finding  it  impossible  to  restrain  the  impatience  of  his  men 
until  the  heavy  supports  arrive,  gives  way  to  their  impulse  and 
lets  them  go.  The  charge  is  superb,  but  in  the  tumult  and  con- 
fusion that  follow,  some  of  -the  men  cannot  be  made  to  hear  the 
repeated  orders  and  signals  to  halt  and  reform.  Thus  it  hap- 
pens that  the  Fourth  regiment  of  the  line  goes  tearing  down  the 
slopes  in  mad  pursuit,  and  suddenly  finds  itself  tangled  up  in  a 
thick  vineyard  and  far  ahead  of  the  foremost  lines ;  and  here 
they  are  suddenly  charged  by  a  dozen  strong  squadrons  of  the 
Russian  horse-guards.  Napoleon,  arriving  at  the  eastern  slope 
at  this  moment,  launches  in  his  own  Mameluke  squadrons  and 
the  chasseurs  of  the  guard  to  the  rescue.  "  They  are  in  disorder 
there,"  he  says  to  Rapp,  the  gallant  aide-de-camp,  who,  with 
Savary,  had  been  "  adopted  "  in  the  military  family  of  the  em- 
peror from  the  staff  of  the  dead  Desaix.  "That  must  be  set  to 
rights,"  and  Rapp  himself  leads  the  horsemen  in  their  dash. 
Down  the  slopes  they  go  with  thundering  hoofs,  with  brilliant 
turbans  and  flashing  scimetars,  the  chasseurs  racing  alongside ; 
and  despite  the  furious  bellowings  of  the  Russian  guns,  Rapp 


THE    SECOND    GREAT  CAVALRY    COMBAT.  457 

/ 

leads  them  through  and  over  the  Russian  line  and  well  in  on 
the  reserves.  "  Quick,  Bessieres,  support  him,"  are  Napoleon's 
prompt  orders  to  the  general  of  the  guard,  as  all  eyes  follow  the 
daring  charge  of  the  aide-de-camp ;  and  Bessieres,  taking  the 
order  literally,  calls  on  the  horse-grenadiers  in  their  towering 
bearskin  caps  and  himself  leads  them  down.  Just  in  time,  too, 
for  Rapp  has  dashed  into  the  very  jaws  of  the  Russian  bear ; 
the  Grand  Duke  Constantine  has  closed  on  him  with  the  entire 
division  of  imperial  horse-guards  under  their  brave  chief,  Prince 
Repnin.  Rapp  is  savagely  hacked  with  sabres,  but  cannot  be 
unhorsed.  Colonel  Morland,  of  the  French  chasseurs,  is  killed, 
and  it  would  soon  be  all  over  with  the  light-armed  Mamelukes 
and  chasseurs  but  for  the  tremendous  onset  of  Bessieres  with  the 
"heavies ; "  and  now  ensues  the  second  great  cavalry  combat  of 
Austerlitz.  Guardsmen  against  guardsmen  under  the  very  eyes 
of  the  emperors.  Either  sovereign  at  this  moment  could  send 
the  grape  of  his  batteries  into  the  group  of  the  opposite  head- 
quarters ;  but  artillery,  infantry  and  all  cease  firing  in  that  im- 
mediate vicinity  for  three  or  four  minutes  to  watch  this  battle  of 
the  giants.  Only  for  a  very  few  minutes,  however,  for  in  less 
than  five,  the  war-trained  swordsmen  of  Napoleon  hew  their  way 
through  the  Muscovite  squadrons,  bend  them  back,  burst  beyond 
and  drive  them  rearwards  in  broken  flight ;  while  Rapp,  covered 
with  blood,  rides  back  to  his  emperor,  leading  with  him  Prince 
Repnin,  a  prisoner. 

And  now,  following  up  this  great  triumph,  Bernadotte,  whose 
men  have  not  yet  had  a  chance  to  pull  trigger,  pushes  forward 
Drouet's  division  upon  the  fort-guards  of  Alexander,  while  Van- 
clamme  still  storms  at  Miloradovich ;  and  these  fresh  troops,  in- 
spired by  the  success  of  their  comrades  and  determined  to  be 
satisfied  with  nothing  less  complete,  leap  forward  to  the  charge 
on  the  one  solidly  standing  remnant  of  the  grand  centre  of  that 
morning.  The  imperial  guardsmen  of  Russia  prove  to  be  in- 
ferior in  mettle,  for,  seeing  all  broken  to  their  right  and  left,  their 
stand  is  but  a  short  one.  In  a  few  minutes  they  are  driven  back 
into  the  hamlet  of  Kresnowitz;  from  there  out  on  the  open  slopes, 
and  now  not  one  of  the  allies  remains  fighting  on  the  plateau  of 
Pratzen. 


458  AUSTERLITZ. 

It  is  one  o'clock.  The  sun  has  been  shining  in  cloudless  splen- 
dor throughout  the  brilliant  wintry  day,  yet  the  smoke  of  battle 
hangs  dark  over  the  slopes  to  the  east  and  south.  Well  back  on 
the  plateau,  in  the  full  radiance  of  the  unobscured  sun,  stands 
the  imperial  guard  of  France,  wiih  its  batteries,  with  Oudinot's 
grenadiers,  with  much  of  its  cavalry,  with  more  than  half  of 
Bernadotte's  corps,  and  these  men  have  not  been  engaged  at  all. 
Austerlitz  has  been  won  without  them — for  won  it  is. 

Far  to  the  north,  Prince  Bagration  is  held  powerless  in  front 
of  Suchet ;  the  rest  of  the  Russian  right  is  scattering 'everywhere 
over  the  open  country.  The  centre  is  pounded  to  pieces  and  is 
falling  back  in  disorder  through  Austerlitz,  and  making  for  the 
Olmiitz  road.  The  plateau  is  won  to  France,  the  allied  army 
thrown  wide  asunder ;  but,  down  there  under  the  southern  slopes, 
down  there  towards  the  ponds  and  Telnitz,  its  grand  left  wing, 
over  30,000  strong,  is  still  fighting  furiously  in  the  confined 
space ;  and  now  comes  their  turn. .  We  have  said  that  Napo- 
leon would  be  content  with  no  mere  victory.  He  means  to 
crush  out  the  power  of  his  opponents.  Now  he  proceeds  to 
do  it. 

Leaving  Bernadotte  with  his  corps,  and  the  panting  divisions 
of  Vandamme  and  St.  Hilaire  to  hold  the  Pratzen  and  to  sup-- 
port him,  should  he  need  support,  Napoleon  now  faces  south- 
ward;  calls  upon 'the  guard  and  Oudinot,  and  with  these,  the 
flower  of  his  grand  army,  the  emperor  marches  to  envelop  the 
wing  of  Buxhovden. 

He  comes  none  too  soon.  Davout  and  Friant  are  well-nigh 
exhausted.  With  less  than  10,000  men  they  have  been  keeping 
at  bay  for  hours  a  force  four  times  as  great,  although  most 
clumsily  handled ;  but  close  under  the  heights  at  Sokolnitz, 
Pribyschewski's  and  Langeron's  infantry  were  now  rapidly  gain- 
ing ground.  Legrand,  on  the  western  bank,  is  about  ready  to 
let  go  his  hold  on  the  village.  Friant,  galloping  to  and  fro,  has 
had  four  horses  killed  under  him,  and  his  men  are  sadly  dimin- 
ished in  numbers.  It  looks  as  though  at  last  Sokolnitz  must  go, 
and  the  Russians  win  the  way  to  the  Vienna  road;  but  suddenly, 
marching  down  the  slopes  behind  the  dense  masses  on  the  east- 


ANNIHILATING    BUXHOVDEN'S    DIVISION".  459 

ern  bank,  come  heavy  columns  of  infantry,  over  whose  heads 
are  waving  the  beautiful  tricolor  and  dazzling  eagles  of  France. 
Half  expecting  such  a  catastrophe,  Langeron  calls  off  such  men 
as  he  can  control,  and  rapidly  runs  back  southward  to  Buxhov- 
den's  position;  but  most  of  his  men  and  Pribyschewski's  are 
caught  between  two  galling  fires.  Rapidly  the  French  columns 
deploy  into  advancing  lines,  firing  steadily,  fast  as  they  can  re- 
load, and  Legrand's  and  Friant's  men  redouble  their  efforts  on 
the  western  shore.  It  is  more  than  the  Russians — more  than  any 
troops  could  be  expected  to  stand.  They  break  up  into  disorder; 
some  rush  off  one  way,  some  another,  and  hundreds  are  shot 
down  or  taken  prisoners  right  there.  Langeron,  in  a  fury  of 
excitement  and  rage,  gallops  up  to  Buxhovden,  who  has  been  an 
inert  spectator  of  the  scene,  though  Doctorow's  powerful  col- 
umn is  there  near  him  at  Telnitz.  The  excitable  Frenchman  has 
been  doing  his  best  for  his  adopted  country  this  day,  and  now 
he  vehemently  points  out  to  Buxhovden  the  new  danger — the 
swarms  of  enemies  descending  upon  them  from  the  Pratzen. 

"  You  see  nothing  but  enemies  everywhere/'  is  Buxhovden's 
thick  reply. 

"And  you  are  not  in  a  state  to  see  them  anywhere,"  is  Lang- 
eron's  insubordinate  but  deserved  retort.  It  is  too  late  to  do 
anything,  however.  By  this  time  Vandamme's  division  is  rested, 
and  Napoleon,  still  reserving  his  guards  for  an  emergency,  sends 
his  linesmen  charging  down  the  slopes  upon  the  flank  and  rear  of 
Doctorow's  men.  Buxhovden  shouts  to  Doctorow  to  save  him- 
self as  best  as  he  can,  puts  spurs  to  his  horse  and  gallops  off 
between  the  ponds  and  the  Pratzen  in  front  of  the  advancing 
lines.  Several  hundred  soldiers  escape  with  him  that  way,  but 
Langeron  and  Doctorow  stand  and  fight  like  brave  men.  Now, 
however,  they  are  being  assailed  by  nearly  equal  numbers  from 
two  sides,  and  they  can  see  that  the  heights  are  crowned  by  the 
French  guard.  All  is  over  then.  There  is  no  hope  for  support, 
no  safety  but  in  retreat.  The  batteries  of  the  guard,  unlim- 
bering  on  the  crest,  thunder  over  the  heads  of  Vandamme's  men 
and  send  their  missiles  crashing  through  the  crowded  hosts  of 
Russians.  In  vain  their  generals  strive  to  steady  them.  First 


460  AUSTERL1TZ. 

in  squads,  then  in  crowds,  then  in  solid  masses  they  are  surging 
back ;  only  one  line  of  escape  is  possible :  those  smooth-faced, 
frozen  ponds.  Dozens  of  the  slightly  wounded  are  already  well 
across  them.  Then  dozens  of  the  stragglers  begin  to  scurry 
over.  Then  crowds  of  the  fugitives  are  thronging  out  on  the 
new  ice,  horsemen  begin  to  appear  here  and  there  in  the  crowds, 
the  groups  thicken  into  a  compact  mass,  and  then — then  comes 
a  backward  rush,  a  fearful  cry,  and  first  there  is  a  bending, 
swaying  in  the  icy  flooring,  then  with  loud  crash  it  gives  way, 
and  with  despairing  shrieks  thousands  of  men  are  struggling  in 
the  waters.  It  is  an  awful  moment,  but  worse  is  to  come.  The 
ice  holds  firm  on  one  or  two  of  the  smaller  ponds,  and  across 
these  hundreds  of  fugitives  are  hastening.  Napoleon  relentlessly 
orders  his  gunners  to  load  with  solid  shot,  and  from  the  plung- 
ing heights  of  the  Pratzen  to  shower  them  down  on  the  ice  itself, 
and  now  the  scene  baffles  all  description.  Doctorow's  men  are  es- 
caping the  death  of  soldiers  at  the  front,  only  to  meet  the  death 
of  worthless  curs  at  the  rear.  The  French  guns  smash  their 
frail  ice  raft,  they  are  plunged  in  the  death-cold  waters  and 
drowned  in  helpless  misery. 

But  Doctorow  still  has  a  fine  division  of  infantry  that  stands 
firm — all  Buxhovden's  guns  and  the  Austrian  cavalry.  With 
these  he  makes  gallant  defence,  slowly  retiring  up  the  slopes 
south  of  the  ponds  and  resisting  all  efforts  to  break  him.  Cav- 
alry being  needed,  Beaumont's  division  of  dragoons  from  Murat's 
corps  comes  over  from  the  extreme  left  and  is  sent  in  to  capture 
the  guns  and  scatter  Kienmeyer's  cavalry.  They  succeed  in 
driving  off  the  worn-out  Austrian  horse,  but  the  staunch  foot- 
men of  Dpctorow  stand  by  their  guns  and  Beaumont  cannot 
wrest  them  away.  Soult's  infantry  pressing  forward  with  well- 
aimed  volleys  succeed  at  last  in  shooting  down  horses,  drivers, 
gunners  and  supports.  The  guns  are  rushed  upon  and  seized. 
Friant's  division  crosses  the  Goldbach  and  attacks  Doctorow's 
remnant  in  flank,  and  at  last,  abandoned,  harassed  and  worn  out, 
hundreds  of  officers  and  men  beg  for  quarter  and  throw  down 
their  arms  ;  others  slowly  and  painfully  continue  the  retreat  tow- 
ard the  eastward. 


"SOLDIERS,  I    AM    SATISFIED    WITH   YOU."  4(J1 

Long  before  sunset,  sitting  in  his  saddle  on  the  summit  of 
the  Pratzen,  Napoleon  could  see,  for  miles  around,  the  wintry 
landscape  black  with  fleeing  foemen.  Right,  left  and  front  the 
lancers  and  hussars  were  pushed  out  to  complete  the  work  and 
bring  in  the  prisoners,  and,  as  the  Sun  of  Austerlitz  sank  lower 
in  the  west  and  the  chill  of  evening  stole  over  the  scene,  and  the 
upland  breeze  began  to  sweep  away  the  last  vestiges  of  sulphur 
smoke  still  clinging  about  the  ravines  and  hollows,  the  great 
leader  dismounted  at  his  camp-fire  wearied  but  triumphant. 
"  The  Battle  of  the  Emperors  " — the  never-to-be-forgotten  field 
of  Austerlitz — was  won. 

"  Soldiers,  I  am  satisfied  with  you,"  he  wrote.  "  In  the  battle 
of  Austerlitz  you  have  justified  all  that  I  expected  from  your 
intrepidity;  you  have  decorated  your  eagles  with  immortal 
glory.  An  army  of,  one  hundred  thousand  men,  commanded 
by  the*  Emperors  of  Russia  and  Austria,  has  been  in  less  than 
four  hours  either  cut  in  pieces  or  dispersed.  Those  who  escaped 
your  weapons  are  drowned  in  the  lakes. 

"  Forty  colors,  the  standards  of  the  imperial  guard  of  Russia, 
one  hundred  and  twenty  pieces  of  cannon,  more  than  thirty 
thousand  prisoners,  are  the  result  of  this  ever  celebrated  battle. 
That  infantry,  so  highly  vaunted  and  superior  in  number,  could 
not  withstand  your  shocks,  and  thenceforward  you  have  no 
rivals  to  fear.  Thus  in  two  months  this  third  coalition  has  been 
vanquished  and  dissolved.  Peace  cannot  now  be  far  distant, 
but,  as  I  promised  my  people  before  I  passed  the  Rhine,  I  will 
make  only  such  a  peace  as  gives  us  guarantees  and  ensures 
rewards  to  our  allies. 

"  Soldiers,  when  air  that  is  necessary  to  secure  the  welfare  and 
prosperity  of  our  country  is  accomplished,  I  will  lead  you  back 
to  France :  there  you  will  be  the  object  of  my  tenderest  con- 
cern. My  people  will  see  you  again  with  joy,  and  it  will  be 
sufficient  to  say,  I  was  at  the  battle  of  Austerlitz,  for  them  to 
reply,  '  There  is  a  brave  man.' " 

The  immediate  results  of  Austerlitz  were  indeed  prodigious. 
Nearly  15,000  were  killed  or  wounded  in  the  army  of  the  allies 
(2,000  were  drowned  in  the  ponds),  and  20,000  were  taken 


4  (52  AUSTERLITZ. 

prisoners,  among  them  eight  generals  and  ten  colon-els;  and 
later  reports  than  reached  Napoleon  at  the  time  he  wrote  his 
proclamation  make  the  captured  guns  mount  up  to  180,  besides 
an  immense  quantity  of  provisions  and  large  numbers  of  baggage 
wagons.  The  French  loss  on  the  contrary  was  between  7,000 
and  8,000  killed  and  wounded. 

The  day  after  the  battle  Napoleon  moved  his  headquarters  to 
the  Chateau  of  Austerlitz  and  gave  his  great  victory  its  name ; 
but,  meantime,  vigorous  pursuit  had  been  made,  and  on  Decem- 
ber 4th,  the  Emperors  of  Austria  and  Russia,  having  had  a 
decided  u  falling-out  "  since  their  common  disaster,  Francis  of 
Austria  sought  an  interview  with  Napoleon,  and  in  that  inter- 
view the  preliminaries  of  a  peace  were  arranged.  The  war  of 
the  first  coalition  against  France  had  lasted  five  years.  The 
second  had  lasted  two,  and  this,  the  third  and  greatest,  had 
lasted  but  three  months,  after  the  most  brilliant  and  amazing 
campaign  on  the  part  of  Napoleon.  No  wonder  Alexander 
of  Russia  expressed  himself  glad  to  get  back  to  his  frontiers 
with  even  the  remnant  of  an  army.  The  third  coalition  was  at 
an  end. 

In  three  weeks  after  Austerlitz  (December  26th)  the  treaty 
of  peace  was  signed  at  Presburg.  Austria  gave  up  to  France  all 
her  Italian  and  Adriatic  provinces,  including  Venice,  Friule,  Is- 
tria  and  Dalmatia ;  the  Tyrol  was  awarded  to  Bavaria;  and  to 
sum  up,  in  short,  the  losses  of  the  empire,  it  may  be  said,  that 
one-sixth  of  her  people  and  almost  one-sixth  of  her  income  was 
the  cost,  to  Austria,  of  her  third  attempt  to  humble  France.  As 
a  further  consequence  of  Napoleon's  victory  of  Austerlitz,  the 
old  German  Empire  fell  to  pieces,  and  in  its  place  there  rose 
"  The  Confederation  of  the  Rhine." 


JENA. 

1806. 

HE  astounding  campaign  of  Austerlitz  served 
only  to  increase  the  respect  for  the  military 
prowess  of  Napoleon  and  the  dread  of  his 
ambitious  designs.  All  Europe  was  alive 
with  his  fame,  and  England,  baffled  and 
chagrined  by  his  success,  was  still  determined 
to  undermine  if  she  could  not  overthrow  him. 
Soon  after  Austerlitz,  a  French  army  con- 
quered Naples',  and  Napoleon  seated  his 
brother  Joseph  on  the  throne  as  king.  In 
June,  1806,  he  made  another  brother,  Louis,  King  of  Holland, 
and  then  Prussia  decided  that  his  aggressions  were  aimed  at  her 
peace  and  safety,  and,  all  alone  apparently,  declared  war  against 
France.  It  was  a  foolhardy  move.  For  years  Prussia  had 
been  living  on  the  laurels  of  Frederick  the  Great.  He  had 
placed  her  at  the  very  head  of  the  military  nations  of  Europe ; 
but  since  his  death  she  had  been  at  a  stand-still.  Bereft  of  his 
guiding  and  vigorous  hand,  there  was  no  one  to  keep  her  in 
pace  with  the  ever-improving  systems  of  surrounding  nations. 
France  and  her  generals  had  been  of  little  account  against  her 
during  the  Seven  Years'  War;  but  France  under  the  now  great 
Napoleon  was  very  different  as  a  war  power.  France  was  now  a 
giant,  and  her  armies,  leisurely  returning  from  the  conquest  of 
Austria,  were  still  in  strong  force  in  the  heart  of  Germany. 
Prussia  could  hope  for  no  outside  aid.  Austria  was  crushed  by 
Austerlitz.  Russia  was  far  away  across  the  Vistula,  and  the 
young  tsar  was  still  stunned  by  the  "  thunderbolt,"  with  which, 
as  Napoleon  had  promised,  he  had  wound  up  the  war  of  the 

(463) 


464  JENA. 

third  coalition.  At  this  very  crisis  England  herself  declared 
war  against  Prussia ;  but  before  her  ponderous  machinery  could 
be  set  in  motion,  her  hated  rival,  France,  had  taken  the  initiative 
and  left  her  nothing  to  prey  upon  in  lower  Germany,  unless  she 
felt  ready  to  take  it  from  under  the  very  guns  of  Napoleon ; 
and,  eager  as  was  England  to  meet  the  French  at  sea,  where  few 
Frenchmen  were  ever  at  home,  and  however  eager  she  might 
be  to  stir  up  other  nations  into  battle  with  Napoleon  over  the 
trodden  fields  and  highways  of  Europe,  England  herself  was 
wise,  and  withheld  her  soldiers.  Thus  it  resulted  that  Prussia 
with  perhaps  200,000  available  men,  and  a  very  weak-minded 
and  vacillating  monarch  at  the  head  of  them,  was  daring  enough 
to  challenge  Napoleon  to  mortal  combat. 

The  Prussians  were  brave,  and  under  old  Fritz  Magnus  had 
been  indomitable ;  but  except  their  brief  campaign  in  1792,  when 
they  undertook  to  interfere  in  the  Republican  move  of  France, 
they  had  had  no  field  experience  with  surrounding  armies. 
Her  officers,  however,  were  inordinately  vain  of  the  record  won 
by  their  fathers  in  the  Seven  Years'  War;  were  full  of  conceit 
in  their  own  ability  to  win  as  much  and  more.  France,  they 
said,  could  do  well  enough  fighting  disunited  and  unskilled 
Austrians,  or  the  ignorant  and  clumsy  hordes  of  Russia ;  but 
let  her  dare  measure  swords  with  Prussia,  and — Shades  of  Grosser 
Fritz!  the  science  and  tactics,  the  drill  and  discipline  of  Pots- 
dam would  wind  up  the  Napoleonic  army  in  one  bagatelle  of  a 
battle.  This  was  undoubtedly  the  belief  of  the  younger  ele- 
ment of  the  Prussian  army.  There  were  sage  old  heads  who 
thought  differently. 

As  for  Napoleon,  he  never  had  a  doubt.  Prussia's  pretext  for 
the  war  was  that  Napoleon  quartered  his  army  in  the.  provinces 
on  her  borders.  Its  presence  there  was  a  menace,  and  she  de- 
manded that  he  withdraw  it  at  once  behind  the  Rhine.  The  tone 
of  the  demand,  whether  just  or  not,  roused  the  ire  of -the  now 
doubly-arrogant  emperor.  He  treated  the  message  with  cool  in- 
difference, and  prepared  to  pounce  on  Prussia  the  instant  she  de- 
clared war.  To  his  brothers,  the  kings  (of  his  creation)  at  Naples 
and  Holland,  he  wrote  that  they  need  not  be  at  all  uneasy ;  he 


PREPARING    TO    CRUSH    RUSSIA.  465 

would  finish  this  war  quicker  than  the  last,  and  put  it  out  of  the 
power  of  Prussia  and  her  allies,  should  she  have  any,  to  stir  for 
another  ten  years.  And  he  meant  it. 

Mayence  on  the  Rhine  was  now,  as  before  the  Austerlitz  cam- 
paign, his  great  deptA>t  of  supplies.  He  bought  vast  quantities  of 
corn  along  the  fertile  valley,  and  shipped  it  with  a  campaign's 
supply  of  hard  bread,  up  the  Mayn  to  Wiirtzburg,  where,  in  upper 
Franconia,  the  main  body  of  his  army  was  speedily  concentrated. 
The  men  were  still  wearing  the  uniforms  of  their  Austrian  war ; 
they  were  thread-bare,  but  still  soldierly  and  neat.  Napoleon 
half-laugh ingly  told  them  that  he  would  save  the  brilliant  new 
garb  for  the  fetes  and  triumphs  awaiting  them  on  their  return  to 
France.  The  old  dress  would  do  to  beat  Prussia  in;  but  he  took 
great  care  to  see  that  warm  and  serviceable  overcoats  were  sup- 
plied to  the  entire  army,  and  that  besides  the  new  pair  on  his 
feet,  each  man  had  a  new  pair  of  shoes  in  his  knapsack,  the  extra 
pair  being  a  present  from  France ;  and  with  it  he  meant  to  tramp 
across  Prussia  to  the  very  frontiers  of  the  tsar.  At  the  same  time, 
he  bought  and  sent  forward  thousands  of  draft  and  saddle-horses, 
and  by  the  formation  of  a  new  brigade  of  dragoon-guards  and  a 
division  of  infantry  recruited  along  the  Rhine,  the  Sambre  and 
the  Meuse,  increased  his  grand  reserve  to  over  16,000  men. 

For  the  war  with  Prussia  the  same  general  organization  of  the 
grand  army  was  maintained.  Six  corps  d'armee  were  speedily 
in  readiness  :  Bernadotte,  First  corps,  had  20,000  men  ;  Davout> 
Third  corps,  had  27,000;  Soult,  Fourth  corps,  had  32,000;  Lan- 
nes,  Fifth  corps,  had  22,000 ;  Ney,  Sixth  corps,  had  20,000,  and 
Augereau,  Seventh  corps,  had  17,000.  The  Second  corps,  under 
General  Marmont,  had  been  sent  to  Dalmatia,  and  was  not  to 
form  part  of  the  army  of  invasion.  The  cavalry  corps  was  scat- 
tered through  Franconia  and  Hesse-Darmstadt,  wherever  forage 
was  to  be  had  in  plenty.  Murat  was  still  its  commander,  and  it 
numbered  28,000  mounted  men.  Including  the  imperial  guard 
and  the  reserves,  Napoleon's  total  force  fell  not  short  of  190,000 
soldiers  of  all  arms — a  splendid,  disciplined  and  thoroughly  sea- 
soned army,  full  of  the  highest  faith  and  pride  in  one  another  and 

in  him. 
30 


466  JENA. 

On  the  night  of  September  24th,  Napoleon,  accompanied  by 
the  Empress  Josephine  and  that  wily  old  diplomat,  Talleyrand, 
started  from  Paris  for  the  front.  His  army  was  concentrating 
close  under  the  Thuringian  mountains,  facing  Saxony.  Ney  and 
Soult  on  the  right,  around  Bayreuth  ;  Davout  and  Bernadotte  in 
the  centre,  near  Bamberg;  Lannes  and  Augereau  on  the  left, 
near  Coburg ;  Murat,  with  the  cavalry,  marching  forward  up  the 
valley  of  the  Mayn  from  Wiirtzburg.  All  were  ordered  to  be  at 
their  posts  between  October  3d  and  4th.  Marshals  Kellerman 
and  Mortier  (the  latter  commanding  the  Eighth  corps)  were  as- 
signed important  duties  on  the  Rhine. 

With  the  first  week  in  October  the  King  of  Prussia,  with  his 
queen,  his  court,  his  generals  and  advisers,  was  at  Erfurt,  on  the 
head  waters  of  the  west  branch  of  the  Saale,  not  more  than  forty- 
five  miles  on  a  bee-line  from  the  left  of  the  French  position. 
There  were  two  ways  of  getting  into  Prussia  and  down  into  the 
valley  of  the  Elbe  from  where  Napoleon's  army  was  encamped. 
One  was  to  face  to  the  left,  march  by  the  flank  along  under  the 
Thuringian  forest-covered  range  northwestward  through  Mein- 
ingen  to  Eisenach,  then  eastward  to  Erfurt,  Weimar  and  Leipsic. 
Three  easy  marches  would  carry  Lannes  and  Augereau  by  this 
route  to  the  Prussian  headquarters.  The  other  was  to  burst 
through  the  rugged  passes  of  the  Thuringian  hills,  and  by  way 
of  Hof,  Schleiz  and  Saalfeld,  appear  suddenly  in  the  valley  of 
the  Saale  behind  Erfurt,  thus  turning  and  gaining  the  rear  of 
the  Prussian  army  ;  but  this  last  was  a  most  difficult  undertaking 
if  any  effort  were  made  by  the  Saxons  or  Prussians  to  hold  these 
narrow  and  tortuous  defiles.  Napoleon  determined -to  burst 
through,  however,  but  to  make  the  Prussians  believe  he  was  coming 
the  otlier  tvay.  To  this  end,  Lannes  was  instructed  to  keep  con- 
stantly pushing  out  parties  to  his  left,  as  though  strengthening 
bridges,  mending  roa*ds  and  reconnoitring;  and,  in  sore  per- 
plexity and  confusion,  the  king  at  Erfurt  hardly  knew  what  to 
do.  He  held  a  council  on  the  5th  of  October;  sent  a  final  demand 
to  Napoleon  on  the  7th  that  he  should  instantly  begin  his  retreat 
to  the  Rhine,  withdraw  every  Frenchman  behind  that  stream  with 
no  further  delay  ;  and,  if  he  did  not  begin  by  the  following  morn- 


THE  DUKE  OF  BRUNSWICK  COMMANDS  THE  PRUSSIANS.    4(57 

ing,  October  8th,  he  was  warned  to  beware  of  the  consequences. 
So  far  from  having  the  desired  effect,  this  note  simply  goaded 
Napoleon.  General  Berthier  was  with  him  when  it  came.  "  We 
will  be  punctual  to  the  appointment,"  said  he,  "  but  instead  of 
being  in  France  on  the  8th,  we  shall  be  in  Saxony;"  and  instantly 
dictating  one  of  his  most  martial  and  ringing  proclamations  to  the 
army,  he  gave  the  orders  to  advance.  He  had  with  him  at  this 
moment  170,000  men,  and  if  with  them  he  could  get  between 
the  Prussians  and  Leipsic  and  Berlin,  he  would  be  repeating  the 
manoeuvre  by  which,  a  year  before,  he  had  disarmed  Mack  at 
Ulm. 

The  Prussian  army  at  this  moment  was  in  two  independent 
bodies.  The  first,  under  the  Duke  of  Brunswick,  was  now  facing 
southwest  near  Erfurt,  90,000  strong,  with  the  advance  of  the 
Duke  of  Weimar  well  to  the  front  in  the  Thuringian  forests, 
watching  for  the  coming  of  the  French.  The  second  army  had 
marched  into  Saxony  to  virtually  demand  assistance  from  its  luke- 
warm elector,  and  now,  under  the  Prince  of  Hohenlohe,  was  in 
Franconia,  facing  southwestward,  too,  confronting  the  passes 
already  mentioned ;  and  General  Tauenzien,  falling  back  from  Bay- 
reuth  when  the  French  right  wing  approached  that  place,  did  not 
even  occupy  the  passes,  but  retreated  through  them  and  formed  as 
an  advance-guard  in  front  of  the  Prince  of  Hohenlohe  at  Schleiz. 
This  army  was  perhaps  50,000  strong.  Heavy  reserves,  equi- 
distant from  Brunswick  and  Hohenlohe,  made  the  Prussian  field 
forces  mount  up  to  about  180,000  soldiers,  Saxons  included. 

The  marshals  and  generals  of  the  Grand  Army  of  France  we 
have  already  learned  something  about.  Many  of  them  were  at 
Marengo,  all  were  at  Austerlitz;  but  these  Prussians  are  strangers. 
To  the  Duke  of  Brunswick  had  been  intrusted  the  chief  com- 
mand of  the  army,  a  selection  greatly  deplored  by  the  vigorous 
young  element,  as  the  old  veteran  was  in  no  condition  physically 
to  take  the  field.  Prince  Hohenlohe,  on  the  contrary,  was  vig- 
orous, energetic,  overbearing  and  impatient — impatient  to  an  ex- 
tent that  speedily  became  insubordination ;  and  the  two  wings  of 
the  army,  separated  by  some  thirty  miles  of  ground,  but  a  far 
wider  gulf  of  conflicting  interests  and  authorities,  soon  lost  their 


468  JENA- 

unity,  and  this  was  the  divided  force  which  the  great  master  of 
the  art  of  war  was  to  find  as  the  sole  defence  of  Prussia. 

On  the  8th  of  October,  Murat,  leading  the  light  cavalry,  dashed 
through  the  central  defile  into  Thuringia,  and,  appearing  sud- 
denly at  Lobenstein,  sent  out  strong  detachments  right  and  left 
to  seize  the  openings  of  the  other  passes.  Tauenzien  fell  back 
across  the  Saale,  and  on  the  morning  of  the  9th,  the  Grand  Army 
of  France,  from  three  mountain  roads,  was  descending  into  the 
Saxon  valley.  Lannes  and  Augereau,  after  having  for  a  week 
kept  the  Prussians  in  a  ferment  of  excitement  by  their  prepara- 
tions to  march  northward  on  Eisenach,  had  suddenly  struck 
camp,  disappeared  in  the  opposite  direction,  and  when  next  seen 
were  deploying  in  front  of  Prince  Hohenlohe  over  towards  Saal- 
feld,  where,  on  the  morning  of  October  loth,  a  brisk  engagement 
took  place  between  Lannes'  men  and  the  Prussian  advance- 
guard,  9,000  strong,  under  Prince  Louis.  This  gallant  soldier 
made  a  brave  but  pitiably  unscientific  fight  of  it,  and  finding  the 
day  going  against  him  and  his  two  aides-de-camp  killed,  he  him- 
self dashed  in  among  the  French  hussars  and,  scorning  to  accept 
quarter,  attacked  the  officer  who  summoned  him  to  surrender, 
and  drew  upon  himself  the  sword-thrust  that  stretched  him,  a 
glittering  corpse,  with  his  gay  uniform  and  all  his  decorations, 
among  the  hostile  hoofs  of  Murat's  cavalry.  "  One  of  the  au- 
thors of  the  war,"  said  Napoleon,  "  Prince  Louis  was  one  of  its 
first  victims."  With  his  death  the  vanguard  fled,  leaving  twenty 
guns,  400  dead  and  wounded  and  1,000  prisoners;  and  this  was 
the  spirited  prelude  to  the  great  battles  of  Jena  and  Auerstadt 
fought  four  days  afterwards. 

Prince  Hohenlohe,  from  the  heights  further  down  the  Saale, 
looked  on  the  disaster  to  his  advance  guard  with  keen  dismay ; 
and  the  Duke  of  Brunswick,  farther  north  beyond  the  plateau 
between  Jena  and  Weimar,  listened  to  the  distant  rumble  of  the 
guns  with  dismal  apprehension. 

On  the  1 1 th,  gathering  his  men  as  they  emerged  from  the 
passes,  and  moving  slowly  and  with  great  caution,  Napoleon 
advanced  into  the  valley  of  the  Saale,  intending  as  soon  as  all 
was  clear  to  push  eastward  on  Dresden,  one  hundred  miles 


THE   PRUSSIAN    ARMY   IN    DIRE    PLIGHT.  469 

away.  On  the  evening  of  the  I2th,  he  and  many  of  the  divi- 
sions were  in  march  toward  Gera,  way  across  the  valley  and  full 
twenty  miles  to  the  east  of  Jena. 

And  now  the  Prussian  army  was  in  dire  plight.  It  was  evi- 
dent that  Napoleon  meant  to  push  on  for  the  great  cities  of  the 
upper  Elbe,  and  seize  the  crossings  of  the  stream ;  then  he  could 
easily  march  northward  on  their  capital,  Berlin.  The  king,  the 
Duke  of  Brunswick  and  all,  broke  up  in  confusion  at  Weimar, 
and  the  main  Prussian  army  in  five  divisions  began  its  retreat, 
hoping  to  reach  the  important  town  of  Naumburg  in  time  to 
seize  the  bridges  across  the  Saale,  nearly  twenty  miles  northeast 
of  Jena. 

But  Napoleon  had  anticipated  them.  Davout  with  the  Third 
corps,  supported  by  Bernadotte  with  the  First,  had  already  been 
directed  thither ;  had  passed  to  the  east  of  Prince  Hohenlohe, 
and  the  Third  corps  was  in  firm  possession  of  Naumburg  and 
the  bridges  at  dawn  of  the  I3th.  Meantime,  Lannes  and 
Augereau  had  been  wheeled  to  the  north  and  closed  in  on  the 
university  town  of  Jena,  while  Napoleon,  believing  that  now  the 
Prussians  would  endeavor  to  reach  the  Saale  at  that  point, 
determined  on  giving  them  a  beating  then  and  there. 

Ney  and  Soult  were  ordered  to  march  at  once  to  join  Lannes 
and  Augereau,  and  thus  he  would  have  four  corps  to  concentrate 
on  the  Prussians  with  Murat  to  support  him,  should  his  theory 
prove  correct ;  and  Davout  at  Naumburg,  and  Bernadotte  mid- 
way between  Jena  and  Naumburg,  could  hold  the  line  of  the 
Saale  below.  All  troops  marching  across  the  valley  towards 
Gera  were  recalled  and  directed  on  the  spires  of  the  little  town 
lying  there  under  the  bare  brown  shoulders  of  the  Thuringian 
foot-hills. 

Jena  was  then,  as  now,  the  seat  of  a  great  university.  It  lay 
on  the  west  bank  of  the  Saale.  All  to  the  east  across  the  river 
was  flat  and  open.  All  to  the  west  was  bluff,  precipice  and 
ravine.  Of  these  heights  the  most  formidable  was  the  Land- 
grafenberg,  which  commanded  the  town,  and  from  whose  sum- 
mit a  rolling  plateau,  stretching  northwestward  to  Weimar, 
could  be  seen  at  every  point.  The  road  from  Jena  to  Weimar 


470  JENA. 

wound  its  way  up  a  steep  ravine  west  of  the  town  until  it 
reached  the  plateau,  and  then  sped  away  in  a  nearly  straight 
line  for  the  latter  city.  Behind  this  road  and  facing  the  south, 
not  Jena,  Prince  Hohenlohe  had  now  drawn  up  his  lines,  for  he 
expected  Lannes  and  Augereau  to  come  up  the  west  bank  after 
their  triumph  at  Saalfeld,  and  attack  him  full  front  on  the 
plateau.  He  had  determined  to  fall  back  and  join  the  main 
army  in  its  retreat  to  the  Elbe;  but  believing  Napoleon  to 
be  hastening  away  eastward  towards  Leipsic  and  Dresden, 
and  that  only  two  corps  were  left  near  Jena,  he  thought  to 
recover  his  lost  laurels  and  revenge  himself  for  the  blow  at  his 
advance  guard.  His  right,  therefore,  reached  nearly  to  Weirnar, 
where  it  was  supported  by  the  division  of  General  Ruchel,  a 
strong  command  of  17,000  men;  while  his  left,  on  the  heights 
overhanging  Jena,  was  covered  by  the  corps  of  General  Tauen- 
zien. 

Meantime  the  old  Duke  of  Brunswick,  fearful  of  being  caught 
in  just  such  a  trap  as  Napoleon  had  laid  for  the  Austrian  Mack, 
had  faced  about,  and  was  marching  with  all  speed  for  Naum- 
burg  behind  Hohenlohe,  leaving  the  Duke  of  Weimar  with  his 
division,  then  exploring  through  the  Thuringian  forest,  to  get 
out  of  it  as  best  they  could.  Ruchel  was  told  to  recall  him  if 
possible,  and  then  rejoin  the  main  body  by  rapid  marches. 
The  duke  hoped  to  get  down  the  east  bank  of  the  Saale  to 
Magdeburg  on  the  Elbe,  the  strongest  fortification  of  interior 
Prussia.  Fancy  his  dismay  on  finding  his  way  barred  by 
Davout  He  learned  it  only  too  well  on  the  afternoon  of  the 
1 3th,  but  pushed  desperately  ahead,  bent  on  fighting  his  way 
through  on  the  following  day. 

Late  on  the  I3th  Napoleon  himself -arrived  in  haste  at  Jena 
and  was  conducted  by  Lannes  up  the  slopes  of  the  Landgrafen- 
berg,  whence  they  could  study  the  surroundings.  The  daring 
skirmishers  of  the  Fifth  corps  had  driven  back  the  outposts  of 
Tauenzien,  and  cleared  a  space  on  the  crest  which  they  held 
obstinately  until  reinforced.  The  emperor  from  here  could  see  for 
miles  in  every  direction,  but  the  abrupt  slopes  from  the  plateau 
down  to  the  valley  of  the  Ilm  to  the  north  shut  off  the  view  of 


THE   FRENCH    ON   THE   LANDGRAFENBERG 

the  highway  from  Weimar  to  Naumburg,  so  that  the  heavy 
columns  of  the  Prussian  king,  marching  eastward,  were  not  visi- 
ble, nor  was  it  possible  to  estimate  the  number  of  men  here  on 
the  plateau  in  front  of  him.  He  was  now  nearly  opposite  the 
left  flank  of  Prince  Hohenlohe's  long  line,  and  believing  the 
entire  Prussian  army  to  be  on  the  ground  or  within  easy  call, 
Napoleon  sent  orders  to  Ney  and  Soult  to  march  all  night,  if 
need  be,  but  to  pass  beyond  Jena,  and  work  their  way  up  the 
heights  below  the  town,  so  as  to  come  in  on  his  right  and  hem 
the  foe  from  the  east.  The  next  thing  was  to  get  Lannes'  corps 
up  on  the  Landgrafenberg. 

Infantrymen  such  as  he  had,  could  climb  anything,  and  early 
in  the  evening  20,000  linesmen  were  clambering  up  the  slopes 
and  spreading  out  to  the  front,  crowding  back  the  skirmish  lines 
of  Tauenzien,  and  still  Hohenlohe  cherished  the  idea  that  Lan- 
nes and  Augereau  were  coming  upon  his  front  with  the  dawn 
of  the  1 4th,  and  made  no  effort  to  strengthen  the  division  cover- 
ing his  left.  Thus  he  lost  the  commanding  height  behind  Jena, 
for,  with  the  Fifth  corps  once  firmly  established  there,  he  had  not 
men  enough  to  win  it  back.  Following  Lannes'  men  came 
4,000  of  the  imperial  guard,  who  bivouacked  in  a  hollow  square 
at  the  summit,  and  Napoleon's  tent  was  pitched  in  their  midst. 

No  sleep  for  him  yet,  however.  The  hardest  work  of  all  was 
to  come.  Lannes'  guns  must  be  hauled  to  the  top ;  and,  rest- 
lessly riding  to  and  fro,  the  emperor  at  last  came  upon  a  narrow, 
winding  mountain-road  that  would  answer  the  purpose.  Sap- 
pers quickly  blasted  the  rocky  sides  where  the  path  was  too 
narrow,  and  then  while  Napoleon,  holding  a  torch  in  his  own 
hand,  lent  his  energetic  presence  to  the  work,  urging  and  in- 
spiring everywhere,  the  pioneers  toiled  at  the  roadway  to  make 
it  practicable.  By  ten  o'clock,  in  the  beautiful  starlit  nigkt, 
with  twelve  horses  hitched  to  each  carriage,  the  gunners  began 
the  task  of  dragging  their  batteries  to  the  summit.  By  mid- 
night all  were  parked  at  the  crest,  and,  calmly  satisfied  that  all 
would  be  well  on  the  morrow,  the  emperor  had  betaken  himself 
to  his  bivouac,  and,  if  one  story  be  credible,  before  going  to  sleep, 
was  engaged  in  drawing  up  a  plan  of  studies  to  be  pursued 


472  JENA- 

at  Madame  Campari's  female  school,  in  which  he  felt  great  in- 
terest. 

Off  to  the  northwest,  towards  Weimar,  the  plateau  was  one 
blaze  of  Prussian  camp-fires,  but  the  summit  of  the  Landgrafenberg 
was  comparatively  dark,  and  in  the  chill  night  air  the  men  drew 
together  and  sought  such  sleep  and  shelter  as  they  could  find. 
With  Suchet's  division  on  the  right,  the  guards  in  the. centre, 
and  Gazan's  division  on  the  left,  the  emperor  meant  to  assault 
Tauenzien's  lines  at  dawn.  Ney  and  Murat  were  to  follow  up 
in  his  tracks  as  soon  as  he  had  advanced.  Soult,  marching  back 
from  Gera,  was  to  climb  the  ravines  below  Jena  and  get  to  the 
Prussian  rear,  while  Augereau,  keeping  concealed  in  the  "  Miihl- 
thal "  and  other  ravines  around  the  Landgrafenberg,  was  to  act 
in  vigorous  support  on  his  left. 

At  four  o'clock  the  emperor  was  again  in  saddle.  A  thick 
fog  like  that  at  Austerlitz  enveloped  the  plateau  and  the  valley 
of  the  Saale  to  his  right.  Nevertheless  Napoleon  had  been  able 
to  see  during  the  night  that  not  only  was  the  whole  country 
towards  Weimar  ablaze  with  Prussian  fires,  but  that  to  the 
north  the  horizon  was  red  and  glaring  from  the  same  cause. 
This  led  him  to- the  belief  that  while  a  strong  force  of  the  king's 
army  might  have  gone  towards  Naumburg,  they  had  halted  for 
the  night  in  the  Ilm  valley  between  Auerstadt  and  the  plateau 
back  of  Jena,  and  would  be  reinforcing  Prince  Hohenlohe  first 
thing  in  the  morning.  This  had  led  to  his  sending  orders  to 
Davout  and  Bernadotte  which  had  a  peculiar  bearing  on  the 
great  battle  to  be  fought  the  same  day  xvith  Jena.  Davout  was 
directed  to  be  sure  and  hold  the  bridges  over  the  Saale  at 
Naumburg,  but  at  the  same  time,  if  possible,  to  fall  upon  the 
Prussian  rear  while  the  emperor  was  attacking  in  front  on  the 
plateau.  Bernadotte  was  directed  to  assist  Davout  if  near  him 
when  the  order  was  received,  or  to  throw  himself  on  the  Prussian 
flank  if  he  had  already  taken  a  strong  position  at  Dornburg,  a 
little  town  nearly  midway  between  Jena  and  Naumburg.  We 
shall  see  how  strangely  Bernadotte  interpreted  this  order  when 
we  come  to  Auerstadt. 

It  was  still  too  dark  and  foggy  to  attack,  but  not  for  Napoleon 


"VIVE   L'    EMPEREUR."  473 

to  be  up  and  doing.  Riding  right  in  among  the  bivouac  fires 
of  his  men,  he  gathered  the  soldiers  about  him  in  one  great 
concourse,  and  in  his  half-playful,  confidential  way  explained  to 
them  his  hopes  and  plans  for  the  day.  He  showed  them  that 
by  their  energetic  movements  they  had  secured  a  position  which 
threatened  the  Prussians  with  as  complete  ruin  as  befell  the 
Austrians  last  year";  that  if  they  thoroughly  beat  the  Prussians 
it  would  destroy  them :  they  could  not  rally,  could  not  reach 
the  Elbe,  much  less  the  Oder ;  that  Russia  could  not  then 
assist  them,  and  the  whole  war  would  be  finished  as  decisively, 
as  suddenly  in  one  battle  as  was  that  of  the  third  coalition  at 
Austerlitz.  "  But  keep  on  your  guard  against  their  cavalry," 
he  said.  "  They  are  indeed  formidable ;  meet  them  in  squares 
and  be  firm."  Glory  and  rewards  were  promised  the  corps 
which  should  most  distinguish  themselves,  and  disgrace  should 
await  those  that  failed  him.  His  stirring  words  were  greeted 
with  wild  shouts  of  "  Vive  1'  Empereur,"  and  then  ranks  were 
formed.  Forward  was  the  word,  and  through  the  dim,  chill 
light  of  breaking  day,  the  lines  swept  down  upon  the  Prussian 
host.  At  the  head  was  Claparede's  brigade,  that  had  so  distin- 
guished itself  on  the  left  at  Austerlitz. 

In  one  long  line  they  stretched  across  the  plateau,  but  their 
flanks  were  covered  by  heavy  columns  of  Lannes'  corps,  while 
Vedel's  brigade  marched  in  support.  To  their  left,  with  the  guns 
well  out  in  front,  Gazan's  division  pushed  forward  at  the  same 
time ;  Suchet  feeling  his  way  towards  the  namlet  of  Closewitz, 
Gazan  towards  that  of  Cospoda,  which  were  heavily  garrisoned 
by  the  Prussian  corps  of  Tauenzien.  For  a  few  moments  it  was 
all  a  blind  groping  through  the  fog.  Officers  well  out  ahead 
gave  their  orders  in  low  tones,  and,  thus  guided,  the  lines  swept 
forward  down  a  gentle  declivity,  then  up  the  opposite  rise,  and, 
arriving  at  the  crest,  came  suddenly  upon  long  ranks  of  soldiery 
looming  up  through  the  fog — the  Saxon  brigade  and  Zweifel's 
Prussians.  "  Fire !  "  rang  the  word  of  command,  and  in  an  in- 
stant the  plateau  of  Jena  flashed  with  the  lightning  of  their  mus- 
ketry. Claparede's  volley  echoed  the  crash,  and  then  with  venge- 
ful bayonets  his  men  sprang  forward  upon  the  foe.  Far  to  the 


474  JENA- 

west  and  north  the  volleys,  the  cheers  were  heard,  and  Prince 
Hohenlohe,  vaulting  into  saddle  over  near  Weimar,  spurred 
madly  eastward  to  see  what  it  meant.  The  booming  of  Gazan's 
guns  told  him  a  most  unwelcome  tale  before  he  could  traverse 
half  the  distance ;  and  when  he  reached  the  position  of  Tauen- 
zien,  it  was  only  to  find  that  the  villages  were  gone.  Their 
stony  walls  were  no  longer  points  of  rest"  for  his  left.  The 
French  had  dashed  upon  them  in  the  resistless  force  of  their 
first  charge ;  had  carried  all  before  them,  and  Tauenzien's  men 
were  doubling  up  on  that  magnificent  brigade  of  Cerrini,  which, 
steadily  advancing  and  firing  by  battalion,  had  checked  the  first 
onset  of  Suchet's  divisions ;  but  it  was  broad  daylight  by  this 
time,  and  the  veteran  generals  and  skillful  staff-officers  of  the 
French,  schooled  in  incessant  warfare,  speedily  aligned  and 
strengthened  their  ranks.  Once  more,  in  absolutely  beautiful 
order,  the  Fifth  corps  resumed  its  advance  towards  the  west,  and, 
despite  a  gallant  resistance,  a  bloody  and  terrible  combat,  trie 
ground  west  of  the  two  villages  was  carried  and  held.  Napo- 
leon had  crushed  the  Prussian  left,  captured  twenty  guns,  and 
had  now  room  in  which  to  deploy  his  army.  Soult's  divisions 
were  still  in  march  from  Gera;  only  St.  Hilaire's  had  arrived, 
but  that,  followed  by  Murat  with  his  impatient  cavalry,  was  now 
ordered  up  from  Jena  and  began  to  file  out  upon  the  plateau. 
Augereau  was  rapidly  climbing  the  southern  slopes  to  reach  the 
left  of  Lannes.  Ney,  too  eager  to  wait  until  he  could  bring 
forward  his  entire  corps,  had  pushed  ahead  with  his  voltigeurs 
and  light  troops,  and  was  panting  up  the  ravines  below  Jena  to 
gain  the  plateau  ;  and  now  Napoleon  desired  to  give  his  men  a 
breathing  spell  of  an  hour  while  his  rear  columns  were  coming 
on  the  field. 

Prince  Hohenlohe,  meantime,  had  discovered  that  all  his  dis- 
positions must  be  changed,  and  that  he  must  form  a  line  across 
instead  of  along  the  Weimar  road.  He  acted  with  great  spirit 
and  promptitude.  The  bulk  of  the  infantry  under  General  Gra- 
wert  was  marched  towards  the  east  to  replace  the  shattered  corps 
of  Tauenzien ;  the  Saxon  divisions,  the  rallied  brigade  of  Cer- 
rini, Boguslawski's  Prussians  and  a  powerful  array  of  field-bat- 


KEY'S    EAGERNESS   FOR    THE   FRAY.  475 

teries  were  swung  round  to  the  south  and  eastward  so  as  to  form 
his  new  right ;  and  there,  resting  on  the  "Schnecke"  as  the  Ger- 
mans called  the  undulating  slopes  near  the  Weimar  road,  they 
were  ordered  to  hold  that  highway  to  the  last  extremity.  Dy- 
herrn's  brigade  and  Tauenzien's  sore-stricken  corps  were  placed 
in  reserve.  General  Holzendorf,  with  the  newly  formed  left  wing, 
was  ordered  to  fall  upon  the  heads  of  Soult's  columns  and  drive 
them  back,  down  the  valley  of  the  Saale.  Ruchel,  way  to  the 
rear  at  Weimar,  was  urged  to  come  up  with  his  strong  corps, 
and  then,  placing  himself  at  the  head  of  all  his  cavalry  and 
horse-batteries,  the  gallant  prince  galloped  to  the  front  and  cen- 
tre to  restore  the  battle. 

All  this,  Napoleon,  from  the  height  of  the  Landgrafenberg, 
watched  with  calm  satisfaction.  He  did  not  intend  to  resume 
the  battle  until  Soult,  Augereau  and  Ney  were  all  in  position, 
and  Murat  on  the  heights  with  the  whole  cavalry  corps;  but 
Ney,  as  we  have  said,  was  too  eager  to  get  into  the  fight,  and 
leaving  his  division  commanders  to  bring  up  the  toiling  foot  to 
their  assigned  positions  on  the  plateau,  he  had  galloped  forward 
with  the  Third  hussars  and  the  Tenth  chasseurs ;  his  light  in- 
fantry battalions  had  followed  him  unseen  by  Napoleon  through 
the  early  fog,  and  when  that  cleared  away  and  the  whole  plateau 
was  visible,  while  the  columns  of  the  Sixth  corps  were  crawling 
up  to  their  proper  place  on  the  ridges  north  of  the  Landgrafen- 
berg, here  was  the  corps  commander  himself  right  in  the  centre ; 
and,  in  his  eagerness  for  his  share  in  the  battle,,  he  had  pushed 
squarely  in  between  Lannes  and  Augereau,  and  was  facing  the 
little  village  of  Vierzehn-Heiligen — the  very  centre  of  the  battle- 
field. He  got  there,  as  luck  would  have  it,  just  at  the  instant 
that  Hohenlohe  came  thundering  up  with  the  light-guns,  and, 
knowing  nothing  of  Napoleon's  orders  to  cease  firing  until  the 
general  signal  should  be  given  from  the  Landgrafenberg,  and  be- 
ing accustomed  in  his  impetuous  way  to  fight  on  sight,  he  rushed 
his  chasseurs  at  the  unlimbering  batteries,  and  in  less  trjan  a 
minute  the  French  horsemen  were  tumbling  over  the  gunners 
and  drivers ;  had  captured  seven  guns  and  were  riding  off  with 
them,  when  down  came  the  Prussian  cuirassiers  to  the  rescue. 


476  JENA- 

Then  Ney  had  to  launch  the  Third  hussars  to  help  the  chasseurs, 
and  as  these  two  light  regiments  were  by  no  means  strong  enough 
to  cope  with  thirty  squadrons  of  mail-clad  horsemen,  he  led  his 
infantry  forward  at  the  double  and  opened  his  volleys  on  the 
Prussians,  forming  square  to  resist  their  charges  and  strewing 
the  ground  with  their  dead  and  wounded. 

But  all  this  was  contrary  to  the  plans  of  Napoleon,  who  was 
astounded  to  see  on  his  battle  checker-board  a  move  he  had 
never  authorized.  In  high  displeasure  he  came  galloping  down 
to  the  front,  bent  on  breaking  the  general  who  had  dared  disobey 
his  orders.  It  never  occurred  to  him  that  it  could  be  Ney,  who, 
by  good  rights,  should  still  be  plodding  up  the  heights  below 
Jena ;  but  when  he  reached  the  front  and  saw  those  two  squares 
defying  the  whole  force  of  Hohenlohe's  charging  cuirassiers,  his 
wrath  gave  way  to  soldierly  admiration ;  and  when  told  that  it 
was  Ney,  he  could  not  but  laugh  with  delight ;  the  whole  thing 
was  so  characteristic  of  that  dare-devil,  battle-loving  fighter. 

Bertrand  came  up  with  two  regiments  to  support  Ney,  for 
Murat  and  Augereau  were  not  yet  in  position.  Lannes  hastened 
forward  with  two  brigades  of  his  solid  infantry,  and  now  the  bat- 
tle of  Jena  was  resumed  in  the  centre  with  ten-fold  fury. 

For  full  an  hour,  from  ten  until  eleven  o'clock,  the  vortex  of 
the  fight  raged  right  here  around  that  little  hamlet.  Ney  had 
sprung  a  hornet's  nest  and  had  to  bear  the  brunt  of  it  with  his 
little  elite  brigade  and  such  aid  as  Lannes  could  give  him.  Un- 
hampered for  the  time  on  either  flank,  Hohenlohe  was  able  to 
borrow  men  from  them,  and  to  concentrate  all  his  energies  on 
the  centre.  Thus  it  happened  that  the  fiercest  fighting  of  that 
bloody  day  occurred  between  these  hours  and  about  this  spot. 
For  years  afterwards  the  men  who  survived  in  Grawert's  Prus- 
sian division  and  the  two  brigades  of  Lannes  and  Ney  were 
looked  upon  with  something  like  awe  by  the  rest  of  the  armies. 
Ney's  infantry  were  three  battalions,  one  of  grenadiers,  one  of 
voltigeurs,  and  the  2$th  light  infantry.  Lannes'  were  the  2ist 
light,  and  the  34th,  64th,  88th,  looth  and  iO3d  infantry  of  the 
line;  ("88"  seems  to  be  a  fighting  number  wherever  it  is  met, 
for  no  regiment  in  the  English  army  is  more  famous  than  its 


TERRIBLE   FIGHTING   IN  THE   CENTRE.  477 

88th — the  Connaught  Rangers,  the  fighting  "  Faugh-a-ballaghs,M) 
and  these  French  88th  seem  to  have  fought  like  demons  among 
the  walls  of  Vierzehn-Heiligen.  On  both  sides  the  carnage 
was  terrible — never  forgotten  in  either  army.  Only  a  few  months 
since  (the  summer  of  '83)  there  was  published  in  the  Paris  Fig- 
aro a  letter  written  in  November,  1806,  on  the  banks  of  the 
Vistula  by  Colonel  Taupin  of  the  iO3d  describing,  to  an  old 
friend  at  Lille,  the  part  taken  by  his  regiment  in  that  desperate 
stand  up,  muzzle-to-muzzle  fight.  According  to  Colonel  Tau- 
pin, the  emperor  did  not  sleep  as  soundly  between  midnight  and 
four  o'clock  as  Thiers  and  John  S.  C.  Abbot  would  have  us  be- 
lieve, for  at  two  in  the  morning  the  colonel  says  he  was  called 
upon  by  Napoleon  himself  to  take  some  of  his  men  and  creep 
forward  with  him  to  reconnoitre  the  plateau,  but  then,  appear- 
ing perfectly  satisfied  that  the  Prussians  had  weakened  their  left 
to  strengthen  the  right  and  centre,  he  had  gone  back  to  his  tent. 
It  is  of  the  fight  around  the  centre,  however,  that  he  gives  most 
thrilling  particulars.  The  iO3d,  he  says,  in  charging  broke 
through  the  first  line  of  Prussians,  pursued  them  to  the  second, 
which  stood  firm,  and  then  from  both  flanks  and  from  the  front 
a  terrible  fire  mowed  down  his  gallant  men.  "  In  less  than  four 
minutes,"  he  writes,  "  my  regiment  had  twenty-three  officers 
and  three  hundred  and  eighty-seven  soldiers  killed  or  wounded. 
...  In  charging  I  was  on  horseback  in  front  of  the  centre  of 
the  first  division  of  my  regiment  with  General  Campana  and  his 
two  aides-de-camp.  The  captain  of  the  leading  grenadier  com- 
pany, his  first  sergeant  and  two  other  sergeants  were  killed;  his 
first  and  second  lieutenants  were  wounded ;  fifty-one  grenadiers 
were  killed  or  wounded,  and  not  one  of  us  or  our  horses  was  struck'' 
This  was  indeed  remarkable,  and  the  colonel  goes  on  to  say, 
with  much  gravity :  "  If  anybody  else  had  told  you  this  you 
wouldn't  have  believed  it."  Taupin's  description  has  certainly 
more  warmth  of  coloring  than  even  the  glowing  official  reports 
of  the  emotional  Frenchmen,  but  its  publication  at  this  late  day 
goes  to  show  how  the  terrible  fighting  of  the  centre  at  Jena  has 
never  been  forgotten. 

Grawert's  line  rested,  in  part,  on  some  rather  commanding 


478  JENA- 

ground,  which  Lannes  assailed  with  great  fury ;  but  here,  on  his 
right,  he  was  exposed  to  the  fierce  charges  of  that  fine  cavalry 
against  which  Napoleon  had  warned  them  to  stand  firm,  and 
here  he  was  brought  to  a  halt.  So  superb  were  the  assaults  of 
the  cuirassiers  at  this  stage  of  the  battle  that,  though  still  urg- 
ing Ruchel  to  hasten  to  his  support,  Hohenlohe  ventured  to 
assert  that  the  French  were  already  defeated ;  that  all  that  was 
needed  was  his  presence  to  convert  their  wavering  halt  into 
tumultuous  rout.  Meantime  the  furious  fire  of  his  batteries  was 
concentrated  on  Ney's  position  in  the  hamlet  which  had  burst 
into  flames,  and  thus  for  a  time  he  held  the  battle.  This  might 
be  termed  its  second  stage. 

But  now  came  the  third.  Soult's  infantry,  by  noon,  was  up  the 
heights ;  had  received  with  serene  coolness  the  blustering  attack 
of  Holzendorf 's  division ;  had  stood  him  off  while  the  entire 
corps  deployed,  and  then  advanced  westward  across  the  plateau, 
slowly,  steadily  driving  the  outnumbered  Prussians  before  them. 
At  the  same  time,  to  the  dismay  of  Prince  Hohenlohe,  strong 
columns  were  reported  forming  line  opposite  his  right  near  the 
Schnecke,  and  almost  as  he  began  to  believe  it  possible  to  drive 
Ney  out  of  Vierzehn-Heiligen,  the  entire  plateau  to  the  south 
and  west  of  that  unlucky  hamlet  was  covered  by  the  advancing 
line  of  Augereau — the  Seventh  corps  with  its  17,000  was  up 
the  heights  and  sweeping  down  upon  his  right.  Desjardin's 
division  released  Ney  from  his  danger,  and  leisurely  attacked  the 
Saxons  on  the  Schnecke,  while  Heudelet,  forming  in  charging 
column  on  the  Jena  and  Weimar  road,  awaited  the  signal  to 
push  ahead.  Then  Soult's  divisions,  advancing  from  Closewitz 
towards  the  north  of  the  plateau,  got  in  a  flank  fire  with  their 
guns  on  the  Prussian  centre,  and,  seeing  everything  now  in  readi- 
ness, Napoleon  smilingly  waved  forward  the  imperial  guard, 
struck  spurs  to  his  horse  and  ordered  a  general  advance  of  the 
whole  line.  Grawert's  division,  already  nearly  exhausted  from 
its  terrible  combat  with  Lannes,  was  now  the  first  to  go  down 
under  the  resistless  impulse  of  the  French  attack.  The  grena- 
diers of  Hohenlohe  and  Hahn  were  killed  almost  to  a  man, 
falling  under  ball  or  bayonet.  Grawert  was  severely  wounded, 


THE   PRUSSIANS    DEFEATED    AND   PANIC-STRICKEN.       479 

for  he  and  his  proud  Prussians  would  not  run ;  but  right  and 
left  all  was  now  panic  and  dismay.  Tauenzien's  remnants,  Dy- 
herrn's  reserves,  Cerrini's  fine  brigade,  all  were  in  confusion  and 
flight ;  whole  batteries  were  abandoned ;  the  gunners  cut  the 
traces,  leaped  on  the  horses  and  scattered  for  the  rear;  prisoners 
were  swept  in  by  battalions,  guns  captured  by  whole  batteries, 
standards  picked  up  from  the  ground.  In  vain  Hohenlohe  faced 
the  rout  and  strove  to  stem  the  tide  with  his  heavy  cavalry, — there 
was  no  finer  in  the  world — but  against  their  massive  chargers 
and  solid  armor  the  French  light  chasseurs  and  nimble  hussars, 
wild  with  the  enthusiasm  of  victory,  dared  to  charge  again  and 
again. 

And  now  Hohenlohe  implored  Ruchel  to  come.  "Come  with 
all  speed,  but  prepared  to  meet  them  half-way.  Come  with  in- 
tervals in  your  line  through  which  the  fugitives  may  rush." 
What  a  contrast  to  the  confident  despatches  of  an  hour  ago! 
and  Ruchel  was  coming — to  his  death. 

With  his  fine  corps  already  deployed  in  battle  order  as  though 
anticipating  the  need  of  this  bitter  moment;  with  his  infantry  in 
two  long  lines,  his  cavalry  massed  on  their  left  flank,  the  fine 
Saxon  horse  commanded  by  General  Zeschwitz  marching  on  his 
right,  he  came  in  steady  disciplined  order  up  the  gradual  slope 
of  the  plateau.  Far  over  to  his  left  front  he  could  see  the  fugi- 
tives from  Hohenlohe's  battered  army  fleeing  for  life  down  into 
the  1 1m  valley,  and  way  out  across  the  plateau  to  his  right  front 
the  Saxon  division  in  two  great  squares  slowly  retiring  down 
the  Schnecke  before  the  charging  corps  of  Augereau,  but  that 
sight  was  as  nothing  compared  with  the  spectacle  immediately 
before  him.  The  great  highway,  the  broad  fields  on  both  sides 
were  thronged  with  panic-stricken  soldiers ;  all  order,  discipline, 
duty  forgotten,  in  one  great  huddling,  shouting,  struggling, 
desperate  mass  the  once  superb  parade  regiments  of  Prussia 
came  swarming  down,  and  close  at  their  heels  the  vengeful 
sabres  of  the  French  light  cavalry  were  plying  their  bloody 
work,  and  the  horse-batteries,  galloping  almost  in  among  them, 
then  halting,  swinging  round  their  black  muzzles  in  the  twink- 
ling of  an  eye,  added  horror  to  their  flight  by  deluging  the 
wretched  mob  with  shell  and  grape-shot. 


480  JENA- 

In  vain  Ruchel  strove  to  rally  their  foremost  and  align  them 
with  his  battalions.  It  was  a  torrent  no  human  being  could 
.control.  It  swept  over  his  ranks,  for  Soult  with  the-  French 
cavalry  swooped  upon  the  Prussian  squadrons  on  his  left,  then 
outflanked  the  line  with  St.  Hilaire's  cheering  infantry.  Ruchel's 
left  gave  way,  and  striving  to  rally  them,  this  ardent  and  vehe- 
ment patriot  reeled  from  his  saddle  shot  through  and  through, 
and  was  borne  dying  from  the  field.  Even  had  he  lived  he 
could  have  availed  nothing;  for  at  this  instant,  as  though  enraged 
at  having  been  so  long  held  idle  spectators  of  this  terrible  battle- 
picture,  there  came  thundering  down  the  plateau  with  tread  that 
shook  the  very  earth,  the  grand  reserve  of  dragoons  and  cuiras- 
siers, the  heavy  cavalry  of  France  led  on  by  Murat  in  person, 
and  now  Ruchel's  corps  crumbled  up  with  the  rest  and  swept 
haplessly,  hopelessly  to  the  rear,  while  Zeschwitz  with  his  Saxon 
cavalry  bravely  sped  forward  to  rescue  if  possible  their  comrade 
infantry.  Odd  as  it  may  seem,  the  Prussians  were  in  full  flight 
all  over  the  plateau.  Only  the  Saxons,  whom  they  affected  to 
treat  with  patronizing  courtesy,  remained  firm  in  their  ranks. 
Calling  off  some  thousands  of  his  "  heavies  "  from  the  mad  pur- 
suit, Murat  dashed  them  at  the  Saxon  squares,  and  at  last, 
mowed  down  by  the  guns,  charged  again  and  again  by  the 
massive  squadrons,  there  was  nothing  left  for  them  but  surren- 
der. Forced  into  the  war  against  their  will  by  the  arrogance  of 
their  boastful  neighbors,  the  Saxons  had  yet  the  satisfaction  of 
being  the  last  on  the  field,  and  after  the  battle,  of  being  compli- 
mented by  Napoleon  himself  on  their  courage  and  discipline. 

And  so  Jena  was  won.  "  Of  the  70,000  Prussians  who  had 
appeared  on  the  field  of  battle,"  says  M.  Thiers,  "  not  a  single 
corps  remained  entire,  not  one  retreated  in  order.  Out  of 
100,000  French,  composed  of  the  corps  of  Marshals  Soult,  Lan- 
nes,  Augereau,  Ney  and  Murat,  and  the  guard,  not  more  than 
50,000  had  fought,  and  they  had  been  sufficient  to  overthrow 
the  Prussian  army." 

Now  while  Prussia  had  hardly  70,000  men  "who  had  fought" 
on  the  plateau  under  Hohenlohe  that  day,  and  while  fully 
50,000  Frenchmen  fought,  and  fought  like  heroes,  it  was  indeed 


NAPOLEON'S   GREAT  TRIUMPH.  481 

• 

a  victory- of  infinite  glory  for  Napoleon.  Never  did  Prussian 
officers  fight  more  devotedly,  more  determinedly ;  and  never 
was  there  a  battle  on  European  soil  in  which  the  proportion  of 
officers  killed  was  so  great  as  in  the  Prussian  lines  at  Jena.  It 
seems  as  though  they  had  sought  death  rather  than  acknowl- 
edge defeat,  and  when,  late  that  afternoon,  Prince  Hohenlohe 
with  a  few  squadrons  rallied  some  of  the  survivors  twelve  miles 
from  the  field,  and  well  back  of  Weimar,  it  was  with  despair  in 
his  heart  that  he  saw  the  utter  ruin  of  the  proud  army  he  so 
confidently  thought  to  lead  to  victory. 

From  Jena  to  Weimar  the  plateau  was  black  with  the  dead 
and  dying;  12,000  Prussians  and  Saxons  were  killed  or  left 
severely  wounded  on  the  field;  200  guns,  15,000  prisoners,  had 
fallen  into  the  hands  of  Napoleon.  Jena  and  Weimar,  fired  by 
the  shells,  were  in  flames ;  and  the  panic-stricken  survivors  of  the 
terrible  day  were  wanderers  over  the  wilds  of  Thuringia. 

Great  as  was  Napoleon's  triumph  here,  where  he  was  now,  as 
was  his  wont,  looking  after  the  care  of  his  wounded  before  doing 
anything.else,  news  of  a  still  greater  and  much  more  astonishing 
victory  was  in  store  for  him.  Even  while  mourning  the  loss  of 
4,000  of  his  brave  men,  killed  and  wounded,  around  Jena,  and 
lamenting  that  he  had  not  completed  the  ruin  of  the  entire 
Prussian  army,  he  was  greeted  as  he  rode  back  by  the  glad 
tidings  that  Davout,  unaided,  had  won  a  victory  as  complete  as 
his  own.  He  had  annihilated  the  army  of  the  king  at  Auer- 
stadt,  twelve  miles  away. 

It  deserves  a  chapter  of  its  own. 
31 


AUERSTADT. 


1806. 

?  E  have  seen  how  Davout  and  Bernadotte  had 
been  hurried  down  the  valley  of  the  Saale  to 
cut  off  the  Prussian  retreat,  and  how  the 
army  of  the  Duke  of  Brunswick  escorting 
the  king  and  his  court  had  found  their  pas- 
sage barred  at  Naumburg.  This  little  city 
lay  on  the  east  bank  of  the  Saale  some 
twenty  miles  below  Jena,  and,  while  ordered 
to  hold  it  and  the  bridge,  Davout  had  re- 
ceived his  injunctions  to  cross  if  possible  and  attack  the  enemy's 
rear;  for  Napoleon  supposed  that  he  had  the  entire  army  of 
Prussia  facing  him  on  the  plateau,  or  that  he  would  have  it  there 
on  the  1 4th  of  October. 

On  the  evening  of  the  1 3th  the  Duke  of  Brunswick,  learning 
that  the  bridge  was  held  by  Davout,  had  gone  into  camp  with 
his  army  around  the  village  of  Auerstadt,  which  lay  some  six 
miles  south  of  west  of  Naumburg,  and  about  twelve  miles  due 
north  of  the  plateau  between  Jena  and  Weimar.  Out  to  the  east 
of  Auerstadt  was  a  tract  of  open  country,  extending  some  miles 
on  both  sides  of  the  road  between  Naumburg  and  Weimar.  A 
narrow,  shallow  stream  flowing  from  the  north  into  the  Ilm  was 
enclosed  between  two  smooth  and  gradual  slopes ;  the  western, 
up  towards  the  rising  ground  in  front  of  Auerstadt ;  the  eastern, 
up  to  the  ridge  between  it  and  the  Saale ;  and  on  this  ridge,  and 
traversed  by  the  main  road,  was  the  hamlet,  of  Hassenhausen 
mid-way  between  Naumburg  and  Auerstadt.  East  of  Hassen- 
hausen the  high-road  drops  down  by  steep  grades  and  sharp 
curves  into  the  valley  of  the  Saale,  and  runs  along  the  river 
(482) 


BRUNSWICK'S  GREAT  BLUNDER.  433 

bank  until  it  reaches  the  bridge.  Commanded  as  it  is  by  the 
steeps,  and  crowded  in  this  narrow  space,  it  forms  an  easily 
defensible  pass  or  defile,  and  was  known  to  the  Prussians  as  the 
"  Defile  of  Kosen." 

Now,  knowing  Davout  to  be  over  in  Naumburg,  one  would 
suppose  that  the  Prussians  would  not  neglect  to  occupy  this  de- 
file in  force ;  but  it  seems  that  as  soon  as  the  old  Duke  of  Bruns- 
wick found  tnat  he  could  not  hope  to  cross  the  bridge,  he  decided 
that  he  had  no  use  for  the  defile.  Sending  cavalry  forward  to 
reconnoitre,  and  satisfying  himself  that  nothing  but  Davout's  ve- 
dettes were  on  the  west  side  of  the  river,  he  determined  to  let 
all  his  men  get  what  rest  they  could.  They  had  marched  no 
more  than  fifteen  miles,  but,  so  unused  were  the  Prussians  to 
marching  at  that  time,  that  had  been  enough  to  fatigue  them. 
Then,  too,  they  were  hungry,  and  their  commissary  wagons  had 
gone  astray  in  the  confusion.  The  bulk  of  the  Prussian  army 
around  Auerstadt  went  supperless  to  sleep,  and  woke  in  the 
morning  hungry  and  dispirited.  Badly  led,  badly  fed,  they  were 
not  feeling  particularly  warlike  when  the  I4th  of  October  dawned, 
foggy,  chill  and  raw;  and,  roused  from  their  uneasy  slumbers  by 
the  roar  of  battle  on  the  distant  heights  of  Jena,  they  huddled 
around  their  fires,  wondering  what  their  part  was  to  be  in  the 
drama  of  the  day. 

The  call  came  soon  enough.  On  the  evening  of  the  I3th, 
Davout,  who  never  neglected  the  faintest  detail  of  his  duty,  had 
ridden  to  the  western  bank  of  the  Saale,  and  there,  from  some 
captured  cavalrymen,  learned  that  the  main  body  of  the  Prussian 
army  was  even  then  at  Auerstadt.  He  felt  well  assured  that  he 
would  have  brisk  work  with  the  dawn,  and  so  sent  over  some 
light  infantry  to  occupy  the  defile  that  the  Prussians  had  failed 
to  seize — a  blunder  on  the  part  of  the  Duke  of  Brunswick  quite 
on  a  par  with  Hohenlohe's  loss  of  the  Landgrafenberg.  At  six 
A.  M.,  on  the  I4th,  a  despatch  reached  him  from  Napoleon  dated 
some  hours  earlier  from  his  bivouac  back  of  Jena.  It  told  him 
that  at  dawn  Napoleon  meant  to  attack  the  Prussian  army,  all 
of  which  the  emperor  believed  then  to  be  on  the  plateau,  and 
directed  him  to  move  up  to  Apolda,  a  town  in  rear  of  the  posi- 


484  AUERSTADT. 

tion  of  Prince  Hohenlohe,  so  as  to  attack  the  Prussian  left  and 
rear  while  he  attacked  in  front.  Then  the  emperor  went  on  to 
say :  "  If  the  Prince  of  Ponte  Corvo  (Bernadotte)  is  with  you, 
you  may  march  together ;  but  the  emperor  hopes  he  will  be 
already  in  the  place  assigned  to  him  at  Dornburg." 

Now  Bernadotte  was  "with  him;"  that  is  to  say,  the  whole 
First  corps  was  right  there  near  Naumburg  with  the  Third,  and 
Davout  at  once  galloped  to  Bernadotte,  showed  hfm  the  order, 
and  urged  that  together  they  should  cross  and  with  their  united 
forces,  46,000  men,  assault  the  Prussians  at  Auerstadt,  and  thus, 
at  least,  prevent  their  sending  aid  to  the  forces  in  front  of  Na- 
poleon ;  but  Bernadotte  declined.  The  truth  was,  he  hated  and 
was  jealous  of  Davout ;  he  would  share  no  glory  with  him.  Da- 
vout urged — even  implored  him  to  act  with  him ;  offered  him  the 
supreme  command  of  the  movement ;  pledged  him  his  best  sup- 
port. It  was  the  cause  of  France,  he  urged,  but  Bernadotte  would 
have  none  of  it.  "  The  emperor  hoped  he  was  already  at  Dorn- 
burg," and  so,  though  ordered  to  support  Davout  if  with  or  near 
him,  and  not  at  Dornburg,  Marshal  Bernadotte  marched  away 
with  every  man  of  his  strong  and  valiant  corps,  and  so  took 
them  out  of  both  Jena  and  Auerstadt.  It  is  only  anticipating  a 
little  to  say  that  the  emperor  reprimanded  him  in  a  personal  let- 
ter written  a  week  after  the  battle ;  accused  him  of  making  a 
"false  march,"  and  referred  to  his  conduct  in  terms  that  would 
have  made  a  sensitive  soldier  wretched ;  but  Bernadotte  seems 
to  have  been  self-complacent,  and  the  emperor's  wrath  against 
him  vanished  with  the  next  campaign.  He  had  left  Davout 
alone,  with  only  26,000  men  in  the  front  of  66,000,  but  had  left 
him  to  win  imperishable  glory. 

Davout  had  forty-four  guns,  three  divisions  of  infantry  and 
three  regiments  of  light  cavalry.  A  division  of  heavy  cavalry 
that  had  been  sent  to  assist  the  First  and  Third  corps  conjointly, 
was  marched  off  by  Bernadotte  as  though  his  exclusive  property. 
But  Davout's  infantry  was  superb ;  some  called  it  the  best  in  the 
army,  for  Davout  was  a  disciplinarian,  a  drill-master,  tactician 
and  fighter  combined.  He  was  an  admirable  corps  commander, 
and  now  that  his  orders  had  come,  supported  or  unsupported,  he 


MARSHAL   "VORWAERTS"    TO   THE   FRONT.  485 

meant  to  carry  them  out.  Soon  after  six  o'clock  his  columns 
were  in  march  across  the  bridge,  and  the  marshal  was  ascending 
the  defile  of  Kosen.  With  him  was  the  Twenty-fifth  of  the  line, 
a  strong  regiment  of  Gudin's  division,  while  well  out  to  the 
front  were  his  light  cavalry.  The  divisions  of  Morand  and  Fri- 
ant  were  following  in  long  column  of  route,  but  well  closed  up. 
The  fog  that  obscured  objects  on  the  high  plateau  of  Jena 
was  still  more  dense  down  here  in  the  valley  of  the  Ilm,  and, 
spreading  out  in  dispersed  order,  the  horsemen  in  front  eagerly 
felt  their  way  forward,  reached  the  hamlet  of  Hassenhausen, 
listened  a  while  to  the  far-off  rumble  of  the  guns  now  beginning 
to  boom  back  of  Jena,  and  then,  more  cautiously  now  and  ex- 
tending still  farther  to  right  and  left,  they  slowly  advanced  across 
the  open  slope  down  into  the  dense  mist  of  the  shallow  valley, 
and  suddenly  encountered  a  line  of  shadowy  troopers  riding  up 
stealthily  upon  them.  Neither  side  could  tell  what  might  be 
behind  the  other.  Gruff  challenges  were  interchanged,  then  out 
leaped  pistols  and  sabres;  and  Davout,  halting  on  the  ridge  and 
deploying  the  Twenty-fifth  across  the  road,  was  greeted  by  the 
popping  of  fire-arms  out  in  the  fog-bank  to  his  front. 

It  seems  that  early  in  the  morning  the  Duke  of  Brunswick 
had  decided  to  push  ahead  for  the  Saale.  Davout,  he  learned, 
had  no  very  strong  force,  and  he  might  retake  the  bridge.  If 
not,  he  could  go  on  down  the  west  bank.  The  roar  of  Hohen- 
lohe's  guns  at  Jena  in  nowise  deterred  him.  That  was  merely 
done,  he  argued,  to  cover  the  retreat.  Hohenlohe  was  probably 
falling  back  after  him.  With  Schmettau's  Prussian  division,  the 
duke  was  escorting  the  king  and  his  court ;  behind  them  at  long 
intervals,  and  in  very  lax  order  for  disciples  of  Frederick  the 
Great,  came  the  division  of  Wartensleben,  and  back  of  that,  also 
in  loose  order,  the  division  of  Orange ;  but  in  front  of  Schmet- 
tau  was  a  strong  brigade  of  hussars  led  and  handled  by  a  fierce 
old  hussar  general,  a  choleric,  red-faced,  tough-framed,  hard- 
swearing,  hard-riding,  and — 'twas  said — hard-drinking  trooper 
at  whom  it  is  worth  our  while  to  take  a  long  look.  It  is  Gen- 
eral Bliicher,  the  same  whom  those  Prussians  will  be  calling 
Marshal  Vorwaerts  in  a  few  years  from  now.,  the  same  for  whose 


AUERSTADT. 

coming,  or  night,  Wellington  will  be  praying  at  Waterloo.  It 
is  the  tough  old  Prussian's  first  campaign  against  the  now 
famous  Napoleon,  and  he  begins  this  day  to  imbibe  a  hatred  for 
him  that  only  death  will  quench. 

Bliicher's  hussars  had  crossed  the  little  stream  in  the  depres- 
sion back  of  Hassenhausen,  and  were  coming  up  the  misty  slope, 
when,  as  we  have  seen,  they  ran  slap  into  the  light  horse  of  the 
French.  Calling  up  his  squadrons,  Blucher  made  a  dash, 
picked  up  some  prisoners  and  raced  the  Frenchmen  back  to  the 
ridge,  where  they  were  brought  up  standing  by  a  volley  from 
the  Twenty-fifth.  Davout's  guns  galloped  up  and  hurled  a  few 
rounds  of  •  grape  through  the  now  rising  mists  at '  Bliicher's 
hussars,  whereon  the  latter  were  thrown  into  much  disorder, 
and  their  general,  shaking  his  head  in  perplexity,  galloped  back 
to  tell  his  royal  master,  what  the  roar  of  the  guns  and  the 
volley  of  the  Twenty-fifth  must  already  have  told  him,  that  the 
French  were  across  the  Saale  in  unknown  numbers,  but  with 
all  three  arms  of  the  service — cavalry,  infantry  and  artillery. 
Then  an  alarming  discovery  was  made.  Bliicher's  horse- 
battery  had  not  come  back  with  the  hussars.  It  had  been 
dashed  upon  by  the  Twenty-fifth  in  the  fog  and  dragged  into 
Hassenhausen,  and  Schmettau's  division  was  ordered  forward  to 
find  it 

And  so  the  two  armies  met  in  the  mist.  Gudin's  division  was 
already  deployed  in,  and  to  the  right  of  Hassenhausen,  when 
Schmettau  leaped  to  the  front  eager  to  show  his  king  the  valor 
and  discipline  of  his  men. 

Just  to  the  north  of  Hassenhausen  was  quite  a  dense  wood 
which  Gudin  had  crammed  with  skirmishers.  The  village 
itself  was  occupied  by  the  Eighty-fifth,  while  the  Twelfth, 
Twenty-first  and  Twenty-fifth  were1  posted  along  the  ridge  to 
the  (French)  right  of  the  wood.  The  ridge  to  the  left  of  the 
Eighty-fifth's  position  was  to  be  occupied  by  Morand's  division 
as  soon  as  he  should  come  up,  while  Friant,  still  in  the  defile, 
was  ordered  to  hasten  his  march  and  deploy  on  reaching  the 
heights. 

The  fog  was  just  beginning  to  clear  a  little  as  Schmettau's 


A  TREMENDOUS  STRUGGLE  AROUND  HASSENHAUSEN.    437 

men  began  to  ascend  the  slope,  and  thus  the  French  position 
was  reached.  The  infantry  could  make  no  headway  against  the 
sharp  fire  from  the  wood  and  the  village  walls ;  but  old  Bliicher 
thought  he  saw  a  golden  opportunity.  Gathering  2,500  cavalry, 
he  galloped  up  the  slorje  beyond  the  French  lines,  then  faced 
southward  and  came  charging  down  upon  their  right  flank. 
Gudin  was  ready  for  him.  Quickly  the  regiments  were  thrown 
into  squares  and  received  the  dragoons  with  bristling  and  im- 
movable ranks  that  flashed  fire  and  death  into  their  faces  and 
completely  broke  the  squadrons.  Again  and  again  Bliicher 
sounded  the  rally  and  himself  led  them  in  to  the  charge,  but 
the  squares  would  not  break ;  then  Davout  opened  his  guns  on 
the  horsemen.  Bliicher's  charger  was  killed  under  him,  and  the 
raging  old  fighter  was  with  difficulty  pulled  out,  mounted  on 
the  horse  of  his  -trumpeter  and  led  away  in  the  general  scurry 
to  the  rear. 

By  this  time  Morand's  division  was  moving  forward  into 
position,  and  the  head  of  Friant's  column  appeared  on  the  scene. 
All  Gudin's  division  therefore  was  concentrated  in  and  around 
Hassenhausen,  in  front  of  which  the  Prussians  were  now  mass- 
ing; and  Friant's  men,  the  same  who  so  superbly  held  the  right 
at  Austerlitz,  were  sent  by  Davout  to  hold  the  right  at  Auer- 
stadt  On  the  Prussian  side  the  divisions  of  Wartensleben  and 
Orange  were  now  deploying,  but  a  very  slow  and  clumsy  per- 
formance it  proved  to  be,  so  little  had  they  been  accustomed  of 
late  years  to  field  manoeuvres  of  any  kind.  Nevertheless,  the 
assault  on  Hassenhausen  now  began,  and  proved  to  be  a  tremen- 
dous struggle.  Schmettau's  officers,  at  least,  led  their  men  for- 
ward with  the  utmost  spirit  and  vigor,  and  despite  the  galling 
fire  of  Gudin's  lines,  closed  in  around  this  central  point,  gained 
the  western  edge  of  the  hamlet,  and  then  there  ensued  the  bloodiest 
conflict  of  the  day  in  proportion  to  the  numbers  engaged.  The 
Eighty-fifth  had  already  lost  half  its  men ;  the  Twelfth  on  its 
left  was  desperately  defending  that  flank  from  the  assault  of 
Wartensleben's  overwhelming  numbers,  for  Morand  being  not 
yet  up  in  line  could  not  aid  them.  The  village  was  the  key- 
point  of  the  slope,  and  whichever  side  should  succeed  in  holding 


488  AUERSTADT. 

it  would  hold  the  victory.  For  an  hour,  therefore,  the  walls  and 
hedges  were  the  centre  of  a  crowding  circle  of  fierce  com- 
batants. Gudin's  men  were  shot  down  by  scores,  but,  so  con- 
tracted was  the  space  in  which  they  fought,  the  killed  and 
wounded  were  dragged  back  among  the  buildings,  and  new 
men  stepped  into  their  places,  keeping  the  circle  intact.  Two 
divisions  on  one,  the  fight  raged,  the  Prussians  furiously  driv- 
ing in  on  that  indomitable  command  of  Gudin's,  as  though  in- 
spired with  the  faith  that  their  numbers  must  prevail ;  but  the 
ground  was  absolutely  littered  with  their  dead  and  dying.  Gen- 
eral Schmettau  at  last  received  a  mortal  wound  and  was  borne 
to  the  rear,  and  then  the  sight  of  the  recoiling  divisions  inspired 
the  brave  old  Duke  of  Brunswick  to  another  and  more  deter- 
mined effort.  The  Prussian  Grenadier  Guard,  tall,  stalwart, 
highly  disciplined  soldiers,  had  now  reached  the  ground.  Order- 
ing the  way  to  be  cleared  in  front,  and  placing  himself  at  their 
head,  the  duke  led  this  fresh  and  devoted  division  to  the  storm 
.of  Hassenhausen.  Schmettau's  shattered  battalions  strove  to 
form  on  its  flank,  and  Wartensleben's  to  assist,  but  Morand's 
men  were  now  pushing  up  against  Wartensleben.  Friant  was 
getting  a  cross-fire  on  the  centre  division ;  the  guards  marched 
up  in  stately  order.  Gudin's  men  crouched  behind  the  hedges 
or  knelt  along  the  skirts  of  the  blazing  village,  and  held  their 
fire  until  the  leading  ranks  were  within  an  hundred  yards,  and 
then  drove  a  crashing  volley  into  the  guardsmen  that  made  them 
reel,  though  they  would  not  break ;  but  one  bullet  tore  its  fatal 
way  through  the  face  of  the  brave  old  duke,  and,  blind  and  bleed- 
ing, he  was  carried  back  to  the  king  he  had  served  so  well,  a 
dying  man.  Marshal  Mollendorf  sprang  forward  to  take  his 
commander's  place  at  the  head  of  the  guards,  and  reached  the 
circle  of  fire  around  Hassenhausen  only  to  be  struck  down  as 
was  his  gallant  chief.  The  three  great  leaders  of  the  king's 
main  army,  Brunswick,  Mollendorf  and  Schmettau,  were  thus 
disposed  of.  Bliicher  was  doing  what  he  could  with  his  horse- 
men on  the  outskirts  of  the  battle,  but  Hassenhausen  was  still 
firmly  held  by  the  French,  and  now  the  King  of  Prussia  him- 
self resolved  to  lead  his  troops  in  battle.  His  horse  was  shot, 


BLUCHER'S  INEFFECTUAL  CHARGES.  489 

but  he  mounted  another  and  strove  to  reanimate  the  men  of 
Wartensleben  who  were  falling  back  before  Morand's  leading 
brigade. 

Orange's  Prussian  division  came  forward  now,  breathless,  ex- 
cited, and  while  one  brigade  was  sent  to  the  support  of  Wartens- 
leben, the  other  breasted  the  slopes  in  front  of  Friant.  Davout 
rushed  the  heroes  of  Austerlitz  out  of  their  cover  in  the  wood, 
and  Orange's  men  were  driven  back  across  the  stream  in  sudden 
and  demoralized  flight,  hardly  knowing  what  had  struck  them. 
Then  Davout  galloped  over  to  his  left,  where  Morand's  whole 
division  was  now  advancing  in  the  face  of  a  perfect  storm  of 
grape  from  the  Prussian  batteries.  They  halted  for  nothing, 
however.  Davout's  hat  and  a  tuft  of  his  streaming  hair  were  car- 
ried away  by  a  shot,  but  he  never  seemed  to  notice  it,  and  now 
the  three  divisions,  or  the  survivors  rather,  of  Schmettau,  War- 
tensleben and  Orange,  and  the  stately  battalions  of  the  Prussian 
guard,  were  falling  back  towards  Auerstadt. 

The  king  had  still  two  divisions  of  infantry  not  yet  engaged 
and  some  10,000  cavalry,  but,  thanks  to  the  careless  order  of 
march,  the  infantry  were  still  far  to  the  rear.  The  cavalry  had 
its  chance,  however,  and  old  Bliicher  now  formed  his  great 
division  for  an  overwhelming  attack  on  Morand's  nine  battalions. 
The  ground  on  that  side  especially  favored  cavalry  manoeuvres; 
the  Prussian  horse,  at  least,  were  in  fine  order  of  drill  and  disci- 
pline. 

It  was  now  high  noon.  The  quick  eyes  of  Davout  and  Mo- 
rand  had  seen  the  preparations  of  the  Prussian  horse,  and  the 
instant  the  squadrons  began  their  advance,  seven  battalions  were 
thrown  into  squares  and  challenged  the  Prussians  to  come  on. 
Prince  William  rode  in  the  first  charge — a  spirited  effort ;  but 
with  their  front  ranks  kneeling,  the  second  slightly  crouching, 
and  the  rear  erect,  the  squares  seemed  by  their  silence  to  invite 
the  horsemen  to  attack,  waited  until  the  daring  squadrons  were 
almost  on  them,  then  square  after  square  vomited  its  volleys  on 
the  Prussian  horse,  and  after  several  vain  attempts  and  severe 
loss  in  killed  and  wounded,  Bliicher  called  off  his  men,  who  rode 
back  under  showers  of  grape  from  the  guns. 


490  AUERSTADT. 

The  battle  had  lasted  six  hours  by  the  time  the  cavalry  gave 
it  up.  Gudin's  division  was  well-nigh  exhausted,  but  Friant  and 
Morand  were  comparatively  fresh  and  superlatively  full  of  fight. 
It  was  at  this  stage  that  Marshal  Kalkreuth  moved  up  from  be- 
hind Auerstadt  with  the  two  reserve  divisions — Arnim's  and 
Kiihnheim's  of  the  king's  army.  Up  to  this  point  the  Prussians 
were  badly  beaten,  and  Davout's  men  threw  themselves  upon 
the  sward  to  take  breath.  The  king's  generals  gathered  around 
him  in  earnest  consultation.  Old  Blucher  vehemently  urged 
for  permission  to  take  the  reserve  and  all  the  cavalry,  and  thus 
mass  30,000  fresh  men  on  the  wearied  troops  of  Davout,  hurl 
him  back  on  the  defile  and  down  the  banks  into  the  Saale ;  but 
there  were  other  counsellors  who  had  had  enough  of  it.  "  Every 
time  we  send  in  a  fresh  body  of  troops  they  bring  up  another 
division  from  that  defile,"  was  urged.  "They  are  just  playing 
with  us — eating  us  up  by  detail ;  already.  Schmettau's  division 
is  annihilated ;  Wartensleben's  crippled ;  Orange's  broken  and 
scattered.  Fall  back ;  wait  until  to-morrow  and  we  will  have  all 
Hohenlohe's  army  and  Ruchel's  corps  here  to  aid  us.  Then 
victory  is  sure." 

And,  despite  the  furious  protestations  of  Blucher,  these  tem- 
porizing counsels  prevailed.  The  king  gave  the  order  for  Kalk- 
reuth, with  the  cavalry  and  artillery,  to  stand  firm  and  cover  the 
retreat,  and  the  broken  and  wearied  battalions  of  the  morning's 
battle  were  permitted  to  fall  back.  With  something  akin  to  incre- 
dulity Davout  watched  this  astounding  blunder.  He  had  hoped 
for  nothing  better  than  to  hold  his  ground  until  Bernadotte 
should  come  back,  conscience-stricken,  and  help  him ;  but  now 
with  delight  he  ordered  forward  his  batteries,  straightened  out 
his  lines,  and  cheer  upon  cheer  went  up  from  the  grand  Third 
corps  as  they  saw  their  late  antagonists  disappearing  over  the 
western  slopes.  It  was  getting  on  towards  half-past  three  when 
Kalkreuth,  who  had  moved  forward  to  the  brook  to  prevent  an 
assault  on  the  retiring  divisions,  suddenly  found  his  right  wing 
subjected  to  a  severe  artillery  fire  from  the  Sonnenberg,  an  eleva- 
tion south  of  Hassenhausen.  It  ^was  no  use  trying  to  advance 
and  take  the  guns.  All  the  king's  batteries  seemed  to  be  cut  up 


DAVOUT   WINS   A   GLORIOUS   VICTORY.  491 

and  bent  only  on  getting  safely  off  with  the  main  body;  so  order- 
ing the  cavalry  to  fall  back  at  the  same  time,  Marshal  Kalkreuth, 
slowly  and  in  good  order,  began  "backing"  up  his  slope  towards 
the  plateau,  on  which  stood  Auerstadt.  This  was  more  than 
Davout  could  stand.  Striking  spurs  to  his  horse  he  dashed  out 
in  front,  waving  his  sword  and  shouting  to  his  lines  to  follow. 
Tired  as  they  were,  the  men  sprang  to  the  charge,  tore  down  the 
slopes  and  over  the  brook,  the  long  lines  stretching  far  out  to 
right  and  left.  Kalkreuth's  men  fired,  but  fired  high,  then  quick- 
ened their  retreat;  and  soon,  they  could  hardly  tell  how,  the 
enthusiastic  soldiers  of  France  were  in  mad  pursuit  of  the  Prus- 
sian army  and  chasing  it  through  Auerstadt.  The  Third  corps 
had  whipped  more  than  twice  its  weight  in  foes — all  Prussians, 
and  Davout  had  won  a  glorious  victory. 

The  losses  of  the  king's  forces  on  the  field  alone  were  fright- 
ful. Three  great  generals,  hundreds  of  officers  of  lower  grades 
were  killed.  Nine  thousand  men  were  left,  killed  or  wounded, 
and  3,000  prisoners  and  115  guns  fell  into  the  hands  of  Davout. 
And  his  own  losses  had,  of  course,  been  very  severe.  Out  of 
his  26,000  he  had  7,000  killed  and  wounded,  Morand  and 
Gudin  were  both  severely  injured.  Half  the  generals  of  brig- 
ade and  the  colonels  were  dead  or  disabled,  and  the  defence 
of  Hassenhausen  had  been  as  bloody  a  fight  as  the  plain  of  Ma- 
rengo. 

But  far  greater  trials  were  in  store  for  the  King  of  Prussia. 
He  had  decided  to  fall  back  along  the  Weimar  road  until  he 
should  be  within  supporting  distance  of  Hohenlohe  and  Ruchel. 
Long  before  he  could  get  in  sight  of  Weimar,  tidings  of  disaster 
began  to  reach  him.  Then,  from  the  by-roads  and  pathways 
towards  the  Ilm  to  his  left, -there  came  stragglers  drifting  north- 
ward across  his  path ;  then  whole  squads  and  companies ;  then 
the  country  grew  black  with  fugitives ;  then  staff-officers,  seeking 
their  monarch,  told  him  that  it  was  useless  to  flee  farther  that 
way;  Ruchel  was  dead,  Hohenlohe  ruined — all  was  lost.  Napo- 
leon and  the  whole  French  army  were  in  pursuit.  The  news 
spread  among  the  marching  men  and  they  too  began  to  break, 
and  finally,  as  night  closed  upon  the  dismal  scene,  all  order,  all 


492  AUERSTADT. 

organization  was  lost,  and  the  remains  of  the  proud  Prussian 
army  were  a  mass  of  panic-stricken  fugitives  streaming  over  the 
barrens  of  Thuringia.  The  combined  victories  of  Jena  and  Auer- 
stadt had  utterly  ruined  the  army  of  the  king.  t 

Incredulous  as  was  Napoleon  at  first  on  hearing  what  Davout 
had  accomplished,  he  speedily  recognized  the  facts,  and  disbelief 
gave  way  to  the  utmost  exultation  and  gratitude.  Loading  Da- 
vout with  honors  and  compliments,  the  emperor  ordered  Berna- 
dotte,  whose  men  had  not  fired  a  gun,  to  push  forward  with 
Murat's  cavalry  in  the  most  vehement  and  rapid  pursuit.  Not  a 
chance  should  be  given  the  Prussians  to  rally.  That  pursuit  was 
vengeful  and  effective  to  the  last  degree.  It  broke  the  remnants 
of  the  once  martial  array  into  mere  splinters,  and  it  taught  Blii- 
cher  a  lesson  in  the  art  of  grinding  an  enemy  to  powder  that  he 
never  forgot.  He  even  improved  upon  it  when  he  chased  the 
French  to  Paris  in  1815.  This  "debauched  old  dragoon,"  as 
Napoleon  called  him,  soon  grew  to  be  the  object  of  the  emperor's 
especial  aversion.  He  alone  got  away  from  Auerstadt  with  his 
command  in  any  kind  of  shape;  and,  though  captured  along  the 
Elbe,-  it  was  not  until  he  had  exhausted  all  supplies  and  could 
surrender  with  honor.  Some  years  later,  so  hateful  had  they  be- 
come to  each  other,  Napoleon,  in  signing  a  treaty  of  peace  with 
Prussia,  stipulated  that  old  "  Marshal  Vorwaerts,"  as  the  Rus- 
sians had  named  him,  should  be  dismissed  from  the  army  and 
relegated  to  private  life.  But  he  was  resurrected  in  time  for 
Waterloo. 

With  her  army  annihilated,  Prussia  could  now  do  nothing  to 
prevent  Napoleon's  occupation  of  her  capital.  With  exaspera- 
ting deliberation  the  French  marched  on  Berlin.  Davout,  as 
his  reward  for  Auerstadt,  was  accorded  the  proud  honor  of 
being  the  first  to  enter  it,  while  Napoleon  tarried  a  day  or 
two  at  the  shrine  of  Frederick  the  Great  at  Potsdam.  With 
the  humiliations  to  which  he  subjected  Prussia  and  the  Prus- 
sians we  have  nothing  here  to  do.  They  were  at  his  mercy 
now — and  have  had  ample  revenge  in  later  years.  His  next 
move  was  to  cripple  Russia  while  her  neighbor  was  prostrate 
at  his  feet;  and,  after  being  severely  handled  in  the  winter 


THE  "PEACE  OF   TILSIT"    FOLLOWS   FRIEDLAND. 


493 


battles  of  Eylau  and  Pultusk,  he  finally  won  the  great  battle 
of  Friedland  in  the  following  June,  and  the  brilliant  pageant 
of  the  "  Peace  of  Tilsit "  followed.  He  dictated  his  own 
terms,  which  would  have  been  impossible  but  for  Jena  and 
Auerstadt. 


FROM   MAYENCE   TO  BERLIN. 

(Jena  and  Auerstadt  and  Adjacent  Country.) 


WATERLOO. 


1815. 

HE  winter  of  1808  found  Napoleon  at  the  very 
zenith  of  his  power  and  dominion ;  but  now 
came  the  downward  course  of  his  star  of 
destiny.  He  had  again  humbled  Austria  after 
winning  the  great  battle  of  Wagram,  but, 
when  he  resolved  upon  the  invasion  of  Russia 
against  the  advice  of  all  thinking  counselors, 
he  became  a  spendthrift  of  his  every  resource ; 
and  the  terrible  story  of  the  retreat  from 
Moscow  is  the  story  of  his  downfall.  Europe 
then  made  common  cause  against  the  monarch  who  persisted 
in  his  course  of  providing  the  thrones  of  weakened  and  con- 
quered nations  with  occupants  of  his  own  blood  or  selection. 
The  battles  of  Liitzen,  Bautzen  and  Dresden  followed  in  1813, 
wherein  the  emperor  kept  his  marvellous  supremacy,  but  was 
greatly  crippled  by  the  severity  of  the  fighting.  Finally  the 
turning-point  came.  The  allies  won  the  battle  of  Leipsic — "The 
Battle  of  the  Nations,"  as  it  was  called — late  in  October,  1813, 
and  in  the  following  spring  were  received  with  acclamations  in 
Paris;  and  Napoleon  in  May,  1814,  became  an  exile — virtually  a 
prisoner — in  Elba. 

Ten  months  thereafter,  Europe  was  thunderstruck  by  the  news 
that  Napoleon  Buonaparte  had  escaped,  had  landed  in  France, 
and  that  the  army  rallied  about  him  as  of  old,  bore  him  on  to 
Paris  and  reseated  him  on  the  throne,  from  which  the  Bourbon 
King,  Louis  XVIII. ,  had  fled  in  terror. 

It  so  happened   that  the  delegates  of  the  leading  states  in 
Europe  were  then  in  congress  at  Vienna  to  devise  measures  to 
(494) 


"THE   MAN   OF   DESTINY"  REAPPEARS.  495 

secure  peace  and  public  safety  throughout  the  continent,  and 
to  put  an  end  to  the  bloody  wars  that  had  ravaged  it  for  a 
century ;  and  here,  to  their  amaze,  they  were  confronted  by 
':he  tidings  that  the  great  disturber  of  the  peace  of  Christendom, 
the  Corsican  emperor  whom  they  believed  crushed  and  dis- 
armed, was  once  again  at  the  head  of  "  The  Old  Guard,"  and 
'that  France,  whose  volatile  people  but  a  year  agone  had  declared 
themselves  "  done  with  Napoleon,"  and  had  greeted  the  allied 
entry  into  Paris  with  cheers,  was  now  with  resounding  acclama- 
tions welcoming  back  "  The  Man  of  Destiny." 

"  To  arms ! "  was  the  vote.  The  cry  echoed  over  Europe, 
and,  by  May,  500,000  men  were  marching  on  the  frontiers  of 
France.  It  was  resolved  to  treat  with  Napoleon  no  longer.  He 
must  be  annihilated. 

Of  all  his  enemies  England  was  now  the  most  active.  Par- 
liament voted  not  only  men  and  money  for  her  own  army  and 
navy,  but  immense  sums  for  the  support  of  other  armies  on 
the  continent.  All  the  leading  nations  were  leagued  against 
Napoleon,  but  England  was  the  treasurer.  This  time,  too,  her 
troops  were  sent  across  the  channel,  appeared  in  force  in  Bel- 
gium, for  the  line  of  the  Netherlands  was  sure  to  be,  as  of  old, 
the  scene  of  desperate  righting ;  and  here,  south  of  Brussels,  the 
combined  forces  of  England,  Hanover,  Brunswick  and  Nassau 
were  hurriedly  gathered,  and  Arthur,  Duke  of  Wellington, 
whose  brilliant  achievements  in  Spain  had  filled  the  British 
nation  with  high  hopes  of  success,  was  placed  at  the  head. 

Hastening  to  join  him,  and  with  an  army  fully  as  strong,  there 
came  from  Prussia  the  bitterest  foeman  the  emperor  had  in 
Europe,  "  the  debauched  old  dragoon  "  as  he  had  called  him — 
now  Field-Marshal  Prince  Bliicher  von  Wahlstadt.  The  fierce 
old  "  Red  Hussar,"  intemperate,  illiterate,  ignorant  of  strategy, 
but  making  up  in  fiery  zeal  and  courage  for  lack  of  "book- 
soldier"  ability,  had  been  so  vast  an  aid  to  the  allies  in  1814, 
so  prominent  in  the  campaign,  that  he  was  received  in  England 
with  honors  equal  to  those  bestowed  on  the  sovereigns  of  Rus- 
sia, Prussia  and  Austria.  He  was  loaded  with  military  decora- 
tions, and,  absurd  as  it  may  seem,  the  learned  University  of 


496  WATERLOO. 

Oxford  conferred  upon  him  the  degree  of  LL.  D.  Even 
Blucher  had  to  laugh  at  so  scholastic  a  farce  as  that ;  but  here 
he  was  again,  our  dragoon  doctor  of  laws,  seventy-three  years 
old,  but  as  hard  a  rider  as  ever,  and  fiercely  happy  to  have  one 
more  chance  at  throttling  the  conqueror  who  had  so  humbled 
him  and  his  people. 

Wellington  and  Bliicherwere  in  front  of  Brussels  in  May, 
but  the  agreement  made  was,  that  no  movement  should  be  at- 
tempted across  the  border  into  France  until  the  armies  of  the 
other  nations  should  reach  the  front.  The  Prussians  speedily 
moved  an  army  of  over  100,000  men  under  Count  Kleist  von 
Nollendorf  to  the  banks  of  the  Rhine.  The  Austrians  under 
Schwartzenburg  were  marching  into  the  Black  Forest  and  ap- 
pearing between  Basle  and  Manheim  with  an  army  of  nearly 
100,000.  The  Bavarians  were  to  aid  them  with  some  70,000, 
and,  largest  yet,  under  Count  Barclay  de  Tolly,  a  Russian  army 
of  167,000  men  was  already  pushing  through  Germany. 

Now  if  all  these  troops  were  allowed  to  unite,  tbe  combined 
force  would  be  too  great  for  the  hurriedly  reassembled  army  of 
Napoleon.  All  soldiers  who  had  studied  his  methods  felt  sure 
that  he  would  resort  to  his  old  tactics ;  that  he  would  attack  and 
strive  to  beat  them  in  detail.  No  one  was  more  certain  of  this 
than  England's  Iron  Duke.  He  felt  confident  that  Napoleon 
would  dash  upon  him  and  Blucher,  and  his  heart  was  full  of 
anxiety.  If  Napoleon  could  win  a  signal  victory  over  them, 
and  march  in  to  Brussels,  all  Belgium  would  declare  for  him, 
and  thousands,  still  holding  aloof  in  France,  would  flock  to  his 
standard.  He  could  then  turn  sharply  on  Count  Kleist  and 
Schwartzenburg — no  question  as  to  the  result  of  that  assault — 
and  then  be  in  perfect  readiness  to  crush  the  army  of  Russia. 
Then  he  could  dictate  a  peace — indeed,  he  would  virtually  be 
the  dictator  of  Europe.  Everything,  therefore,  depended  on  the 
first  battle. 

Just  as  Wellington  expected,  on  he  came.  On  the  I5th  of 
June,  with  the  Grand  Army  at  his  back,  Napoleon  marched  to 
Charleroi  with  120,000  men  and  struck  the.  river  Sambre  forty 
miles  south  of  Brussels,  found  the  English  occupying  the  road 


FAILURE   OF   NAPOLEON'S    PLANS.  497 

to  the  north,  pushed  them  up  towards  Brussels  with  his  left 
wing,  while  with  the  main  body  he  pounced  upon  old  Bliicher 
at  Ligny  on  the  i6th  and  drove  him  back  on  Wavre,  so  that 
Wellington's  men,  who  had  made  a  gallant  stand  against  Ney 
at  Quatre  Bras,  were  compelled  to  fall  back  a  few  miles  farther 
to  a  position  about  twelve  miles  south  of  Brussels  that  had  pre- 
viously attracted  the  eye  of  Wellington ;  and  thither  on  the  1 7th, 
skirmishing  all  the  way,  Napoleon  followed  him.  All  had  not 
prospered  with  Napoleon  up  to  this  point.  He  had  planned  to 
throw  himself  on  Blucher  with  75,000  men,  while  Ney,  after 
occupying  Quatre  Bras,  five  miles  to  the  west,  and  seizing  the 
roads  so  as  to  prevent  the  English  from  reinforcing  Blucher, 
was  to  come  upon  the  Prussian  rear,  and,  between  them,  the 
destruction  of  the  army  would  be  complete.  But  for  once  Ney 
failed  his  great  leader.  Instead  of  seizing  the  village  of  Quatre 
Bras  at  dawn  on  the  i6th,  Ney  let  the  British  get  there  first  and 
then  "stand  him  off"  all  day.  Consequently  the  bloody  battle 
of  Ligny  was  not  the  success  Napoleon  had  hoped  for.  After 
a  very  severe  combat  against  superior  numbers  he  had  compelled 
old  Blucher  to  retreat  in  great  disorder.  Blucher  himself  was 
crushed  to  earth  by  his  wounded  horse  and  barely  escaped  cap- 
ture ;  but  when  the  rout  finally  began  there  was  no  Ney  in  rear 
to  capture  and  disarm  the  fugitives,  and,  to  Napoleon's  chagrin, 
the  beaten  army  got  away  towards  Wavre,  which  lies  some  fif- 
teen miles  southeast  of  Brussels,  and  not  more  than  eight  miles 
east  of  the  position  to  which  Wellington  withdrew  his  men  on 
the  i  ;th. 

Ligny  had  cost  the  French  6,800  killed  and  wounded — far 
more  than  the  emperor  could  spare — and  the  Prussian  loss  of 
25,000  men  killed,  wounded  and  prisoners,  and  twenty-one  guns, 
did  not  compensate  Napoleon  for  the  failure  of  his  plans.  The 
best  thing  he  could  do  was  to  send  a  strong  force  to  follow 
Blucher  and  his  demoralized  army  and  prevent  their  reassem- 
bling in  time  to  aid  Wellington.  This  duty  was  intrusted  to 
Marshal  Grouchy  with  35,000  men,  and  so,  reduced  severely  by 
his  losses  at  Ligny  and  Quatre  Bras,  and  this  great  detachment 
under  Grouchy,  the  emperor  was  compelled  to  confront  Welling- 
82 


498  WATERLOO. 

ton,  when  he  well  knew  that  his  crown,  his  whole  future  and 
that  of  Europe  were  the  stakes  of  the  battle,  and  he  had  only 
70,000  men  to  fight  with. 

But  time  was  everything1.  To  beat  Wellington,  and  to  beat 
him  instantly,  was  his  only  hope.  Ill  luck  had  pursued  him 
since  he  crossed  the  Sambre.  He  had  planned  to  throw  his 
whole  army  on  Bliicher  and  destroy  him  on  the  i6th,  then  to 
turn  his  whole  force  on  Wellington  and  crush  him  on  the  i/th. 
He  could  have  done  it — easily,  for  his  army  was  stronger  than 
either  one  of  their  divided  forces,  but  now  on  the  evening  of 
the  I /th  Bliicher  was  rallying  at  Wavre.  Wellington  was  con- 
fronting him  across  this  broad  and  unfamiliar  valley,  and  he, 
who  depended  so  much  on  his  guns  and  cavalry,  was  now  dis- 
mally certain  that  he  would  not  be  able  to  use  them  on  the 
morning  of  the  morrow — it  was  raining  in  torrents  and  the 
ground  was  a  quagmire. 

All  this  was  hard  to  bear,  but  Napoleon  was  hopeful  and 
determined.  If  Grouchy  would  only  hold  Bliicher  at  Wavre, 
even  though  he  could  not  hope  to  use  his  guns  and  horsemen 
until  late  in  the  day,  Napoleon  believed  that  he  could  thrash 
the  British  before  the  setting  of  another  sun.  Then  on  to 
Brussels ! 

First  let  us  take  a  look  at  the  lay  of  the  land,  then  we  can 
better  understand  the  great  scene  there  enacted.  It  is  the  same 
country  over  which  Marlborough  and  Prince  Eugene  fought  and 
•marched  a  century  previous.  Englishmen  knew  it  well ;  French- 
men even  better.  Hardly  an  acre  of  its  surface  has  escaped  its 
libation  of  human  blood,  for  Belgium  was  the  battle-field  of 
Europe  time  and  again.  Brussels,  its  beautiful  capital,  lies  in 
the  centre  of  a  rolling,  well-watered,  well-wooded  tract.  Here, 
there  and  everywhere  are  smiling  little  towns  and  villages ; 
every  stream  is  dotted  with  home-like  hamlets ;  and  in  the  days 
of  1815  many  a  stately  old  chateau,  many  a  walled  and  fortified 
city  remained  to  remind  the  traveller  of  the  battles  and  sieges 
of  the  previous  century. 

West  of  Brussels,  not  forty  miles  away,  lay  Oudenarde;  east, 
not  twenty-five,  the  field  of  Ramilies ;  west  of  south,  perhaps 


A    GLANCE   AT   THE   BATTLE-FIELD.  499 

fifty,  Valenciennes  and  Bavay,  where  Malplaquet  was  fought. 
The  whole  region  was  densely  populated,  mainly  by  a  thriving 
and  industrious  class,  and,  far  and  near,  the  gently  undulating 
surface  was  cut  up  into  farms  and  homesteads,  while  running  in 
every  direction,  and  connecting  the  large  cities,  were  broad,  well- 
kept  highways,  shaded  with  poplars  on  the  sides  and  often  paved 
in  the  middle. 

The  main  road  from  Brussels  to  the  cities  on  the  Sambre  is 
the  one  of  most  interest  to  us.  Quitting  the  capital  at  the 
south  by  the  Namur  gate,  it  runs  very  nearly  due  south  for 
about  ten  miles,  then  forks.  The  east  fork  leads  through 
Genappe  to  Quatre  Bras,  where  you  turn  southeastward  if  going 
to  Namur,  or  keep  on  due  south  if  bound  for  Charleroi.  The 
west  fork  strikes  off  through  Nivelles  to  Mons,  Bavay  and 
Maubeuge.  A  broad  highway  crosses  eastward  from  Nivelles 
to  Namur,  intersecting  the  east  fork  at  Quatre  Bras  and  so  giving 
the  little  village  its  name — Four  Arms.  Now,  after  leaving 
Brussels  by  this  first  road,  the  traveller  passes  for  several  miles 
through  a  dense  wood,  the  forest  of  Soignies,  at  the  southern 
skirt  of  which  there  nestles  a  little  Belgian  village,  Waterloo. 
Passing  through  this  village  one  follows  the  highway  out  upon 
an  open  plateau  and  comes  upon  another  hamlet  just  at  the 
great  fork  of  the  high-road.  It  is  the  hamlet  and  this  is  the 
plateau  of  Mont  St.  Jean.  Follow  the  east  road  a  few  hundred 
yards  and  you  come  to  the  edge  of  the  plateau,  running  east 
and  west,  and  see  before  you  a  mile-wide  depression  or  valley 
into  which  the  two  roads  dip  and  rise  to  the  opposite  crest. 
It  looks  not  unlike  the  hollow  between  two  long-rolling  ocean 
waves.  It  looks  to-day  very  little  as  it  did  in  1815.  It  had  so 
changed  with  its  new  growth  of  trees  or  its  loss  of  old  landmarks 
only  a  few  years  after  the  great  campaign  of  the  Netherlands  that 
the  Duke  of  Wellington,  gazing  upon  it  in  disappointment  and 
some  indignation,  exclaimed:  "Why,  d — n  it  all!  they've  spoiled 
my  battle-field."  For  that  shallow  valley  is  the  field  of  Napo- 
leon's last  battle,  and  England  cum  Prussia's  greatest  victory — 
the  far-famed  field  of  Waterloo. 

To  see  it  as  it  was  in  1815,  let  us  take  our  stand  here  at  the- 


500  WATERLOO. 

very  edge  of  the  plateau,  facing  south,  just  where  the  road  to 
Charleroi  begins  its  downward  dip  into  the  low  valley.  The 
edge  of  the  plateau  is  sharply  defined  like  the  ridge  of  the  ocean 
wave  to  which  we  have  compared  it;  for,  looking  back  and 
around  us,  we  see  that  the  ground  slopes  downward  to  the  north 
as  well  as  to  the  south,  so  that  the  ridge  at  the  edge  forms,  for 
some  distance  to  the  right  and  left,  a  natural  breast-work.  Per- 
haps it  was  this  feature  that  attracted  the  eye  of  the  Iron  Duke, 
for  certain  it  is,  that  infantry,  crouching  along  the  northern  face 
of  that  ridge,  will  be  fully  protected  from  all  but  a  steeply  plung- 
ing fire  from  the  south  ;  and,  as  for  guns  and  cavalry,  the  plateau 
of  Mont  St.  Jean  presents,  in  many  places,  admirable  positions 
well  up  to  the  front,  where  cavalry  can  be  formed  in  readiness 
for  attack,  or  where  batteries  can  be  grouped  until  needed  in 
action,  and  they  cannot  be  seen  from  across  the  valley. 

Crossing  the  Charleroi  road  at  right  angles,  our  ridge  runs 
nearly  east  and  west ;  but  about  a  third  of  a  mile  to  the  east  it 
begins  tot  rise  into  a  mound,  and  about  quarter  of  a  mile  to  the 
west  it  begins  very  gently  to  curve  away  toward  the  south  and 
make  quite  a  sweep  in  that  direction ;  and  all  along  this  ridge, 
from  the  west  to  the  mound  to  the  east,  there  runs  a  country 
dirt-road,  partly  on  the  crest,  partly  behind  it,  and  occasionally 
between  sloping  banks.  This  cross-road  starts  out  from  where 
the  ridge  intersects  the  Nivelles  highway,  off  to  the  south  of 
west  of  our  stand-point,  and,  passing  behind  the  mound  to  the 
east,  strikes  off  across  an  open  plateau  to  the  northeastward.  It 
leads  to  Wavre  by  way  of  the  village  of  Ohain. 

Back  of  us,  and  to  the  right  and  left,  the  ridge  and  the  plateau 
are  open,  with  occasional  small  groves  and  patches  of  trees; 
southward  all  is  smooth,  open  turf  except  at  three  points  and  on 
the  highway.  Down  the  slope,  hugging  the  roadside  on  the 
west  and  not  more  than  200  yards  from  us,  begins  a  little  farm 
enclosure,  with  rude  stone  walls  and  hedges.  Its  garden  is  on 
the  side  nearest  us;  then  come  the  farm  buildings;  beyond  them 
an  orchard.  It  is  the  farm  of  La  Haye  Sainte. 

Off  to  our  right  front,  as  we  gaze  across  the  vale,  is  a  far  larger 
farm  enclosure,  half  a  mile  from  the  Charleroi  highway  at  its 


HOUGOMONT,  LA   BELLE   ALLIANCE    AND    ROSSOMME.     5Q1 

nearest  point  and  occupying  an  irregular  square,  each  of  whose 
sides  must  be  at  least  a  quarter  of  a  mile  in  length.  Its  northern 
half  is  taken  up  by  stone  buildings  in  a  flattened,  hollow  square, 
by  a  prim,  old-fashioned  Flemish  garden,  and  by  a  large  orchard. 
South  of  the  buildings  is  quite  a  thick  wood ;  east  of  the  wood, 
two  open  fields,  hedged  in  and  forming  the  southeastern  quarter 
of  the  enclosure.  The  garden  is  bounded  on  the  south  by  a 
brick  wall,  high  and  thick ;  yet,  so  thick  are  the  hedge  and  the 
apple-trees  below  it,  you  cannot  see  it  until  when  within  a  few 
yards.  A  fine  drive,  lined  by  stately  elms,  leads  northwestward 
into  the  Nivelles  high-road.  The  buildings  consist  of  a  substantial 
dwelling  surmounted  by  a  tower,  offices,  stables,  cow-houses,  and 
a  quaint  little  chapel  surrounding  a  paved  court,  in  the  middle 
of  which  is  a  well  with  a  high  wooden  structure  over  it — a  dove- 
cote, and  the  dove-cote  is  full  of  its  cooing,  fluttering  occupants, 
and  the  court  with  poultry.  This  is  the  chateau  of  Hougomont. 

Down  to  our  left,  a  good  three-quarters  mile  east  of  La  Haye 
Sainte,  the  smooth  slope  is  cut  up  by  some  hedges ;  then  come 
one  or  two  winding  paths  and  roads  leading  up  to  the  plateau ; 
then  two  little  hamlets  with  their  farm  enclosures :  the  nearest 
one  is  Papelotte ;  the  farthest,  La  Haye.  Be  careful  not  to  con- 
found it  with  La  Haye  Sainte.  These  enclosures  are  well  shaded ; 
beyond  them,  over  a  mile  from  the  Charleroi  road,  are  more 
farm  enclosures  and  several  patches  of  woods. 

Now  directly  south  of  us,  almost  a  mile  away  and  on  the 
opposite  slope,  is  another  little  farm  and  roadside  inn — La  Belle 
Alliance,  they  call  it;  still  farther  back  beyond  it  a  ridge  like 
our  own,  with  a  little  mite  of  a  village  at  the  top  on  the  high- 
way, and  a  much  larger  village,  with  church  and  stone  walls, 
nearly  a  mile  to  the  east  of  that  road.  The  little  village  is  Ros- 
somme;  the  big  one,  Planchenoit,  and  the  rising  ground  about 
them  is  dignified  of  late  years  by  the  name  of  the  Heights  of 
Rossomme. 

Such  is  the  field  of  Waterloo  as  we  look  at  it  from  the  Eng- 
lish side;  and  here,  on  the  damp,  rainy,  misty  morning  of  June 
1 8th,  1815,  two  hostile  armies  are  arrayed  to  settle  the  fate  of 
Europe.  The  army  drawn  up  on  the  plateau  of  Mont  St.  Jean 


502  WATERLOO. 

is  that  of  Wellington.  The  army  on  the  opposite  slope,  just 
under  Rossomme  heights,  is  that  of  Napoleon.  At  this  moment, 
according  to  official  reports,  Wellington  has  actually  in  position 
and  ready  for  battle,  exclusive  of  sick,  wounded  or  otherwise 
incapacitated,  the  following  force.:  infantry,  49,608  ;  cavalry,  12,- 
408;  artillery,  5,645.  Grand  total,  67,661  men  and  156  guns. 

With  this  force  he  has  to  fight,  unaided  until  Blucher  can  reach 
him,  the  following  Frenchmen :  infantry,  48,950;  cavalry,  15,765; 
artillery,  7,232.  Grand  total,  71,947  men  and  246  guns. 

Napoleon's  men  are  all  French,  and  reliable  veterans  as  a  rule. 
Wellington's  Hanoverians  and  Brunswickers  are  not  up  to  the 
British  mark,  and  the  Belgians  are  shaky ;  so  that,  both  in  num- 
bers and  in  "personnel,"  the  emperor  has  the  best  of  it.  But 
Wellington  has  the  advantage  in  position,  and  late  in  the  day  he, 
as  the  world  knows,  was  heavily  reinforced  by  Blucher,  who 
brought  to  the  field:  infantry,  41,283;  cavalry,  8,858  ;  artillery, 
1,803.  Total,  51,944  men  and  104  guns.  So  that,  before  even- 
ing, Napoleon  had  had  to  face  and  fight  119,000  men  and  260 
guns. 

These  are  the  figures  given  us  by  Captain  Siborne,  of  the  Brit- 
ish army,  whose  maps,  plans,  model  and  history  of  Waterloo 
were  a  life-study  with  him,  and  who  shows  no  disposition  to 
under-rate  British  numbers  and  over-rate  those  of  the  French. 
Possibly  he  might  have  neglected  to  weed  out  Napoleon's  "  inef- 
fectives,"  and  to  have  been  over-careful  about  those  of  the  allies, 
for  other  historians  give  Wellington  a  fighting  force  of  75,000; 
but,  as  we  shall  presently  see,  some  of  these  did  not  fight.  Cap- 
tain Siborne  may  have  declined  to  count  them  in  for  that  reason. 

As  has  been  said,  it  rained  in  torrents  all  the  evening  and  most 
of  the  night  of  the  I7th.  The  morning  of  the  i8th  broke,  low- 
ering and  dismal.  The  clouds  were  lifted  from  the  sodden  earth, 
but  hung  threateningly  over  the  field  all  day  long.  None  the  less, 
England  and  her  allies,  France  and  her  devoted  soldiers  sprang 
to  arms  at  early  dawn,  and,  deserting  their  bivouac  fires  around 
which  the  men  had  grouped  through  the  wet  and  cheerless  night, 
they  occupied  themselves  for  hours  in  cleaning  and  drying  their 
arms  and  clothing.  Outposts  and  sentinels  who,  during  the  night, 


NAPOLEON'S   ANXIETY   CONCERNING   GROUCHY.          5Q3 

had  crouched  within  speaking  distance  of  one  another,  were 
drawn  in;  long  skirmish  lines,  some  of  infantry,  some  of  troopers, 
appeared  in  their  stead,  but  not  until  after  nine  o'clock  did  the 
formation  of  the  battle-lines  begin.  Wellington  was  in  no  hurry. 
He  would  have  been  glad  to  wait  another  day,  when  Blucher 
could  surely  be  with  him.  Knowing  him  to  be  badly  whipped 
at  Ligny  and  to  have  fallen  back  to  Wavre  in  disorder,  Welling- 
ton was  very  anxious;  but,  on  the  evening  of  the  i/th,  his 
anxiety  was  much  lightened  by  the  reception  of  Blucher's  reply 
to  his  appeal  for  support.  It  was  characteristic  of  the  fierce  old 
war-dog :  "  I  shall  not  come  with  two  corps  only,  but  with  my 
whole  army ;  upon  this  understanding,  however,  that  should  the 
French  not  attack  us  on  the  i8th,  we  shall  attack  them  on  the 
I9th." 

Napoleon,  on  the  contrary,  was  eager  to  begin.  Time  was 
everything ;  but  his  guns  sank  to  the  hubs  in  the  spongy  ground ; 
his  chargers  floundered  up  to  the  hocks  in  the  mud.  He  had  to 
wait  a  while.  Anxiously  he  scanned  the  opposite  crests,  and  ever 
and  anon  swept  the  eastern  horizon  with  his  glass.  By  this  time 
he  must  have  known  that  Blucher's  retreat  had  been  northward 
towards  Wavre,  and  he  was  to  blame  for  not  having  pushed 
Grouchy  in  his  track  the  night  of  the  i6th  instead  of  waiting 
until  late  on  the  morning  of  the  i/th.  Blucher  had  therefore 
had  time  to  rally  and  reform.  Now  could  Grouchy  with  35,000 
hold  him  ?  If  not,  would  Grouchy  have  sense  enough  to  get 
between  him  and  Napoleon,  and  so  fall  back  fighting  on  his 
chief?  If  Desaix  had  lived  and  were  there;  if  Davout  had 
only  been  in  Grouchy's  place,  or  Massena,  or  the  lion-hearted 
Lannes ;  or  even  had  Ney  been  sent — Ney  who  had  blundered 
at  Quatre  Bras — the  emperor  would  have  felt  assured;  but  Grou- 
chy was  not  one  of  the  old  array  of  fighting  marshals,  and,  in 
his  haste  or  carelessness,  Napoleon's  orders  to  Grouchy  were  not 
all  they  should  have  been  to  cover  the  case.  They  were  brief 
and  explicit,  but  not  entirely  practicable:  "  Pursue  the  Prussians  ; 
complete  their  defeat  by  attacking  as  soon  as  you  come  up  with 
them,  and  never  let  them  out  of  your  sight"  But,  according  to 
Siborne,  Grouchy  had  but  32,000;  Blucher  must  have  had  nearly 


504  WATERLOO. 

90,000  around  Wavre.  It  was  quite  an  easy  thing  to  say,  attack 
and  rout  an  army  three  times  as  big  as  your  own,  but,  difficult 
to  do  it.  Failing  in  that,  however,  it  still  lay  in  Grouchy's 
power  to  keep  between  Bliicher  and  Napoleon,  and  so  render  it, 
for  the  time  being  at  least,  impossible  for  him  to  interfere  while 
the  French  were  pounding  the  English  and  Hanoverians  to  pieces 
at  Waterloo. 

Grouchy  did  neither. 

At  ten  o'clock  on  this  lowering  June  morning,  with  a  grand 
outburst  of  martial  music,  with  every  military  pomp  and  cere- 
mony, the  army  of  Napoleon  moved  forward  into  position  and 
deployed  its  lines  along  the  slopes  to  the  right  and  left  of  La 
Belle  Alliance.  Wellington's  army,  in  silence  that  was  striking 
in  its  great  contrast,  moved  into  the  positions  assigned  the  various 
corps,  and  then  ensued  the  momentous  pause  before  the 
struggle. 

Standing  here  at  the  top  of  the  slope  and  close  to  the  Char- 
leroi  road,  let  us  take  a  good  look  at  the  opposing  armies  be- 
fore the  fight  begins.  We  will  want  to  get  away  soon  enough. 
The  first  thing  that  strikes  the  eye  is  the  double  curve  of  the 
long  red  lines  of  the  British  infantry.  To  our  right  they  are 
straight  for  only  quarter  of  a  mile,  then  they  curve  outwards 
towards  the  French  and  extend  well  down  towards  Hougo- 
mont.  To  our  left  they  are  nearly  straight  towards  the  mound 
back  of  Papelotte,  then  they  curve  backwards  towards  the 
plateau.  Their  right  is  heavily  backed  up  by  strong  reserves 
on  the  wooded  slopes  towards  the  farms  of  Merbe  Braine.  Their 
left  is  open  and  "  out  in  the  air."  Far  in  front  of  the  right, 
down  in  the  "  swale,"  as  our  plainsmen  would  call  it,  is  that 
great  enclosure  of  Hougomont,  and  though  from  here  we  can 
see  little  of  them,  it  is  bristling  with  British  bayonets.  The 
garden  walls  are  pierced  with  loop-holes ;  the  gates  and  door- 
ways barricaded.  The  chateau,  the  farm  buildings,  the  garden 
and  orchard  are  crammed  with  the  foot  guardsmen  of  England. 
Coldstreams  and  Scots  Fusiliers  under  Colonel  Macdonell  in 
the  buildings,  grenadiers  under  Lord  Saltoun  in  the  orchard, 
and  the  light  infantry  of  Hanover  and  Nassau  in  the  wood. 


BATTLE-FIELD    OF    WATERLOO,    SHOWING    THE    POSITION    OF    THE 
CONTENDING   FORCES    AT  6   P.     M.,   JUNE   18.    1815. 


DISPOSITION   OF   WELLINGTON'S   FORCES.  5Q5 

Far  off  to  our  right,  beyond  Hougomont  and  across  the  Nivelles 
road,  are  a  few  battalions  of  red  infantry  supporting  the  skir- 
mishers that  spread  out  over  the  slopes  to  the  south  and  west. 
These  are  the  light  troops  of  Lord  Hill's  Second  corps,  and 
among  them  are  the  Welsh  Fusiliers,  the  Twenty-third  regi- 
ment of  the  line,  which  guards  the  Nivelles  road,  while  the 
Fourteenth  and  Fifty-first  are  farther  out  to  the  west,  where  a 
few  squadrons  of  horse  can  also  be  seen. 

Back  of  Hougomont  is  posted  a  strong  brigade  of  foot  guards. 
The  plateau  to  the  rear  being  heavily  held  by  what  appears  to 
be  an  entire  division  of  infantry,  partly  English,  from  their 
scarlet  uniforms,  partly  Hanoverians.  They  are  the  three  brig- 
ades of  Adam  and  Du  Platt  (British)  and  Halkett  (Hanoverian), 
and  they  number  nearly  9,000  men,  and  are  all  posted  to  the 
west  of  the  Nivelles  road,  where  Sir  Henry  Clinton  is  charged 
with  the  command.  Between  us  and  the  Nivelles  road,  be- 
ginning over  at  the  right,  are  the  guards  of  Byng  and  Maitland 
in  the  front  line,  and  then  in  order  the  brigades  of  Halkett, 
Kielmansegge  and  Ompteda.  They  cover  the  front  between  the 
roads,  and  there  are  some  splendid  troops  over  where  the 
Guards  and  Halkett's  men  are  posted. 

In  rear  of  them,  and  drawn  up  in  closed  columns  of  squad- 
rons, are  brigades  of  hussars  and  light  dragoons — the  English 
light  cavalry  well  forward,  the  Dutch,  Belgians  and  Brunswickers 
pretty  well  back.  Far  off  to  the  right  rear  is  in  reserve  the  in- 
fantry and  cavalry  of  the  Brunswick  corps.  Its  gallant  chief 
was  killed  at  Quatre  Bras,  dying  as  did  his  gallant  predecessor 
at  Auerstadt. 

Immediately  behind  Ompteda's  footmen,  with  their  left  rest- 
ing upon  the  Charleroi  road,  is  a  cavalry  brigade,  we  need  to 
turn  about  and  take  a  good  look  at.  Drawn  up  in  line  are  four 
superb  regiments,  all  in  glittering  helmets — three  in  scarlet 
coats,  one  in  blue.  They  are  the  "  Household  Heavies  "  of  Lord 
Somerset.  The  First  and  Second  Life,  the  Royal  Horse  Guards 
(blue)  and  the  First  (King's  Own)  Dragoon  Guards.  These, 
with  the  threatening  batteries,  pushed  well  forward  to  the 
crest,  and  the  long  thin  line  of  skirmishers  half  way  down 


506  WATERLOO. 

the  slope  from  La  Haye  Sainte  to  the  northern  corner  of 
Hougomont,  are  all  the  troops  of  the  right  wing.  Now  look  to 
the  left. 

First  there  is  the  skirmish  line  well  out  to  the  front  and 
extending  over  to  Papelotte,  wh,ere  it  is  lost  in  the  hedges. 
Then  south  of  the  Ohain  cross-road  is  Bylandt's  brigade  of 
Dutch-Belgians  in  one  long  line.  Then  similarly  deployed,  but 
behind  the  road,  the  long  line  of  Best's  Hanoverians,  while 
La  Haye  and  Papelotte  are  held  by  the  troops  of  the  Prince 
of  Saxe- Weimar.  These  are  all  of  Perponcher's  division. 

Supporting  them,  posted  with  intervals  in  readiness  to  spring 
forward  and  deploy,  is  a  famous  British  division  under  a  famous 
leader,  General  Sir  Thomas  Picton,  commander  of  the  "  right- 
ing division "  of  the  Peninsular  war.  Two  of  his  brigades, 
Kempt's  and  Pack's,  are  here  close  behind  us.  In  Kempt's 
brigade  are  the  Seventy-ninth  Highlanders,  known  the  world 
over,  the  Twenty-eighth  of  the  line,  immortalized  in  later  years 
by  Elizabeth  Thompson's  superb  painting  of  the  British  squares 
at  Quatre  Bras.  In  Pack's  brigade  are  two  regiments  of  High- 
landers ;  the  Black  Watch  (Forty-second)  and  the  Ninety-second, 
and  two  old  and  tried  line  corps,  the  First  Royal  Scots  and  the 
Forty-fourth.  This  is  a  division  to  be  proud  of. 

To  their  rear,  nearly  aligned  with  the  Household  cavalry,  is 
another  famous  command:  Ponsonby's  heavies,  the  "Union  Brig- 
ade " — a  regiment  each  of  English,  Scotch  and  Irish  heavy  dra- 
goons, the  Royals,  the  Scots'  Greys,  and  the  Inniskillings.  Far 
off  to  the  left  are  the  light  cavalry  brigades  of  Vandeleur  and 
Vivian,  and  these,  with  their  batteries,  complete  the  left  wing. 

Down  in  front  of  us,  the  little  farm  of  La  Haye  Sainte  is  held 
by  Major  Baring  with  400  light  infantry ;  and  now,  while  from 
Rossomme  only  the  very  front  of  the  allied  lines  can  be  seen, 
Wellington,  from  his  position,  has  this  great  advantage — the  en- 
tire army  of  Napoleon  is  displayed  to  view.  In  point  of  military 
appearance,  it  is  far  more  homogeneous — far  more  united  and 
serviceable-looking  than  that  of  the  allies.  It  will  take  but  few 
words  to  describe  it.  With  its  batteries  in  front,  in  two  long 
lines  of  infantry,  D'Erlon's  First  corps  stretches  from  La  Belle 


THE  FRENCH  ORDER  OF  BATTLE.          507 

Alliance  to  a  point  just  south  of  Papelotte,  covered  on  the  east 
by  its  cavalry;  four  divisions  are  in  line  there,  all  in  sombre 
dress  of  dark  blue.  Behind  them  we  see  two  long  lines  of  glit- 
tering cuirassiers — Milhaud's  division.  Behind  them,  still  farther 
up  the  slope,  are  the  light  cavalry  of  the  imperial  guard,  also  in 
two  long  lines :  the  lancers,  in  their  high,  broad-topped  Polish 
shakos  and  gay  scarlet  tunics  ;  the  chasseurs,  in  a  gorgeous  hus- 
sar costume  of  green  and  gold.  These  fellows  are  the  beaux 
and  dandies  of  the  French  army — trim,  jaunty,  light  riders  on 
nimble  horses,  and  their  general,  Lefebvre  Desnouettes,  is  as 
proud  of  them  as  ever  was  Murat,  who  is  struggling  for  his  own 
crown  in  Italy.  Two  hundred  yards  behind  La  Belle  Alliance 
there  is  an  abrupt  rise  in  the  ground  to  a  height  a  trifle  above 
the  level  of  our  position  here.  The  road  cuts  through  part  of 
it,  but  rises  steeply,  too,  and  on  that  height,  east  of  the  road, 
with  their  horse-batteries  on  the  flanks,  are  the  cavalry  brigades 
of  Domont  and  Subervie.  All  this  is  comprised  in  the  right  wing 
of  the  French. 

Resting  on  the  little  inn  and  enclosure  of  La  Belle  Alliance, 
and  thence  sweeping  way  round  in  a  long  curve  with  its  con- 
cavity towards  us,  is  the  infantry  of  the  left  wing — Reille's  Sec- 
ond corps.  It  is  formed  in  two  lines  like  the  right  wing,  but  not 
quite  as  trimly  and  compactly,  for  one  of  its  divisions,  Gerard's, 
was  badly  cut  up  at  Ligny  and  has  been  left  there.  Bachelu's 
division  is  nearest  our  front;  Foy's  is  on  its  left;  while  Prince 
Jerome  Bonaparte's,  a  large  one,  encircles,  you  may  say,  the 
southern  front  of  Hougomont.  Stretching  across  the  Nivelles 
road  are  the  fifteen  squadrons  of  the  cavalry  of  the  Second  corps. 
In  rear  of  the  divisions  of  Foy  and  Jerome  is  Kellerman's  superb 
corps  of  heavy  dragoons  and  cuirassiers  ;  back  of  them,  Guyot's 
heavy  division  of  the  imperial  guard  cavalry,  so  that  the  left  wing 
is  formed  precisely  like  the  right.  The  French  order  of  battle  is 
beautifully  symmetrical  and  soldier-like. 

In  reserve,  massed  in  columns  of  battalions  along  the  west 
side  of  the  Charleroi  road,  is  the  infantry  of  the  Sixth  corps,  its 
batteries  on  its  left  and  on  the  heights  of  Rossomme  behind 
them.  Half  on  the  east,  half  on  the  west  side  of  the  highway 


508  WATERLOO. 

is  the  grand  reserve  of  the  imperial  guard,  its  batteries  on  its 
flanks.  The  guard  is  drawn  up  in  six  lines,  four  regiments  in 
each,  and  in  the  absence  of  Marshal  Mortier,  left  sick  at  Beau- 
mont, the  guard  is  led  by  General  Drouot ;  while  two  of  its  di- 
visions, the  old  guard  and  the  middle  guard,  are  commanded  by 
those  grand  soldiers  whom  we  learned  to  know  at  Austerlitz  and 
Auerstadt — Generals  Friant  and  Morand.  The  young  guard  is 
led  by  General  Duhesme. 

Marshal  Ney  had  only  joined  Napoleon  three  days  before,  and 
he  now  commands  the  whole  front  line — that  of  the  First  and 
Second  corps.  Vandamme's  Third  corps,  Gerard's  Fourth  corps 
and  the  Sixth  cavalry  corps  are  away  with  Grouchy,  besides 
divisions  or  brigades  of  the  corps  now  in  line. 

It  is  impossible  to  describe  the  admiration  with  which  old  cam- 
paigners along  the  crest  of  Mont  St.  Jean  had  watched  the 
splendid  formation  of  the  French  line  of  battle.  It  is  only 
1,400  yards  from  where  we  stand,  to  their  centre.  All  is  clear; 
every  movement  is  in  full  view,  and  now,  as  though  to  add  to  the 
spirit  and  brilliancy  of  the  scene,  saluted  by  drooping  colors  and 
flashing  arms,  followed  by  a  glittering  staff,  the  emperor  canters 
along  his  lines,  going  their  entire  length  that  all  may  see  and  be 
seen  by  him.  Cheer  upon  cheer  rends  the  air,  and  in  the  British 
lines  hundreds  push  forward  to  catch  a  glimpse  of  the  never-to- 
be-forgotten  sight.  It  is  Napoleon's  last  review  of  the  grand 
army.  Some  gunners  eagerly  ask  permission  to  train  their  pieces 
and  open  fire  on  the  imperial  group,  but  it  is  promptly  denied. 
Afterwards,  indeed,  when  a  battery  commander  rides  to  Lord 
Wellington  and  says  that,  though  now  in  the  heat  of  battle,  he 
can  distinctly  recognize  the  emperor  and  staff,  and  asks  permis- 
sion to  shell  the  party,  the  duke  sternly  Replies,  "  No.  It  is  not 
the  business  of  commanders  to  be  firing  on  one  another." 

Satisfied,  apparently,  with  his  survey,  Napoleon  rides  back  up 
the  slopes,  reins  in  near  the  guard  facing  north,  gets  his  glass 
in  readiness  and  looks  calmly  around.  It  is  a  little  after  eleven 
o'clock.  It  has  cleared  somewhat ;  is  now  close  and  murky. 
Instinctively  every  one  feels  that  now  the  shock  is  coming,  and, 
sure  enough,  it  comes.  All  eyes  are  eager  to  see  the  first  move 


HOUGOMONT   THE   FIRST   POINT   OF   ATTACK.  509 

of  this  great  master  of  the  war-game,  and  it  is  a  true  one.  It 
is  aimed  at  Hougomont. 

Look  !  From  the  right  of  Prince  Jerome's  division  a  column 
of  infantry  pushes  out  towards  the  wood  south  of  the  chateau ; 
a  bugle  sounds  a  stirring  peal,  and  instantly  the  leading  com- 
panies spring  lightly  forward,  spreading  out  in  skirmish  order. 
Half  a  dozen  little  jets  of  bluish  smoke  pop  from  the  wood  cor- 
ner, and  faint  sounds  as  of  pistol-shots  are  reaching  our  ears 
just  as  the  half-dozen  jets  are  swallowed  up  in  a  sudden  cloud, 
and  the  crash  of  a  distant  volley  is  borne  on  the  breeze.  These 
excitable  Nassauers  have  opened  the  ball  with  a  vengeance. 
Four  or  five  black  objects,  advancing  with  the  skirmish  line, 
drop.  The  others  come  jauntily  ahead,  and  presently  each  one 
is  crowned  with  a  little  puff  of  smoke  of  his  own.  The  "  tirail- 
leurs "  have  opened  fire.  A  second  line  comes  dancing  out  to 
the  support  of  the  first;  the  popping  becomes  a  rattle.  The 
supporting  battalions  begin  crowding  out  to  the  front,  and  in 
columns  of  companies  are  pressing  towards  the  wood. 

Suddenly  there  is  a  rapid  movement  of  gunners  in  the  light 
battery  right  out  here  in  front  of  Kielmansegge's  men,  and  Cap- 
tain Cleve's  voice  is  heard  in  sharp  command.  Sponge-staves 
and  rammers  whirl  rapidly  in  air  one  instant,  the  gunners  spring 
quickly  back;  then,  with  a  thundering  roar,  the  right  gun 
belches  out  a  volume  of  smoke  and  fire.  Something  goes 
whirring  and  smoking  across  the  valley  and  bursts  with  a  puff 
just  over  the  nearest  battalion ;  a  half-suppressed  cheer  breaks 
along  the  ridge,  the  other  guns  boom  forth  in  quick  succession, 
the  batteries  of  Cooke's  division,  farther  to  the  right,  follow  suit, 
and  the  great  battle  of  Waterloo  has  begun. 

Now  the  French  guns  of  the  Second  corps  take  up  the  chorus. 
From  La  Belle  Alliance  to  the  Nivelles  road  every  battery 
bursts  into  flame,  and,  as  though  that  were  not  enough,  here 
come  Kellerman's  horse-batteries  down  from  the  second  line  to 
crowd  in  on  the  first.  Gentlemen,  the  emperor  means  to  follow 
his  old  tactics — a  crushing  fire  of  artillery  and  then  an  advance. 
The  shells  are  now  flying  over  our  heads,  tearing  up  the  earth 
along  Mont  St.  Jean.  "  Lie  down,"  is  the  stern,  quiet  order  of 


510  WATERLOO. 

the  officers,  and  the  footmen  hug  the  ground.  The  horsemen 
wheel  about  where  exposed,  and  move  farther  back ;  only  the 
gunners  are  on  foot  and  at  work  at  this  moment;  the  intervals 
between  the  reports,  that  at  first  could  be  counted,  have  now 
become  indistinguishable.  One  ^vast  and  continuous  peal  of 
thunder  is  booming  over  the  startled  valley  and  stunning  the 
ear  far  back  as  Brussels.  A  dense  cloud  of  smoke  rises  along 
the  parallel  crests  ;  but  staff  officers  pressing  to  the  front,  see 
what  they  hate  to  have  to  tell — the  light  troops  of  Hanover  and 
Nassau  scurrying  back  out  of  the  wood  of  Hougomont  followed 
by  the  fire  of  the  skirmishers  of  France.  It  will  never  do  to  let 
those  fellows  have  the  wood.  Lord  Wellington  himself  spurs 
to  the  front  and  orders  Major  Bull  with  his  howitzer  battery  to 
shell  them  out,  and  in  a  minute  the  old  forest  is  filled  with 
stifling  smoke  and  whirring  fragments  of  iron,  while — look 
again — at  the  same  instant  a  thin  red  line  springs  forward  from 
the  hedge,  and  Saltoun's  guardsmen  dash  through  the  open 
fields  and  drive  into  the  French  with  a  cheer  that  can  be 
heard  back  here  at  La  Haye  Sainte ;  British  bayonets  do  their 
work,  and  back  go  Jerome's  tirailleurs.  Jerome  and  Foy  order 
forward  their  lines  to  support  the  attack,  and  the  assault  on 
Hougomont  becomes  a  battle  in  itself.  The  chateau,  the  build- 
ings, the  entire  enclosure  are  wrapped  now  in  smoke  and  flame, 
while  along  the  Nivelles  road  to  the  west,  the  batteries  and  ad~ 
vanced  troops  are  hotly  engaged.  Foy  and  Jerome  are  able  to 
quickly  concentrate  such  a  mass  of  fire  on  these  daring  guards- 
men, that  in  turn  they  are  forced  back,  and  slowly  and  dog- 
gedly, and  with  heavy  loss,  they  retire  from  tree  to  tree,  and  are 
received  within  the  sheltering  walls  of  the  garden.  Others, 
closely  pursued,  succeed  in  getting  into  the  stone  court-yard, 
and  here  begins  a  most  heroic  and  determined  hand-to-hand 
fight  that  lasts  throughout  the  battle.  No  matter  what  may  be 
going  on  elsewhere,  Hougomont,  from  first  to  last,  is  the  centre 
of  a  terrific  combat,  and,  from  first  to  last,  England  holds  her 
own. 

Finding    that    the    chateau    is    obstinately  held,   and    being 
pressed  for  time,  the  emperor  now  sends  word  to  Ney,  to  pre- 


WHERE   IS  THAT   DIVISION   OF   PICTON'S?  51 1 

pare  for  the  grand  attack  already  planned.  It  is  his  purpose  to 
hurl  the  whole  right  wing  upon  the  plateau  between  La  Haye 
Sainte  and  Papelotte,  to  drive  the  Anglo-allied  lines  back  from 
the  crest,  sweep  them  round  upon  the  Brussels  road,  and  off  to 
the  northwest.  In  this  way  he  will  effectually  cut  it  off  from 
Bliicher,  drive  part  of  it  into  the  forest  of  Soignies,  the  rest  out 
across  the  open  fields.  He  has  hit  on  the  true  move  in  every 
way ;  it  is  the  very  thing.  The  British  right  is  strongly  held 
with  guards,  guns  and  heavy  infantry  in  advance,  another  divi- 
sion of  foot  in  support  on  the  plateau.  Hougomont,  a  breaker 
in  front ;  Sir  Henry  Clinton  and  the  reserves  at  Merbe  Braine,  a 
rock  in  rear.  The  right  is  too  strong ;  the  left  is  strangely  weak. 
Wellington  has  only  two  divisions  of  foot,  flanked  by  two  brig- 
ades of  light  horse,  and  the  "  Union  Brigade  "  in  rear.  Pape- 
lotte in  front  is  nowhere  near  as  strong  a  point  as  Hougomont. 
Nassauers  are  nowhere  near  as  firm  as  Britons.  The  chances  are 
indeed  in  Napoleon's  favor,  and  Ney  is  to  lead.  Yet  there  is  a 
point  to  be  considered.  One  of  his  first  questions  that  memorable 
morning,  after  surveying  the  line  with  his  glass,  was :  "  Where 
is  that  division  of  Picton's?"  Battered  as  it  had  been  at  Quatre 
Bras,  it  had  been  too  much  for  his  best  fighter,  Ney,  and  he  did 
well  to  ask  where  it  was  now  to  be  found.  Picton  is  here,  just 
where  that  grand  attack  will  come. 

Now  there  is  a  quick  movement  back  of  La  Belle  Alliance. 
Down  come  those  squadrons  we  saw  massed  on  the  little  height, 
and  away  they  go  off  toward  the  village  of  Frischermont,  beyond 
Papelotte.  What  does  that  mean?  an  entire  division  follows. 
The  emperor's  anxious  glances  towards  the  eastern  horizon  have 
at  last  fallen  on  some  objects  that  appear  to  be  troops  close 
under  a  patch  of  woods  five  miles  away.  "  Ride  thither,  Do- 
mont,  see  who  they  are ;  if  Grouchy's  people,  call  them  in ;  if 
BlucheVs,  stand  them  off.  Follow  and  back  him  up,  Subervie." 
Anxious  as  they  all  are,  there  are  other  things  requiring  imme- 
diate attention.  Soult,  after  a  long  inspection  through  his  field- 
glass,  pronounces  the  objects  infantry  in  motion,  "  probably 
Grouchy."  Napoleon  hopes  so,  and  turns  his  attention  to  Ney's 
grand  move. 


512  WATERLOO. 

First,  with  cracking  whips  and  ringing  bugle-calls,  ten  admi- 
rably handled  batteries  come  trotting  forward,  and  with  spirited 
and  dashing  array  move  boldly  out  on  the  broad  valley  in  front 
of  D'Erlon's  corps.  There  is  a  well-defined  ridge  midway  be- 
tween his  lines  and  ours,  and  parallel  with  them,  and  on  that 
ridge,  in  less  than  five  minutes  seventy-four  guns  have  swung 
into  battery,  and  the  guns  on  our  left,  joining  in  the  grand  up- 
roar, have  chosen  them  for  their  targets,  and  are  hurling  shot 
and  shell  at  them  as  they  open  fire.  Bylandt's  long  line  of  in- 
fantry, here  in  front  of  the  Ohain  road,  looks  anything  but 
pleased  at  that  sight,  and  with  grave  features  General  Picton 
watches  their  evident  uneasiness.  Then,  from  the  French  left, 
comes  a  beautiful  sight.  Roussel's  entire  division  of  Keller- 
man's  cavalry  corps  marches  over,  crossing  in  front  of  the  em- 
peror, and  wheels  again  into  line  just  behind  D'Erlon,  whose 
four  divisions  have  "  ployed  "  into  charging  columns  and  have 
begun  their  advance.  In  beautiful  order  they  come  forward  un- 
til the  heads  of  columns  reach  that  gun-crested  ridge,  and  then 
they  halt.  Ney  sends  word  to  Napoleon  that  he  is  ready. 
Soult,  just  sending  off  a  despatch  to  Grouchy,  looks  at  his  watch 
and  notes  that  it  is  half-past  one. 

The  French  right  has  now  approached  to  within  800  yards 
of  the  plateau.  Aides-de-camp  come  spurring  out  from  the 
emperor.  One  rides  to  General  Reille,  who  gallops  to  his  right 
division  and  gives  some  order.  Others  fly  out  across  the  valley 
to  Ney,  who  signals  to  D'Erlon.  Instantly  the  First  corps 
flashes  its  arms  and  colors  up  in  air,  and  with  one  simulta- 
neous impulse  the  heads  of  columns  advance,  pass  between  the 
guns,  and  out  to  the  front.  Then  "tirailleurs  "  come  springing 
out  at  the  run,  a  long,  lively  skirmish-line  spreads  across  their 
front,  and  in  four  grand  divisions  18,000  French  infantry  move 
steadily  forward  to  the  assault  of  Mont  St.  Jean.  Once  clear  of 
the  batteries  they  increase  their  fronts,  and  with  waving  banners 
and  nodding  plumes,  cheering  enthusiastically,  D'Erlon's  corps 
marches  up  the  slope. 

Durutte's  division  on  the  east  is  presently  assailed  by  a  sharp 
musketry  fire  from  the  hedges  of  Papelotte  and  La  Haye; 


FLIGHT   OF   THE    DUTCH-BELGIANS.  513 

Donzelot's  division  nearest  the  high-road  begins  to  suffer  from 
the  orchard  of  La  Haye  Sainte;  Durutte  sends  a  brigade  at 
Papelotte,  Donzelot  one  at  La  Haye  Sainte.  The  rest  of  the 
corps  comes  on  unbroken  between  them,  and  now,  over  their 
heads,  the  French  guns  open  fire,  and  our  crest  is  ripped  and 
ploughed  and  torn  with  shot  and  shell,  while  the  superb  disci- 
pline of  Picton's  men  is  sorely  tested ;  for  a  few  minutes  the 
British  linesmen  are  compelled  to  stand  and  take  the  brunt  of 
that  artillery-fire  without  hitting  back.  Then  comes  a  blessed 
relief.  Bylandt's  Dutch-Belgians,  as  we  have  seen,  had  been 
given  the  post  of  honor  in  the  front  line  here  to  our  left.  Now 
as  the  dense  masses  of  D'Erlon  come  sweeping  up  the  slope, 
and  the  skirmishers  are  running  back  away  from  them,  there 
comes  the'  moment  when  the  brigade  must  rise  and  prepare  to 
receive  the  enemy. 

The  first  thing  is  to  get  them  to  rise.  That  is  effected  after 
some  vehement  language.  The  next  is  to  get  them  to  receive 
the  enemy  :  that  is  not  effected  at  all.  No  sooner  do  the  Dutch- 
Belgians  get  on  their  feet  and  catch  sight  of  D'Erlon's  skir- 
mishers preparing  to  open  fire,  than  with  unanimous  impulse 
and  alacrity  they  take  to  their  heels,  and,  despite  the  jeers  and 
curses  of  Picton's  battalions,  they  go  driving  to  the  rear,  where 
the  cavalry  bring  them  up  standing  by  dint  of  much  hard  swear- 
ing and  lavish  promises  to  cut  them  down,  and  so,  cowering 
and  worthless,  they  are  huddled  there  until  the  battle  is  over,  of 
no  further  use  to  anybody. 

And  now  brave  Picton  calls  on  his  men.  He  has  only  about 
3,000  to  oppose  to  four  times  as  many,  but  hold  that  point  of 
the  plateau  he  must,  or  he  will  die  trying  it.  Splendidly  the 
thin  red  lines  spring  forward  at  his  voice,  Kempt  and  Pack 
deploy  their  battalions  well  forward  on  the  crest  abandoned  by 
Bylandt,  and  now  they  open  a  crashing  fire  upon  the  advancing 
columns.  These  are  so  close  that  the  French  guns  can  no 
longer  play  on  the  crest,  and  as  their  thunder  dies  away,  the 
ringing  cheers  of  the  Frenchmen  are  heard  in  their  stead,  and 
the  throbbing  roll  of  their  drums.  "  Forward !  forward !  " 
"  Vive  1'Empereur !  "  are  the  cries  as  the  deep  columns  steadily- 
33 


514  WATERLOO. 

near  the  crest.  They  are  within  an  hundred  yards,  now  and 
then  "  halt "  rings  out,  and  the  colonels  can  be  heard  shouting 
the  orders  to  deploy  into  line  on  the  leading  battalions.  Oh, 
glorious  opportunity  for  Picton  !  He  is  with  Kempt's  brigade 
at  the  moment.  "  Fire ! "  he  shouts,  and  then  as  the  crashing 
volley  answers,  and  before  the  smoke  has  cleared  away,  his 
voice  again  rings  exultantly  along  the  line,  "  Charge  !  Charge  ! 
Hurrah !  "  and  with  the  half-savage  cry  of  the  Highlanders,  and 
the  deep-throated  cheer  of  the  British,  Kempt's  men  dash  in 
with  the  bayonet,  Picton  with  them. 

Accustomed  to  carry  all  before  them,  amazed  at  this  daring 
dash  by  so  small  a  force,  the  French  advance  recoils,  falls  back 
on  the  rear  regiments;  great  confusion  ensues  for  a  few  moments, 
in  the  midst  of  which  Picton's  gallant  men  with  butt  and  bayo- 
net hammer  and  prod  at  all  who  stand,  and  soon,  strange  as  it 
may  seem,  send  the  heavy  column  reeling  down  the  slope;  and 
just  as  Picton  in  soldierly  delight  is  applauding  and  cheering 
them  on,  his  sword  is  seen  to  drop — his  hand  to  seek  his  tem- 
ple, and  before  his  officers  can  reach  him,  the  hero  of  the  Penin- 
sula, "  Fighting  Picton,"  reels  and  topples  from  his  saddle,  shot 
dead  by  a  musket-ball.  Terribly  wounded  at  Quartre  Bras  two 
days  before,  he  had  concealed  it  that  he  might  take  part  in  the 
greater  combat,  and  Waterloo  is  the  hero's  closing  battle. 

Even  his  death,  however,  cannot  break  the  spirit  of  that  brig- 
ade of  Kempt.  The  Twenty-eighth  and  Seventy-ninth  suffer 
severely,  but  hold  the  ground  they  have  won ;  but  where  is 
Pack  and  his  still  more  distinguished  command?  Pack's  brigade 
has  three  Scotch  regiments — the  First  "  Royal  Scots,"  the  Forty- 
second  (Black  Watch)  and  Ninety-second  Highlanders — and  the 
strong  Forty-fourth  British  to  complete  his  line.  When  Kempt 
charged,  Pack  had  not  advanced.  There  were  two  heavy  col- 
umns advancing  upon  him,  the  French  divisions  of  Alix  and 
Marcognet,  and  holding  his  men  in  readiness,  Pack  waited  until 
the  heads  of  their  columns  had  burst  through  the  Hanoverian 
battery  on  the  crest,  had  crossed  the  road  to  Wavre,  and  halted  to 
form  on  the  northern  edge ;  then,  while  they  were  in  the  confusion 
caused  by  the  deep  cut  through  which  that  cross-road  here  runs, 


THE    EAGLES   OF   FRANCE   ON    MONT    ST.  JEAN.          515 

he  gave  the  order  to  fire,  and  the  volleys  of  Scotland  swept 
down  hundreds  of  the  men  who  had  fought  at  Austerlitz,  Jena, 
Eylau,  Friedland,  Wagram  and  Leipsic,  only  to  meet  their 
soldier's  death  here  on  the  heights  of  Waterloo.  Quickly,  Alix 
and  Marcognet  hurried  on  their  rear  regiments,  and  cheering 
like  mad  the  French  divisions  swarmed  over  the  crest,  over  the 
Ohain  road,  and  burst  with  their  deadly  volleys  full  in  upon  the 
British  left,  piercing  the  wing,  and  gaining  firm  foothold  on  the 
plateau.  Watching  eagerly  from  the  Rossomme  heights,  Napo- 
leon snapped  shut  his  telescope  with  an  eager  light  in  his  eyes. 
The  Eagles  of  France,  the  glorious  tricolor,  waved  on  Mont  St. 
Jean.  He  could  see  them  through  the  battle-smoke.  Now 
hold  it!  D'Erlon.  Hold  it,  Ney,  and  all  will  be  well.  That 
magnificent  advance  is  a  success  then,  for  on  the  right  Durutte 
has  carried  Papelotte  and  La  Haye. 

Along  the  highway  Donzelot  has  enveloped  La  Haye  Sainte, 
and  now  Roussel's  glittering  cuirassiers  cross  the  high-road, 
wheel  to  the  north  and  come  at  thundering  gallop  up  the  slope. 
The  batteries  at  the  crest  blaze  at  them  with  shell  and  grape  as 
they  come,  but,  though  many  a  gap  is  torn  through  the  charging 
ranks,  there  is  no  slacking  of  their  speed.  With  the  long,  black, 
horse-hair  plumes  streaming  in  the  wind,  with  flashing  sabres  up- 
lifted they  gain  the  crest  just  to  the  west  of  the  high-road,  sweep 
through  the  batteries  on  the  ridge,  over  it  they  go,  and  then,  in 
full  sight  of  the  red-clad  squares,  they  come  suddenly  upon  that 
low-lying  cross-road — "the  sunken  road  of  Ohain"  it  is  called 
by  Victor  Hugo — the  half-hidden,  unpaved  country  highway  to 
Wavre  from  the  Nivelles  road  back  of  Hougomont.  It  throws 
them  into  some  disorder,  but  hundreds  plunge  in,  scramble  up 
on  the  other  side — hundreds  cross. with  no  difficulty  whatever — 
but  their  way  is  stopped;  and  just  as  they  are  reforming  under 
fire  on  the  northern  side,  there  comes  a  loud  tan-ta-ra  of  cavalry 
trumpets,  a  thunder  of  massive  hoofs,  and  with  superb  burst  of 
speed  and  a  thrilling  British  cheer,  the  guardsmen,  the  gallants  of 
England,  Lord  Somerset's  magnificent  household  brigade,  charge 
home  upon  the  head  of  the  French  division,  and  the  cuirassiers 
are  overturned  and  borne  back  in  the  rush.  Some  gallop  down 


516  WATERLOO. 

the  slopes  toward  Bachelu's  division  ;  others,  closely  pursued  by 
the  Second  Life-Guard,  speed  away  across  the  highway.  Skir- 
mishers and  light  troops,  throwing  themselves  flat  to  escape  the 
rush,  and  then  rallying  among  the  lines  of  Donzelot  and  Alix, 
they  turn  upon  their  pursuers.  Almost  at  the  same  instant  that 
the  household  heavies  sweep  forward  in  their  first  splendid  charge, 
the  "Union  Brigade"  of  Ponsonby  comes  tearing  to  the  front, 
heading  squarely  for  the  cheering  lines  of  Alix  and  Marcognet. 
The  Scots  Greys  are  on  their  left,  nearest  the  lines  of  Pack's 
Highlanders  as  they  ride  up  at  thundering  gallop,  and  as  the 
two  corps  recognize  one  another,  there  goes  up  a  glorious  cry — 
"Scotland  forever!"  and  the  wild  skirl  of  the  bag-pipes  salutes 
the  dashing  horsemen.  Pack  can  stand  it  no  longer.  "  Forward, 
lads.  In  with  them!"  and  the  Highland  bayonets  leap  to  the 
front,  and  now  Royals,  Inniskillings,  Scots  and  Highlanders — all 
are  bursting  on  the  lines  of  France,  and  the  tricolor  and  the 
eagles  are  swept  away.  "Those  terrible  gray  horses,"  mutters 
the  emperor,  as  he  gazes  in  disquiet  at  this  new  and  unlooked- 
for  tragedy.  In  vain  the  Frenchmen  strive  to  resist  the  shock. 
Not  looking  for  cavalry  attack,  there  had  been  no  time  to  form 
squares ;  and,  despite  devoted  heroism  on  part  of  officers  and 
men,  the  divisions  that  so  proudly  won  the  heights  so  short 
a  while  ago  are  now  being  driven  backward  down  the  slopes. 

Desperate  fighting,  hand-to-hand  combats  are  seen  on  every 
side.  It  is  here  that  Shaw,  the  giant  pugilist  and  swordsman  of 
the  Second  Life-Guard,  after  sabring  several  antagonists  to  death, 
is  shot  dead  by  the  bullet  of  a  cavalry  carbine.  (Fiction  has 
stretched  him  dead  way  over  at  Hougomont — killed  by  a  little 
drummer-boy.  Fact  reserves  him  to  die  with  his  regiment  on 
the  other  side  of  the  field,  shot  by  a  full-fledged  cuirassier.) 
Sergeant  Ewart,  of  the  Scots  Greys,  captures  the  prized  eagle  of 
the  French  Forty-fifth — "  the  Invincibles."  Captain  Clark,  of  the 
Royals,  cuts  down  the  standard-bearer  of  the  io5th  and  secures 
the  Empress  Maria  Louisa's  standard.  The  Inniskillings,  whose 
charge  was  impeded  by  infantry  forming  line,  reached  the  Wavre 
road  after  the  Royals  and  Greys  had  crossed  it.  Furious  at 
being  left  behind,  the  Paddies  could  hardly  wait  to  form  line  be- 


WHERE    IS   GROUCHY?  517 

fore  again  rushing  to  the  charge.  The  lines  of  the  Fifty-fourth 
and  Fifty-fifth  regiments  of  France  were  just  in  front  of  them  as 
they  swept  across  the  road.  Somebody  in  civilian's  dress,  sitting 
there  on  horseback,  called  out,  "  Now's  your  time ! "  and  with  a 
savage  yell  the  Irish  squadrons  whirled  in  on  the  foe,  and  D'Er- 
lon's  centre  is  gone.  The  somebody  in  plain  clothes  turns  out 
to  be  the  Duke  of  Richmond.  He  has  no  earthly  business  there, 
but,  being  in  Brussels,  he  rides  out  to  the  front  with  all  an  Eng- 
lishman's love  for  seeing  a  square  fight ;  and,  ignoring  all  possi- 
bility of  having  his  own  head  knocked  off,  he  is  delightedly 
watching  the  progress  of  the  battle. 

Picton's  little  division,  aided  by  the  prompt  and  powerful  onset, 
has  checked  D'Erlon's  advance  and  turned  the  grand  assault  on 
the  British  left  into  a  rout.  With  dismay  Napoleon  beholds  that 
admirable  First  corps  streaming  back  down  the  slopes,  beaten ; 
and  now  worse  yet,  a  prisoner,  a  Prussian  hussar,  is  sent  in  from 
the  distant  right  by  General  Domont,  who  says  that  Bliicher's 
men  are  swarming  in  those  woods,  and  Domont  confirms  it. 
Where  then  is  Grouchy? 

But  now  comes  an  unlooked-for  chance  for  revenge.  Superb 
fighters  as  they  are,  English  cavalry  leaders  often  lack  common 
sense,  and  from  being  too  brave  personally,  the  noble  Lord  Ux- 
bridge  comes  within  an  ace  of  sacrificing  the  heavy  brigades.  He 
had  given  general  instructions  to  the  leaders  of  the  light  horse, 
Grant,  Vivian,  Vandeleur  and  Dornberg,  to  support  and  follow  up 
the  moves  of  the  "  heavies,"  but  the  light  brigades  were  far  to  the 
flanks  or  rear,  and  when  the  Household  and  the  Unions  made 
their  glorious  charge,  Lord  Uxbridge  found  himself  unable  to 
resist  the  longing  to  lead  them,  and  so  placed  himself  at  the  head 
of  the  "  Second  Life,"  was  presently  swallowed  up  in  the  battle 
and  unable  to  see  what  was  going  on  except  immediately  around 
him.  It  is  all  very  well  for  a  brigade  commander  to  charge  at 
the  head  of  his  brigade  ;  but  for  the  chief  of  cavalry  of  an  entire 
army  to  unite  his  fortunes  with  those  of  some  one  command  and 
let  the  rest  of  the  field  take  care  of  itself  is  all  wrong.  Vivian 
and  Vandeleur  did  hasten  to  their  right  when  they  saw  the 
charge  of  the  Scots  Greys,  and  did  do  some  superb  charging  of 


518  WATERLOO. 

their  own  ;  but  too  late.  The  seven  regiments  of  heavies  burst 
through  everything  in  front  of  them,  pursued  the  cuirassiers 
down  the  slopes,  had  a  mad  race  to  see  which  should  first  reach 
the  main  lines  of  the  French  ;  the  "  First  Life  "  tore  through 
Bachelu's  intervals ;  the  Second  got  frightfully  tangled  up  with 
the  retreating  cuirassiers ;  the  Royals  dashed  on  and  over  the 
rallying  infantry,  and  the  Greys  and  Inniskillings,  backing  one 
another  up  in  any  daring  or  devilment  as  of  old,  had  rushed  in 
among  the  batteries  on  the  ridge,  and,  every  man  for  himself, 
were  furiously  riding  to  and  fro,  hacking  gunners,  stabbing 
horses,  cutting  traces,  but  utterly  forgetting  their  formation.  In 
vain,  Lord  Uxbridge  shouted  himself  hoarse  and  sounded  his 
trumpets  in  the  effort  to  halt  and  reform  his  heavies.  He  had 
started  them  on  their  wild  charge  ;  but  nothing  could  stop  them 
short  of  the  very  centre  of  the  French.  Some  of  them  rode  up 
to  the  muzzles  of  the  guns  far  to  the  rear  in  reserve,  and  then, 
horses  and  men  utterly  blown  and  exhausted,  attempted  to  ride 
back.  The  whole  field  of  battle  from  La  Belle  Alliance  eastward 
was  covered  with  squads  and  sections  or  disordered  groups  of 
English  horsemen  confusedly  intermingled,  and  now  the  fresh 
cavalry  of  the  French  right  and  the  second  lines  spur  down  in 
serried  ranks  upon  them.  Lancers,  chasseurs,  cuirassiers  charge 
and  hem  them  in,  and  before  Vivian  or  Vandeleur  can  begin  to 
reach  them  the  havoc  is  fearful ;  the  rash  valor  of  the  British 
"  heavies  "  meets  with  its  own  retribution.  The  gallant  leader 
of  the  Union  brigade,  Sir  William  Ponsonby,  is  surrounded  and 
thrust  to  death  with  lances.  His  brave  namesake,  Colonel  Fred. 
Ponsonby,  charging  to  the  rescue  with  the  Twelfth  light  dragoons, 
is  lanced,  sabred  and  left  for  dead  on  the  field.  Colonel  Hay,  of 
the  Sixteenth  light  dragoons,  is  desperately  wounded.  Colonel 
Hamilton,  Scots  Greys,  is  last  seen  alive  riding  squarely  into  the 
French  reserves  at  Rossomme.  Colonel  Fuller,  King's  Dragoon 
guards,  is  killed  almost  at  the  emperor's  feet,  back  of  La  Belle 
Alliance;  and  the  grand  charge  of  Lord  Uxbridge  and  his  cavalry 
which  began  in  triumph  ends  in  disaster;  but  not  until  the 
French  assault  on  Mont  St.  Jean  is  utterly  defeated.  D'Erlon's 
corps  has  lost  3,000  men,  forty  guns  and  two  eagles,  the  sacred 
emblems  of  the  empire. 


INEFFECTUAL   ASSAULTS   ON    HOUGOMONT.  519 

So  ends  the  second  phase  of  Waterloo.^  "  Hard  founding, 
gentlemen,"  says  the  Duke  of  Wellington  to  his  staff.  "  Let  us 
see  who  can  pound  the  longest."  It  is  nearly  three  o'clock  and 
nobody's  battle  yet.  Both  Napoleon  and  Wellington  are  looking 
eagerly  eastward  now. 

At  three  o'clock  a  desperate  attempt  is  made  to  carry  Hougo- 
mont  by  assault.  For  five  hours  that  terrible  fight  has  been 
going  on  within  the  walls,  and  still  the  little  brigade  of  guards- 
men, cruelly  thinned  by  this  time,  holds  its  post.  Byng  man- 
ages to  get  in  some  reinforcements,  and  then  from  over  on  the 
open  plain,  Bachelu's  division  of  the  French  Second  corps  attacks 
on  the  east  side,  while  Jerome  Buonaparte  encloses  the  walls  on 
south  and  west;  but  Bachelu's  men  have  to  move  out  under  the 
fire  of  the  guns  on  the  crest.  Cleves'  and  Bull's  howitzers  and 
light  guns  deluge  them  with  grape,  and  no  mortal  can  stand  it. 
Bachelu  is  put  to  rout,  and  Napoleon  sees  the  second  attack 
frustrated.  Then  he  tries  setting  fire  to  the  buildings :  "  all  is 
fair  in  war;"  but  though  flame  and  smoke  blister  the  hands  and 
faces  of  the  defenders,  and  add  to  the  terrible  thirst  and  torture 
of  the  wounded,  it  is  useless ;  those  guardsmen  won't  even  be 
burned  out. 

Four  o'clock  has  come.  The  British  left  has  stood  firm  against 
D'Erlon's  assault.  Hougomont  is  still  blazing  defiance.  Napoleon 
resolves  on  trying  a  massive  cavalry  attack  upon  the  allied  right 
centre.  First  he  orders  up  all  his  guns,  and  for  twenty  minutes 
the  most  tremendous  cannonade  these  veterans  have  ever  heard, 
stuns  their  ears  and  shakes  the  very  earth.  Two  hundred  and 
fifty  guns  in  the  confined  fronts,  between  Hougomont  and  La 
Haye  Sainte,  are  firing  as  rapidly  as  they  can  be  handled.  On 
the  plateau  the  English  and  Germans  lie  prone  upon  the  ground, 
all  except  the  gunners,  who  ply  their  work  with  tireless  energy. 
Then,  under  cover  of  this  fire,  Milhaud's  division  of  cuirassiers, 
and  Lefebvre-Desnouette's  gallantly  attired  light  horse  of  the 
guard,  move  over  in  front  of  Reille's  corps.  In  deep  charging 
columns  they  yet  cover  the  open  ground  from  the  Charleroi 
road  to  the  farm  enclosure,  and  now  with  ringing  trurnpet-call 
they  take  the  trot  and  sweep  steadily  up  the  slopes ;  the  French 


520 


WATERLOO. 


guns  cease  firing ;  the  British  infantry  spring  to  their  feet  and 
form  squares ;  the  gunners  depress  their  muzzles  and  redouble 
the  rapidity  of  their  fire.  The  duke  himself  gallops  to  the  bat- 
teries. "Give  them  grape  until  they  are  right  on  you,  then 
run  for  the  squares,"  he  says,  and  the  guns  blaze  and  bellow 
their  answer.  Milhaud's  advance  is  glorious.  He  has  reached 
the  slope  now  and  quickened  the  pace  to  the  gallop.  The  roar 
as  of  a  mighty  storm  is  heard  as  the  earth  resounds  under  the 
blows  of  forty  thousand  iron  hoofs,  and  nearer,  nearer,  they 
come  till  "  Charge !  "  is  the  cry,  and  "  in  they  burst  and  on  they 
rush,"  through  and  over  the  batteries,  into  and  over  that  sunken 
road,  where  many  are  hurled  to  earth  and  crushed  and  beaten 
to  death,  and  then  they  sweep  down  upon  the  steadfast  squares. 
Those  kneeling  Saxons  are  solid  as  Hougomont ;  the  lines  of 
bristling  steel  neither  bend  nor  break ;  the  volleys  flash  in  the 
very  faces  of  the  raging  troopers,  tumbling  them  to  earth,  driv- 
ing them  to  cover,  and  then  Somerset  comes  charging  with  the 
heavies,  and  Milhaud  and  Desnouette,  discomfited,  ride  back  as 
best  they  can.  "  Ney,  it  must  be  done  !  "  is  Napoleon's  emphatic 
order,  and  once  more  the  grand  cuirassiers  form.  This  time 
Kellerman's  whole  corps  rides  out  to  join.  Guyot's  heavy  divi- 
sion is  added.  It  is  all  the  chivalry  of  France  that  sweeps  to  the 
front.  It  is  tossed  with  lavish  hand  upon  the  guns  of  the  foe. 
Call  in  every  horseman.  Pack  that  ground  with  cuirassier  and 
dragoon.  Cover  every  yard  of  it  with  mounted  men,  then,  like 
huge,  massive,  gigantic  phalanx,  push  them  in.  It  must  prevail. 
It  must  sweep  these  squares  from  off  the  plain.  If  not — 

This  is  the  emperor's  supreme  effort — the  grand  cavalry  attack 
of  Waterloo ;  and  this,  like  its  preface,  is  heralded  by  a  tremen- 
dous cannonade.  Well  may  England  tremble,  whether  she  does 
or  not,  for  war  has  seen  nothing  like  this.  In  one  compact  mass, 
that  covers  the  whole  field  west  of  the  high  road,  the  cavalry  of 
France  advances  to  the  charge. 

It  mounts  the  slope,  it  closes  in  its  gaps  and  rents,  it  bursts 
into  headlong  rush  as  it  crowns  the  height ;  it  thunders  through 
the  batteries  and  over  the  prostrate  wretches  in  that  death-trap 
of  a  road ;  it  dashes  on  those  calmly  kneeling  squares  ;  it  swerves 


BLUCHER    APPEARS   ON   THE    FRENCH  RIGHT.  521 

before  their  flashing  steel;  it  crowds  and  bursts,  and  huddles 
through  between  their  posts,  but  it  never  breaks  one.  Its  charge 
is  thrown  away.  The  cavalry  corps  of  France  is  broken  up  into 
hundreds  of  squadrons  or  detachments,  drifting  back  under  the 
concentrated  fire  of  the  British  guns.  After  half  an  hour's  wild 
riding,  charging  and  shouting  on  the  plateau,  they  are  driven 
back,  leaving  the  linesmen  as  firm  as  when  they  came. 

Six  o'clock ;  and  now,  what  next  ?  Look  eastward :  out 
beyond  Papelotte  and  La  Haye ;  out  beyond  Frischermont,  and 
what  see  we  there  ?  Domont's  and  Subervie's  squadrons  slowly 
falling  back  before  long  lines  of  dark-clad  horsemen.  Biilow's 
corps  of  Prussians  is  driving  in  the  slender  defence  of  the  French 
right.  Behind  comes  line  after  line,  squadron  after  squadron 
bursting  forth  from  the  sheltering  woods.  Bliicher  has  come, 
true  to  his  promise ;  and  Wellington,  who  an  hour  ago  almost 
despairingly  prayed,  "  Oh,  for  night  or  Bliicher,"  now  sees  vic- 
tory in  his  grasp.  Ney  has  made  one  great  assault  of  skirmish- 
ers ;  has  forced  forward  in  dispersed  order  the  divisions  of  Don- 
zelot  and  Alix  upon  La  Haye  Sainte,  and  at  last  succeeded  in 
wresting  it  from  its  little  garrison.  He  has  crowned  the  heights 
and  opened  a  galling  fire  on  the  British  battalions  still  in  squares, 
that  resisted  the  attacks  of  the  last  remnants  of  the  French 
cavalry.  All  the  field  west  of  the  high-road  is  disorder  and  con- 
fusion, but  now  the  squares  wheel  forward  into  line,  and,  rejoiced 
to  once  more  take  the  offensive,  the  British  infantry  come  cheer- 
ing forward,  driving  at  the  French  "tirailleurs'*  with  the  bayonet. 
Mont  St.  Jean  at  last  is  clear  of  living  foes,  and  Napoleon,  at- 
tacked in  force  on  his  right  by  fresh  and  vigorous  enemies,  re- 
pulsed everywhere  in  front,  finds  that  he  is  reduced  to  the  last 
hope — his  grand,  his  hitherto  unconquerable  guard. 

Grouchy  has  failed  him,  for  here  is  Bliicher  with,  apparently, 
his  whole  command.  Grouchy,  instead  of  keeping  well  over  to 
his  own  left,  and  thus  being  ever  ready  to  interpose  between  the 
Prussians  and  his  emperor,  has  blindly  followed  on  the  trail  of 
their  retreat,  has  failed  to  catch  them  until  this  very  morning, 
and  by  that  time  the  vehement  energy  and  zeal  of  raging  old 
Marshal  "  Vorwaerts  "  have  enabled  him  to  rally  and  restore  confi- 


522  WATERLOO. 

dence  to  his  men,  to  face  them  westward,  to  march  in  three  close 
columns  through  the  woods  from  Wavre  towards  Waterloo. 
One  division  is  left  to  delay  and  play  with  Grouchy,  and  so,  in- 
stead of  being  cut  off,  as  Napoleon  had  ordered  and  intended, 
the  Prussian  army  itself  cuts  off.  Grouchy  is  separated  from 
Napoleon  in  this  his  supreme  hour  of  need. 

At  half-past  six  Lobau's  corps,  over  near  Planchenoit,  facing 
east,  is  sternly  striving  to  hold  back  the  overpowering  numbers 
of  the  rapidly  arriving  Prussians.  The  relics  of  the  French  right 
are  faced  to  the  east  to  fight  on  the  defensive.  The  Old  and 
Middle  Guard  of  the  emperor  march  down  from  Rossomme  to 
the  height  just  back  of  Belle  Alliance,  and  Napoleon  looks  upon 
them  with  eyes  that  have  lost  all  their  light  and  hope  and  fire, 
but  none  of  their  set  purpose.  Duhesme,  with  the  Young  Guard, 
has  gone  to  Planchenoit  to  hold  it  to  the  last.  Here  are  only 
the  veterans ;  here  are  Drouot,  Friant  and  Morand. 

There  is  one  hope  left.  Worn  out  with  their  long  day  of 
severe  and  desperate  fighting,  the  British  infantry,  that  have  so 
obstinately  defied  his  cuirassiers,  are  now  in  no  condition  to 
withstand  his  guards.  If  the  guard  can  gain  the  plateau  they 
must  sweep  it;  and,  with  that  done,  he  can  rally  all  his  guns 
and  cavalry,  he  can  still  burst  through  between  Wellington  and 
Bliicher,  and,  holding  the  latter,  can  drive  the  former  back  on 
Brussels,  then  turn  on  the  Prussian  and  crush  him  with  the 
dawn.  It  is  a  desperate  hope,  but  desperate  is  his  need. 

Things  are  no  less  desperate  in  the  English  lines.  They  have 
superbly  defended  their  position  through  the  livelong  day,  but 
they  are  fearfully  reduced  in  numbers.  The  casualties  of  battle 
have  reduced  regiments  to  mere  squads.  The  heavy  brigades 
can  only  muster  two  squadrons,  but  they  have  not  lost  a  gun 
nor  an  inch  of  ground  on  the  plateau.  Still — can  they  stand  one 
more  charge  ? 

It  is  seven  o'clock.  The  sun,  that  all  day  long  has  been  ob- 
scured by  the  dense  clouds  o'erhead,  is  sinking  low  towards  the 
murky  west  and  beginning  to  burst  through  as  though  to  have 
one  last  look  at  the  fearful  scene  before  dropping  below  the 
horizon.  Napoleon  has  sent  for  Ney ;  all  the  cavalry  that  can 


THE   OLD  GUARD   TO   THE   FRONT.  523 

be  rallied,  all  the  guns,  all  the  infantry  are  urged  to  face  once 
more  toward  that  smoke-crowned  plateau,  and  follow  and  sup- 
port the  flower  of  the  army — the  Imperial  Guard  of  France. 
Ten  of  its  battalions  are  to  make  the  assault,  two  only  remain 
with  the  emperor  in  reserve.  To  animate  them  to  hope  and  one 
grand  effort,  the  emperor  sends  his  aides  galloping  along  the 
dejected  lines  to  shout  the  glad  tidings  that  Grouchy  had  ar- 
rived, and  now,  one  charge  and  all  would  be  well.  He  lied,  and 
knew  it,  for  Grouchy  was  far  away  as  victory.  But  once  more 
the  guns  were  run  to  the  front,  and  for  the  fourth  time  that  day 
of  ceaseless  thunder,  the  combined  batteries  of  France  stormed 
at  the  heights  of  St.  Jean,  and  to  the  music  of  their  awful  salute 
the  guard  formed  its  columns  of  attack.  One  was  to  pass  up 
parallel  with  the  highway  and  assault  close  to  the  British  centre;, 
the  other,  skirting  the  enclosure  of  Hougomont,  was  to  storm 
the  heights  now  held  by  Maitland  and  the  Grenadier  Guard. 
Napoleon  himself  gallops  forward  to  a  little  eminence  north  of 
La  Belle  Alliance;  Ney  rides  at  their  head  ;  all  is  ready;  and  now 
the  last  hope  of  the  empire  is  carried  forward  on  those  sacred 
eagles.  In  proud  array,  in  grim  silence,  in  calm  and  stately 
movement  the  devoted  battalions  march  forth  to  their  immortal 
attack.  The  right  column  passes  close  under  the  knoll  on  which 
Napoleon  has  taken  his  post.  All  eyes,  kindling  with  devotion, 
are  fixed  one  moment  upon  him ;  with  significant  gesture  he 
points  to  the  fire-flashing  crest  in  front,  and  a  mighty  shout  of 
Vive  rempereur  is  the  stirring  and  enthusiastic  reply.  The 
music  of  all  others  that  has  been  dearest  to  his  war-like  soul, 
it  bursts  for  the  last  time  upon  his  ears.  He  has  received  the 
last  salute  of  the  "  Old  Guard." 

"Ave  Caesar,  morituri  te  salutamus,"  the  gladiators  of  Rome 
shouted  in  unison  as  they  gazed  from  the  bloody  sands  of  the 
arena  to  the  purple  and  pomp  of  the  imperial  throne.  "  Long 
live  Napoleon  "  is  the  battle-cry  of  the  guards  of  France  as  they 
march  into  their  death. 

All  the  world  knows  the  story.  Why  tell  it  here  ?  Far  better 
would  it  have  been  for  the  fame  of  Buonaparte  had  he  spared 
them  this  test  of  heroic  devotion,  or,  having  demanded  it  of 


524  WATERLOO. 

them,  had  he  taken  his  own  place,  sword  in  hand,  at  their  head. 
He  simply  drove  them  into  their  annihilation,  and  from  this  dis- 
tant height  watched  their  sublime  sacrifice. 

Preceded  by  throngs  of  skirmishers  and  light  troops,  sup- 
ported on  the  right  by  Donzelot  and  the  remains  of  Alix's  divi- 
sion, but  unprotected  on  the  left,  the  two  stately  columns  in  the 
great  bearskin  shakos,  their  dark  blue  uniforms  faced  with  red 
and  crossed  by  broad  white  belts  supporting  the  heavy  short 
sword  and  cartridge  box,  their  legs  encased  in  snugly  fitting 
campaign  gaiters  and  breeches,  once  white,  now  stained  by  the 
muddy  soil  of  Belgium,  great  coats  rolled,  knapsacks  trimly 
packed,  canteens  and  haversacks  swinging  at  their  sides,  the 
guards  had  marched  forward  to  their  assigned  positions.  There 
.some  old  soldiers,  grimly  eying  the  smoke-wreathed  crest,  un- 
slung  and  cast  aside  knapsacks  and  overcoats.  Then  came  the 
signal,  "  Forward." 

Ney  and  Friant,  riding  at  the  head  of  the  right-hand  column, 
lower  their  swords  in  salute  as  they  pass  the  emperor.  Four 
battalions  in  mass  are  with  them,  their  drummers  beating  the 
"pas  de  charge"  They  are  the  men  of  the  Third  regiments  of 
grenadiers  and  chasseurs,  old  and  middle  guardsmen  serving 
together.  The  left-hand  column  of  six  battalions  does  not  move 
for  some  few  minutes  yet.  It  is  to  be  kept  a  little  in  rear  of 
Ney  so  as  to  form  a  wedge-like  front  to  the  attack.  Drouot  and 
Morand  are  its  leaders,  and  the  First  and  Fourth  regiments  of 
chasseurs  and  the  Fourth  grenadiers  make  it  up.  The  First 
grenadiers  are  with  Napoleon.  A  great  throng  of  light  troops 
spring  forward  on  the  left  and  front.  Donzelot's  lines  charge  on 
the  right.  The  shades  of  evening  are  just  descending,  and  the 
setting  sun  that  all  day  long  has  refused  its  rays,  throws  a  part- 
ing halo  over  the  arms  and  banners  it  had  smiled  upon  at 
Austerlitz ;  then  it  sinks  upon  them,  forever. 

Riding  from  battery  to  battery  the  Iron  Duke  in  person  directs 
their  fire  to  be  concentrated  on  the  leading  column  of  bearskins — 
that  which  Ney  and  Friant  are  leading ;  and  in  one  moment, 
solid  shot,  shell  and  grape  are  tearing  their  way  through  the 
steady  ranks;  but  steady  they  continue:  no  halt,  no  break,  no 


FRIANT   DIES   WITH   THE   OLD   GUARD.  525 

waver ;  the  stern,  set  faces  of  the  old  guardsmen,  peering  out 
through  the  smoke,  are  fixed  on  those  gallant  forms  in  front,  on 
the  flashing  swords  of  Ney  and  Friant.  Fearful  as  is  the  havoc 
in  the  ranks,  it  seems  only  to  add  to  their  fervor  and  enthusiasm. 
Men  who  were  grimly  silent  a  few  moments  before,  now  burst 
into  cheers  of  defiance.  Suddenly  Ney  goes  down,  but,  ''bravest 
of  the  brave,"  he  springs  to  his  feet,  leaving  his  slaughtered 
horse,  and  facing  his  men  to  show  himself  unhurt,  cheers  them 
forward,  waving  his  sword,  while  backing  up  the  slope.  Many 
a  man  faces  death  with  calmness.  "  Only  Ney,"  said  Napoleon, 
"could  preserve  his  perfect  coolness  with  his  back  to  the 
storm,"  and  the  storm  of  grape  and  canister  is  now  frightful. 
Friant  is  shot  down — Friant  who  with  Davout  held  the  right  at 
Austerlitz,  and  again  at  Auerstadt — dies  with  the  old  guard  at 
Waterloo.  Michel,  colonel  of  the  Third  chasseurs,  is  killed  out- 
right. General  De  Morvan  springs  forward  in  his  place,  and  the 
brigade  moves  on.  Captains  and  lieutenants  leap  to  the  front. 
Ney  leads  on  foot.  At  last,  with  only  one-half  their  number 
left,  the  right  column  reaches  the  summit,  bursts  forward 
through  the  guns,  and,  to  the  amaze  of  the  officers,  sees  nothing 
but  low  hanging  smoke  in  front.  Only  for  an  instant,  though. 
A  voice  is  heard^  that  rings  through  the  battle-cloud  like  a 
trumpet  call.  "Up,  guards,  and  at  them!"  and  from  the  trench 
of  that  fatal  Ohain  road  the  grenadiers  of  England  in  tall  bear- 
skins like  their  own,  in  brilliant  uniform,  spring  to  their  feet  with 
four  deep  ranks,  take  low,  steady  aim,  then  one  crashing  volley 
bursts  from  the  line,  and  right  there  on  the  crest  three  hundred 
more  of  the  devoted  Imperial  Guard  are  stretched  lifeless  on  the 
sward.  Then  Maitland's  men  dash  forward  with  levelled  bayo- 
nets, and  the  guards  of  France  and  England  grapple  on  the 
ridge.  The  fight  is  short  and  desperate.  The  Frenchmen  are 
surrounded  by  vomiting  guns  and  howitzers  on  both  flanks,  by 
these  vigorous  grenadiers  in  front,  by  swarms  of  light  troops 
pouring  into  them  their  fire,  and  they  simply  melt  away.  In  five 
minutes,  just  before'eight  o'clock,  the  first  column  is  a  shattered 
and  drifting  wreck  falling  slowly  back  towards  Belle  Alliance. 
Then  comes  the  second's  turn.  It  has  passed  Hougomont.  It 


526  WATERLOO. 

can  see  nothing,  through  the  dense  smoke,  of  the  fate  of  its 
comrade  column.  It  directs  its  march  upon  that  point  of  the 
British-allied  line  where  the  outward  curve  begins  that  carries 
it  nearer  the  chateau.  For  a  few  minutes  it  escapes  the  fearful 
storm  of  grape  and  canister  that  has  been  deluging  the  first  since 
it  got  within  five  hundred  yards  of  the  crest ;  but  now  all  of  a 
sudden  it  is  rent  and  torn  in  every  direction,  the  shots  are 
showered  in  from  every  side.  Still  the  column  forges  ahead, 
shouting  its  hoarse  cry  of  "  Vive  I'empereur"  Its  head  is  at 
last  at  the  crest,  when  here  the  infantry  of  Adam's  brigade 
changes  front  forward,  and  covers  its  entire  left  flank.  Two  light 
batteries  limber  up,  gallop  forward,  and,  halting  on  Adam's  right, 
pour  in  rapid  rounds  of  grape  and  canister  from  the  short  range 
of  fifty  paces,  tearing  the  columns  to  shreds.  Other  batteries  on 
the  right  front  are  pushed  forward,  and  drive  their  hot  muzzles 
into  the  very  ranks;  while,  swarming  upon  them,  right,  left, 
front  and  everywhere,  officers  and  men  confusedly  intermingled, 
the  English  and  Hanoverians  surround  them  with  pitiless  fire. 
The  guard  recoils,  falls  back  an  hundred  yards  to  shake  loose 
its  tormentors,  and  strives  to  deploy  to  answer  that  hell  of  fire ; 
but  now  the  batteries  mow  it  down,  and  the  Fifty-second, 
Seventy-first  and  Ninety-fifth  British  swoop  down  in  daring 
charge.  What  is  left  of  the  four  leading  battalions  is  brushed 
away  across  the  front  towards  the  high-road,  and  thence  falls 
back  utterly  scattered  and  broken  towards  the  mound,  where, 
grief-stricken  and  despairing,  Napoleon  has  witnessed  the 
scene. 

Two  battalions  still  remain,  alone,  defiant,  dying  out  there  on 
the  smoke-covered  slopes.  All  around  them  the  prostrate 
wrecks  of  the  Imperial  Guard ;  all  beyond,  the  advancing  circle 
of  triumphant  enemies.  Thrilled  with  admiration  at  the  sight 
of  their  heroism,  an  English  general  shouts,  "Brave  French- 
men, surrender,"  and  Cambronne,  commanding  this  last  rem- 
nant of  the  dying  guard,  hisses  back  the  answer  that  Hugo  has 
made  immortal ;  and  then  the  word  is  given,  the  death-dealing 
volleys  once  more  ring  out  their  peal,  the  trumpets  of  England 
and  Hanover  sound  the  advance,  and,  cheering  with  mad 


THE    FRENCH   ARMY   CUT   TO   PIECES.  527 

triumph,  the  lines  of  Wellington  at  last  sweep  forward  down  the 
slopes  they  have  so  long  defended. 

At  quarter  past  eight  the  French  army  is  in  full  retreat,  and 
Napoleon,  after  having  placed  himself  in  front  of  his  last  reserve 
and  ordered  it  to  follow  him,  is  torn  from  his  suicidal  purpose 
and  led  from  the  field  by  his  still  devoted  staff.  It  is  not  quite 
dark,  when,  just  beyond  the  inn  of  La  Belle  Alliance,  Welling- 
ton and  Blucher  meet  and  exchange  brief  congratulations. 
The  latter,  but  for  whose  arrival  the  British  could  have  held  out 
no  longer,  points  to  the  name  of  the  little  hostelrie  and  jubi- 
lantly suggests  it  as  most  appropriate  for  the  battle  so  gloriously 
won  in  conjunction;  and  then  dashes  forward  in  that  merciless 
and  death-dealing  pursuit  that  completes  the  wreck  of  Napo- 
leon. Wellington,  calmly  riding  back  over  the  field  of  his  most 
magnificent  stand  and  final  triumph,  spends  the  night  at  the 
little  hamlet  south  of  the  forest  of  Soignies,  and  gives  thereby 
the  name  by  which  this  most  decisive  battle  will  ever  be  known, 
that  of  Waterloo. 

The  world's  history  can  tell  of  none  in  which  the  issues  in- 
volved were  of  greater  moment,  or  the  results  of  which  were 
more  immediate,  more  sweeping,  more  decisive;  but  it  was  won 
at  fearful  cost. 

England  lost  in  killed,  142  officers  and  2,341  men;  m 
wounded,  550  officers  and  7,327  men;  in  missing,  14  officers 
and  1,056  men.  This  includes  the  losses  of  the  Hanoverians, 
Brunswickers,  etc. ;  and,  added  to  the  4,000  lost  by  the  Dutch- 
Belgians  (mainly  under  the  indefinite  head  of  "missing"),  gives 
a  total  loss  in  the  army  of  the  Duke  of  Wellington  of  14,728. 
Blucher's  loss,  killed,  wounded  and  missing,  was  6,775  J  making 
the  total  loss  of  the  allies,  21,503. 

The  loss  of  the  French  army  has  never  been  accurately  com- 
puted. It  was  almost  totally  destroyed  in  the  battle  and  the 
pursuit  that  followed.  All  of  their  artillery,  ammunition  wagons, 
baggage  and  supplies  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  victors.  It  is 
safe  to  say  that  30,000  Frenchmen  were  killed,  wounded  or 
prisoners,  and  that  only  a  wreck  of  the  Grand  Army  got  back 
behind  the  Sambre.  As  for  Napoleon,  his  last  hope  was  gone. 


528 


WATERLOO. 


July  found  him  a  prisoner  in  British  hands ;  October  a  broken 
exile  on  the  lonely  rock  of  St.  Helena,  a  thousand  miles  from 
shore,  and  there,  after  six  years  of  mental  suffering  and  rack- 
ing disease,  his  proud  spirit  took  its  flight,  and  the  most  re- 
nowned soldier  the  world  has  ever  known  was  lowered  to  his 
grave. 


BALACLAVA. 


1854. 


ERE  this  a  series  of  sketches  of  only  the  most 
important  battles  in  the  world's  history,  the 
stirring  engagements  of  the  25th  of  October, 
1854,  would  have  no  place  in  its  pages ;  but, 
in  the  annals  of  modern  history,  no  military 
exploit  has  ever  received  such  wide  attention 
or  excited  so  much  interest,  enthusiasm  and 
remark,  as  "  the  Charge  of  the  Light  Brigade." 
Wherever  the  English  language  is  spoken, 

and  the  sun,  we  know,  never  sets  on  England's  possessions,  the 
famous  lines  of  her  poet  laureate  are  "familiar  as  household 
words;"  and  not  to  English-speaking  people  alone  is  the  story 
well  known.  Russia,  France  and  Turkey  looked  on  in  amaze 
that  day,  and,  as  the  tidings  of  the  thrilling  battle  were  flashed 
around  the  globe,  very  truly  was  it  said  that  "  all  the  world 
wondered." 

No  one  event  in  soldierly  history  contains  more  lessons  than 
the  combat  on  the  "  plains  of  Balaclava"  during  the  Crimean  war. 
Lessons  of  absurd  incapacity  of  bureau  officials  at  the  seat  of 
government;  of  sodden  stupidity  of  Muscovite  generals  on  one 
side,  and  hot-headed  and  deplorable  rashness  on  the  other;  of 
superb  and  heroic  daring  on  the  part  of  Britain's  horsemen,  and 
of  absolute  inertia  on  part  of  their  foes.  The  story  has  been 
told  by  thousands  of  pens  and  by  tens  of  thousands  of  tongues, 
yet  it  can  never  grow  old  while  our  hearts  warm  at  tales  of 
bravery  and  battle. 

But,  in  speaking  of  Balaclava,  people  seem  to  think  only  of 
the  charge  of  the  Light  Brigade,  forgetting  or  ignoring  a  charge 
34  (529) 


530  BALACLAVA. 

made  earlier  in  the  day  that  was  as  superb  and  successful  as  the 
other  was  superb  and  disastrous.  It  is  the  purpose  of  this  chap- 
ter to  tell  of  both,  and  to  set  before  our  readers  the  story  of  the 
whole  day's  adventures. 

In  her  quarrel  with  Turkey,  the  great  Russian  empire  had 
made  alarming  demonstrations  towards  the  Bosphorus,  the  out- 
let of  the  Black  Sea.  If  Russia  could  but  once  gain  possession 
of  Constantinople  and  the  command  of  the  Bosphorus  and  the 
Dardanelles,  her  empire,  as  was  said  by  the  great  Napoleon, 
would  indeed  be  "the  empire  of  the  world."  The  Black  Sea, 
with  its  fine  harbors,  ship-yards  and  roadsteads,  would  become  the 
secure  rendezvous  of  her  fleets,  and  issuing  from  the  narrow 
straits  to  the  south,  she  could  sweep  the  inland  ocean  of  the 
Mediterranean  or  fall  back  under  her  guns,  as  her  enemies  proved 
too  small  or  great.  The  "eastern  question"  is  too  complex  for 
discussion  here.  England  and  France  found  their  interests  in 
grave  jeopardy,  and  joined  forces  with  Turkey  to  resist  the  Rus- 
sian move. 

In  September,  1854,  a  powerful  fleet  appeared  off  the  west 
coast  of  the  Crimea  (that  bleak  and  sparsely  settled  peninsula 
that  juts  out  into  the  Black  Sea  from  the  Russian  shore),  and, 
passing  Sebastopol  with  its  solid  fortifications,  its  arsenals  and 
dock-yards,  moved  northward  and  disembarked  an  army  on  the 
strand.  For  the  first  time  in  500  years,  England  and  France 
were  to  fight  side  by  side.  Marching  southward,  with  the  cholera 
as  a  companion,  the  allied  army  met  the  Russians  on  the  banks 
of  the  Alma  and  won  a  victory  by  dint  of  hard  fighting  and 
sheer  personal  pluck.  The  Russians  fell  back  to  Sebastopol ; 
the  French  and  English  followed,  and,  instead  of  attacking  at 
once  and  carrying  the  city  with  its  somewhat  demoralized  garri- 
son by  storm,  as  could  have  been  done  with  much  smaller  loss 
than  they  had  to  undergo  in  the  winter  that  followed,  the  leaders 
decided  to  lay  siege  to  the  city.  The  ground  to  the  north  did 
not  seem  favorable  for  siege  approaches,  especially  as  the  broad, 
deep  harbor  lay  between  them  and  the  town ;  so  they  marched 
clear  around  it  on  the  east  and  invested  it  from  the  south.  This 
left  open  all  the  roads  to  Russia,  and  in  a  few  days,  troops,  sup- 


PERSONNEL   OF   THE   ENGLISH   ARMY.  531 

plies  and  provisions  began  to  arrive  in  ample  quantity  from  the 
north  for  the  use  of  the  garrison;  and  for  a  long  time  nothing 
came  to  help  the  British  and  French.  The  former  had  seized 
the  little  land-locked  harbor  of  Balaclava  to  make  it  their  supply 
depot,  and  thither  the  transports  and  war-ships  were  directed  to 
sail ;  but  all  their  infantry  and  artillery  were  needed  in  the 
trenches  around  Sebastopol ;  and,  to  guard  Balaclava  from  as- 
sault by  the  Russians,  who  had  strong  forces  out,  all  over  the  Cri- 
mea, ready  to  swoop  down  on  any  undefended  point,  the  English 
could  only  rely  upon  Sir  Colin  Campbell,  with  the  Ninety-third 
Highlanders;  and  the  cavalry  division,  which,  not  being  available 
for  siege  duty,  had  gone  into  camp  out  in  the  open  ground  north- 
east of  Balaclava.  It  numbered,  all  told,  about  1,500  men. 

Lord  Raglan  was  "  commander  of  the  forces  "  in  the  British 
army  of  occupation.  He  had  given  the  best  years  of  his  life  to 
the  profession  of  arms;  had  been  a  trusted  staff-officer  of  the 
great  Duke  of  Wellington ;  had  served  in  the  Peninsula,  at 
Waterloo  and  in  India.  He  and  his  infantry  generals  were  men 
who  were  practised  soldiers ;  but  in  the  English  army,  in  those 
days  of  promotion  by  purchase  and  family  influence,  the  cavalry 
was  regarded  as  the  "  crack  "  arm  of  the  service — the  most  aris- 
tocratic, desirable  and  chivalric.  The  British  troopers  were 
selected  with  the  utmost  care,  and  most  thoroughly  taught  the 
use  of  the  sword,  and  made  to  ride  like  centaurs.  Men  and  horses 
were  superb.  Then,  to  keep  alive  their  pride,  their  uniforms 
and  equipments  were  of  the  most  showy  material  and  costly 
make.  Each  regiment  had  its  distinctive  number,  name  and 
traditions.  Each  had  its  "honors,"  and  in  the  whole, world 
there  probably  was  not  a  more  gallant  and  high-spirited  body 
of  young  officers  and  men  than  went  with  England's  cavalry 
division  to  the  Crimea  in  1854.  It  was  composed  of  two  brig- 
ades, one  of  light,  the  other  of  heavy  cavalry.  Next  to  the 
household  brigade — the  Queen's  personal  guards — the  most  aris- 
tocratic corps  in  the  army  were  the  hussars  and  lancers — the 
light  cavalry ;  but  there  was  no  lack  of  gentle  blood,  and  there 
was  vast  preponderance  of  solid  British  brawn  and  muscle  in 
the  dragoons,  or  "  heavies,"  as  they  were  called.  England  only 


532 


BALACLAVA. 


sent  1,500  cavalry  with  its  army  of  occupation  to  the  Crimea, 
and  before  Balaclava,  sickness  had  robbed  the  two  brigades  of 
many  men  and  horses ;  but  in  each  brigade  were  five  small  regi- 
ments, and  their  names  will  go  down  to  posterity  as  heroes  of 
the  most  thrilling  cavalry  exploit  of  the  nineteenth  century.  The 
Light  Brigade  was  made  up  of  the  reduced  "service  squadrons" 
of  the  Eighth  and  Eleventh  hussars  (known  among  their  com- 
rades as  the  Royal  Irish  and  the  "  Cherry  Pants,"  respectively)  ; 
the  Fourth  and  Thirteenth  light  dragoons,  and  the  superb  "  death 
or  glory"  squadrons  of  the  Seventeenth  lancers.  In  all  the 
British  army,  no  regiments  were  more  envied  than  the  Eleventh 
hussars  (the  "Prince  of  Wales'  Own"),  and  the  Seventeenth  lan- 
cers, that  had  fought  in  every  war  and  every  important  battle 
where  British  colors  waved,  from  the  day  of  their  organization. 
The  officers  of  the  Light  Brigade  were,  as  a  rule,  young  gentle- 
men or  noblemen  of  high  birth  and  connection.  Some  few  were 
experienced  cavalrymen — all  were  brave. 

The  Heavy  Brigade  was  composed  of  five  regiments  of  dra- 
goons, three  of  which  were  famous  organizations,  and  had  given 
to  their  organization  the  name  of  the  "Union  brigade." 
These  were  the  three  regiments  of  dragoon-guards  known  as  the 
Royals,  the  Scots  Greys  and  the  Inniskillings,  composed  respect- 
ively of  men  recruited  from  England,  Scotland  and  Ireland.  The 
other  two  commands  were  the  Fourth  and  Fifth  dragoon-guards — 
fine  soldiers,  but  not  so  renowned,  perhaps,  as  their  brigade  com- 
rades who  had  fought  together  even  at  Waterloo,  and  between 
whom  an  almost  romantic  spirit  of  friendship  and  .alliance  existed. 
The  dragoons  were  uniformed  in  scarlet,  with  heavy  brass  hel- 
mets and  shoulder-scales,  except  the  Scots  Greys,  who  still  clung 
to  the  massive  bearskin  head-gear  they  had  been  allowed  to  wear 
for  a  century,  and  were  loth  to  part  with,  despite  its  cumbrous- 
ness  as  a  horseman's  hat.  The  Light  Brigade  wore  the  jaunty 
tunic  and  white  facings  in  the  lancer  regiment,  and  the  fanciful 
"busby"  and  fur-trimmed  pelisse  of  blue  in  the  hussars.  Horses 
and  men  in  the  "  Heavies  "  were  of  stouter  build  than  in  the 
light,  but  the  latter  affected  a  somewhat  airy  manner  of  superi- 
ority over  their  comrades. 


"TOO   FINE   FELLOWS   FOR   THEIR   WORK."  533 

Now  the  Russian  cavalry  in  the  Crimea  was  numerically 
almost  twenty  times  as  strong  as  the  British,  and,  whether  lan- 
cers, hussars,  dragoons,  or  the  ubiquitous  Cossacks,  they  were 
habited  in  immense  gray  overcoats  and  heavy  caps  of  felt  and 
fur  that  made  admirable  defensive  armor  against  sword-cut  or 
thrust.  They  were  mounted  on  powerful,  "stocky"  horses; 
had  been  rigorously  drilled  and  disciplined ;  but  the  rank  and 
file  were  of  the  same  patient,  docile,  steadfast  nature  that  made 
their  infantry  so  reliable.  Except  the  Cossacks,  they  utterly 
lacked  the  fire  and  enthusiasm,  the  sense  of  individuality  which 
is  so  important  to  a  good  cavalry  soldier.  Imposing  in  mass 
and  on  parade,  they  had  none  of  the  dash  that  characterized  the 
French  and  English  troopers ;  and,  both  at  the  Alma  and  during 
the  movements  around  Sebastopol,  they  had  been  clumsily  han- 
dled, and  were  held  in  little  respect  by  their  foes. 

But  not  only  of  the  Russian  cavalry  was  the  British  linesmen 
speaking  disdainfully  after  the  battle  of  the  Alma ;  all  around 
among  the  camp-fires  on  the  high  plateau  of  the  Chersonese, 
where  the  British  infantry  had  pitched  their  tents,  could  be  heard 
slurs  and  inuendos  at  the  expense  of  the  light  cavalry  brigade. 
"Too  fine  fellows  for  their  work."  "Too  accustomed  to  being 
petted,  spoiled  and  coddled  at  home  to  be  worth  anything  in  the 
field."  They,  too,  had  been  faultily  led  and  handled  after  the 
Alma,  and  now,  camping  in  the  south  valley  over  under  the  pro- 
tecting shoulder  of  the  Chersonese,  their  leader  living  and  sleep- 
ing in  pampered  luxury  on  board  his  yacht  in  Balaclava  harbor, 
they  became  the  target  for  much  unfriendly  criticism  among 
their  own  people ;  and  the  Light  Brigade  stood  sorely  in  need  of 
a  brilliant  battle  in  which  to  show  the  stuff  they  knew  they  had 
within  them. 

They  and  their  comrade  "  Heavies"  were  camped,  as  we  have 
said,  under  the  slopes  of  the  Chersonese,  down  in  the  south  val- 
ley. Now  let  us  take  a  look  at  their  leaders. 

It  has  been  said  that  the  cavalry  officer  is,  like  the  poet,  "born, 
not  made;"  but  no  man  has  ever  yet  proved  himself  a  great 
cavalry  leader  without  having  first  mastered  the  rudiments  of 
mounted  service,  and  spent  some  years  in  connection  with  it  in 


f>;l  I  1;A1  AlM  AVA 

llu-  field.  For  years  previous  to  the  Crimean  war,  England  h.ul 
the  finest  practical  eavali y -school  in  the  world—  India;  and  there 
were  in  her  armies  score's — -perhaps  hundreds — of  thoroughly 
skilled  and  experienced  officers  of  all  grades,  who  had  scouted, 
skirmished  and  fought  with  the  war-like  Sikhs  through  jungle, 
plain  or  mountain  pass.  The  service  had  been  severe,  exacting, 
and  full  of  danger  and  incessant  alarm  ;  it  had  called  for  a  hl-h 
decree  of  personal  courage  ami  judgment,  and  in  the  constant 
exercise  of  every  soldierly  faculty,  had  made  the  English  officers 
who  had  gone  through  the  ordeal,  most  accomplished  leaders  of 
horse.  Now  that  it  became  necessary  to  send  a  fine  cavalry  di- 
vision into  active  service  against  a  powerful  foe,  renowned  for 
his  strength  in  that  particular  arm,  the  natural  supposition  would 
be  that  England  would  select  for  its  leaders  men,  who  had  proved 
their  worth  as  cavalry  soldiers.  It  would  be  the  obvious  course 
of  any  sensible  government 

lUit  Kn^land  did  nothing  of  the  kind.  For  commanders  of 
her  division  and  brigades,  "Her  Majesty's  government"  se- 
lected three  gentlemen  of  high  decree,  who  not  only  had  ncvcr 
so  much  as  seen  service  in  the  cavalry,  but  had  absolutely  seen 
no  active  service  at  all.  Not  one  had  ever  taken  part  in  cam- 
paign or  battle.  There  wen*  do/ens  of  men  amply  qualified  for 
the  command  and  eager  to  take  it,  but  they  were  not  /Y<vx 
England  placed  the  flower  of  her  army  in  the  hands  of  three 
tyros — but  two  of  these  7iv;v  peers. 

To  the  Earl  of  Lucan,  who  had  modestly  expressed  a  wish  to 
be  made  use  of  in  some  capacity,  England  confided  the  whole 
division  of  cavalry,  lie  had  asked  for  an  infantry  brigade  as 
best  suited  to  his  inexperience.  To  the  Earl  of  Cardigan  was 
intrusted  the  Light  Brigade,  and  to  the  Right  Honorable  Yorke 
Scarlett  were  given  the  "  Heavies."  All  three  gentlemen  were  over 
fifty  years  of  age.  Lord  Lucan  was  a  lieutenant-general.  Car- 
digan and  Scarlett  were  brigadiers.  Lucan  and  Cardigan  were 
brothers-in-law  and  hated  one  another  cordially.  Each  had  un- 
bounded faith  in  his  own  knowledge  and  skill,  and  very  little 
faith  or  respect  for  that  of  anybody  else.  Lucan  was  a  man  who 
speedily  made  himself  known  as  a  determined  and  unsparing 


THE  ENGLISH  CAVALRY  LEADERS  CONTRASTED.    535 

critic  of  the  orders  and  actions  of  his  superiors,  a  persistent 
growler  and  fault-finder,  and  he  became  almost  immediately 
vastly  unpopular  in  the  army.  Cardigan  was  a  man  full  of  love 
for  the  profession  of  arms.  He  had  entered  the  most  extravagant 
and  gorgeous  of  the  hussar  regiments  (the  "  Prince  of  Wales' 
Own  ")  when  a  young  man,  and  the  extraordinary  system  of  pur- 
chase and  nepotism  combined,  had  enabled  him  in  seven  years  to 
rise  from  the  foot  of  its  list  of  officers  to  the  command  of  the 
"  Cherry  Pants."  For  a  long  time  he  had  been  its  colonel  "  for 
his  amusement,"  and,  after  being  gazetted  general  of  brigade,  he 
still  continued  when  on  military  duty  to  wear  the  superb  uniform 
of  his  old  regiment.  It  was  the  handsomest  in  the  army  and 
preferable  on  that  account.  But  Cardigan  was  selfish  to  the 
core,  arrogant  and  haughty  with  his  juniors  in  rank,  and  holding 
himself  aloof  from  all  comradeship  with  his  fellow-campaigners 
when  they  went  to  the  bleak  Crimea.  At  a  time  when  the  whole 
cavalry  division  was  "  roughing  it  "  in  camp  under  the  shoulder 
of  the  Chersonese,  when  all  was  sickness,  discomfort  and  priva- 
tion, when  Lucan  and  Scarlett  were  sharing  the  hardships  with 
their  men,  my  Lord  Cardigan  was  living  and  sleeping  in  luxury 
aboard  his  yacht  in  Balaclava  harbor,  only  trotting  over  to  camp 
occasionally  to  attend  to  routine  duty  and  say  rasping  things  to 
his  officers.  No  "  commoner  "  could  have  dared  pursue  such  a 
course ;  but  when  a  peer  of  England  chose  to  do  his  campaign- 
ing in  that  manner  there  was  no  one  to  say  him  nay.  Lord 
Raglan,  "  commander  of  the  forces,"  had  not  personal  force 
enough  to  forbid  it. 

General  Scarlett  was  a  man  of  totally  different  mould.  Proud 
of  his  new  command,  he  set  himself  diligently  to  work  to 
qualify  himself  for  the  position,  and  speedily  won  the  confidence 
and  respect  of  officers  and  troopers  alike.  While  Lucan  and 
Cardigan  chose  as  their  aides-de-camp  young  officers  of  the 
nobility  and  aristocracy,  without  reference  to  their  military 
ability,  Scarlett  picked  out  men  distinguished  for  brilliancy 
and  experience  in  war,  without  reference  to  their  family  influence 
or  connections.  This  gave  him  the  services  of  two  admirable 
cavalry  soldiers,  Alexander  Eliot  and  Colonel  Beatson. 


536  BALACLAVA. 

Now  to  take  a  look  at  the  ground.  Sebastopol  lay  on  the 
south  side  of  a  deep  arm  of  the  sea  that  stretched  in,  eastward, 
between  steep  and  rugged  shores.  Massive  fortifications  of 
masonry  were  planted  on  every  point,  and  every  commanding 
piece  of  ground.  Into  the  long,  narrow  harbor  there  flowed 
from  the  southeast  the  river  Tchernaya  through  a  deep  valley. 
South  of  the  harbor  the  shore  line  jutted  out  into  a  bold  promon- 
tory, then  swept  round  eastward  in  precipitous  cliffs  for  some 
miles,  until  a  fissure-like  opening  in  their  face  gave  entrance  to 
the  little  roadstead  of  Balaclava,  a  town  and  harbor  which  lay 
southeast  of  Sebastopol.  A  rough  country  road  led  up  the 
heights  back  of  Balaclava  through  the  gorge  of  Kadikoi,  and 
so  over  the  bleak  highlands  of  the  Chersonese  into  Sebastopol 
itself.  This  "  Chersonese  "  was  a  broad  and  too  breezy  upland, 
sloping  gradually  upwards  and  backwards  away  from  the  city 
and  harbor,  until  within  a  mile  and  a  half  of  Balaclava  it  dipped 
abruptly  down  into  what  has  been  called  the  plain,  an  open, 
undulating  tract  of  country  lying  north  of  the  little  town,  and 
extending  from  the  Chersonese  on  the  west  to  the  ridge  between 
it,  and  the  valley  of  the  Tchernaya  on  the  east.  Dividing  it 
into  two  nearly  equal  oblong  portions  was  a  longitudinal  ridge 
with  occasional  knolls  or  hummocks,  and  along  this  ridge  ran 
the  broad  highway  from  Sebastopol  to  the  southeast  known  as 
the  Woronzoff  road.  The  ridge  was  given  the  name  of  the 
Causeway  Heights,  and  the  oblong  portions  of  the  plain  of 
Balaclava  were  called  the  North  valley  and  South  valley  re- 
spectively, as  they  lay  north  or  south  of  the  highway.  The 
north  valley  was  thus  surrounded  on  four  sides  by  rising 
ground ;  west  by  the  Chersonese  bluffs,  which  overlooked  the 
entire  plain  from  a  height  of  some  four  hundred  feet ;  north  by 
the  Fedioukine  Heights ;  east  by  Mount  Hasfort  of  the  Tcher- 
naya "  divide,"  as  it  would  be  called  on  the  plains  of  our  great 
west,  and  south  by  the  Causeway  Heights.  The  entire  north 
valley  was  open  and  admirably  adapted  for  the  movements  of 
cavalry. 

The  English  and  French  armies  were  encamped  around  the 
south  side  of  Sebastopol,  the  French  nearest  the  sea ;  only  the 


RUSSIAN   CAVALRY   ATTACK.  537 

British  cavalry  and  the  Ninety-third  Highlanders  being  near 
Balaclava.  Under  the  guidance  of  English  officers  some  3,000 
Turks  had  been"  employed  building  earthen  redoubts  along  the 
Causeway  Heights,  and  planting  guns  therein  to  protect  Balaclava 
from  Russian  attack  from  the  valley  of  the  Tchernaya.  These 
attacks  were  frequently  threatened,  but  nothing  seemed  to  come 
of  them.  It  was  the  loth  of  October  when  the  British  "  broke 
ground  "  for  the  siege  around  Sebastopol,  and  these  threatened 
attacks  on  Balaclava  were  so  frequent  that  when  word  was 
brought  to  Lord  Raglan  on  the  24th  that  very  heavy  columns 
of  the  Russians  were  crossing  the  Tchernaya  with  the  evident 
intention  of  an  assault  on  the  new  works  at  Balaclava,,  he  merely 
replied,  "  Very  well,"  and  went  on  with  his  conversation  with 
the  French  general,  and  paid  no  further  attention  to  the  matter. 
Before  dawn  on  October  25th  the  Russians  were  there,  and  in 
very  strong  force — General  Liprandi  with  some  18,000  men  hav- 
ing swooped  down  upon  the  Turks  on  the  Causeway  Heights,  and 
General  Jabrokritsky  with  perhaps  7,000  having  seized  a  strong 
position  on  the  Fedioukine  Heights.  The  Turks,  after  a  vigorous 
defence  of  the  easternmost  redoubt,  were  driven  towards 
Balaclava  in  great  confusion ;  but  the  western  half  of  the  Cause- 
way Heights  was  saved  by  the  firm  stand  made  by  Sir  Colin 
Campbell  and  his  regiment  of  Highlanders,  and  the  active  move- 
ments of  the  cavalry  division  which  hovered  about  as  though 
ready  to  attack  and  yet  kept  out  of  dangerous  range.  The  Rus- 
sians had  with  them  some  seventy-eight  field-guns  of  their  own, 
arid  had  captured  a  number  more  of  English  make  from  the 
Turkish  redoubts  on  the  Causeway  Heights. 

The  sound  of  battle  had  already  reached  Lord  Raglan  and 
General  Canrobert  in  their  camps  on  the  Chersonese,  and  they 
had  rapidly  mounted  and  galloped  to  the  edge  of  the  plateau 
from  whence  they  could  overlook  the  entire  scene.  Raglan 
ordered  forward  two  divisions  of  infantry,  and  Canrobert  the  fine 
cavalry  of  D'Allonville,  but  it  took  time  to  send  to  their  camps, 
and  longer  to  get  them  to  the  scene ;  meantime  there  was  peril 
at  Balaclava.  Captain  Maude,  whose  battery  of  horse-artillery 
had  accompanied  the  cavalry  division,  was  severely  wounded, 


538 


BALACLAVA. 


and  by  orders  of  Lord  Raglan,  the  cavalry  were  drawn  back  to 
the  west  end  of  the  valleys,  and  just  south  of  the  Woronzoff  road. 

It  was  about  half-past  seven  A.  M.  when  the  Russians  succeeded 
in  seizing  the  easternmost  redoubts,  and  their  next  move  was 
to  assault  the  position  occupied  by  the  Ninety-third  Highlanders, 
which  covered  Balaclava  on  the  north.  By  this  time  the  edge 
of  the  Chersonese  overlooking  the  plain  was  thronged  with 
spectators  from  the  French  and  English  camps,  and  one  or  two 
light-batteries  had  been  "  hitched  in  "  and  trotted  thither,  and 
were  now  unlimbered  and  ready  to  hurl  plunging  shots  down 
into  the  valley  should  the  Russians  come  that  way,  and  come 
they  did. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  from  the  commanding  height  of 
the  Chersonese  (there  called  the  Sapoune  Heights),  everything 
on  the  plain  below  looked  to  be  about  the  same  general  level. 
This  was  not  the  case  at  all.  The  north  valley  sloped  very 
gently  down  towards  the  east  until  it  reached  the  base  of  Mount 
Hasfort,  but  the  western  end  of  the  valley  was  cut  up  by  vine- 
yards, farm  enclosures,  little  hillocks  and  ridges;  then  there 
stood  the  upheaval  of  the  Causeway  Heights  with  its  highway, 
and  south  of  that,  over  on  the  slopes  of  the  south  valley,  were 
the  now  abandoned  camps  of  the  cavalry  division.  From  the 
point  where  the  two  brigades  were  now  drawn  up  in  line,  they 
could  not  see  anything  approaching  them  along  the  north  valley, 
though  they  could  see  the  Russian  guns  and  masses  on  the 
heights  all  around  it.  It  so  happened  then,  that  towards  nine 
o'clock,  when  General  RyjofT  with  thirty-two  field-guns  and  an 
immense  solid  column  of  gray-clad  horsemen  came  marching 
westward  along  the  valley,  not  a  single  officer  or  man  of  the 
English  cavalry  division  saw  or  heard  of  the  move.  They 
did  not  even  have  skirmishers  or  videttes  on  the  ridges 
in  front  of  them — an  incomprehensible  omission  to  American 
eyes.  To  Lord  Raglan  and  the  spectators  on  the  heights,  the 
whole  scene  was  'like  a  panorama.  Orders  had  just  been  sent 
to  detach  eight  squadrons  to  the  assistance  of  the  Turks  at  the 
gorge  of  Kadikoi.  Lord  Lucan  had  despatched  Scarlett  with 
some  of  his  "  Heavies  "  on  that  mission,  and  at  the  same  time 


POMPOSITY   AND   STUPIDITY   OF   CARDIGAN.  539 

moved  the  Light  Brigade  forward  some  two  or  three  hundred 
yards  into  a  position  where  they  faced  east  directly  down  the 
north  valley,  and  had  himself  ridden  back  towards  the  Cherso- 
nese, when  there  came  from  those  heights  the  sound  of  two  or 
three  rapid  gun-shots,  the  whistling  of  shells  through  the  air 
over  the  Light  Brigade,  and  the  bang  and  "  whirr-r-r  "  of  their 
explosion  farther  to  the  front.  Utterly  surprised,  Lord  Lucan 
galloped  to  a  neighboring  hillock,  and  there  caught  sight  of  the 
heavy  column  of  the  Russians  sweeping  up  the  valley  towards 
the  Light  Brigade.  They  were  north  of  the  WoronzofT  road,  yet 
not  more  than  quarter  of  a  mile  from  the  slender  lines  of  his 
lancers  and  hussars.  Now,  checked  by  the  guns  on  the  Sapoune 
Ridge,  the  whole  mass  at  sound  of  the  trumpet  swung  south- 
ward towards  the  Causeway  Heights,  moved  slowly  up  that  slope 
with  the  evident  intention  of  crossing  the  Woronzoff  road,  and 
getting  over  into  the  south  valley.  In  so  doing,  they  passed 
squarely  in  front  of  the  Light  Brigade,  presenting  their  right 
flank  to  attack,  and,  to  the  amaze  and  disgust  of  the  lookers-on, 
the  Light  Brigade  never  budged.  It  was  a  splendid  chance  for 
Cardigan  and  his  swordsmen  to  rush  in  on  that  flank,  hack  it 
up  and  get  back  with  little  or  no  loss,  but  Cardigan  had  been 
told  to  defend  or  "  hold  "  that  position,  and,  utterly  ignoring  the 
fact  that  cavalry  can  never  defend  by  sitting  still  in  the  saddle 
— can  only  defend  by  attacking,  in  fact — the  titled  blockhead  sat 
stiffly  in  front  of  his  command,  and  let  the  opportunity  slip.  He 
had  a  glorious  cavalry  soldier  close  by  his  side,  Captain  Morris, 
commanding  the  Seventeenth  lancers ;  and  Morris,  seeing  the 
golden  moment  going  by,  ventured  to  break  through  the  iron- 
clad reserve  and  distance  maintained  in  English  official  circles, 
and  beg  of  Lord  Cardigan  permission  to  charge  with  his  regi- 
ment at  least.  He  was  rudely  and  haughtily  snubbed  for  his 
pains. 

But  even  as  the  spectators  on  the  crest  were  anathematizing 
Lord  Cardigan  for  his  inaction,  they  were  greeted  by  a  change 
in  the  shifting  scene  below  that  excited  their  utmost  delight  and 
enthusiasm,  not  unmixed  with  anxiety. 

Scarlett  with  his  eight  squadrons  had  marched  off  towards 


540  BALACLAVA. 

Kadiko'i,  was  passing  behind  a  thick  vineyard  or  plantation 
partly  concealing  him  from  the  Causeway  Heights,  and  then 
moving  out  on  the  open  ground,  was  riding  on  the  left  flank  of 
his  little  brigade  with  the  Inniskilling's  Second  squadron  and 
the  Scots  Greys  nearest  him,  when,  glancing  to  the  left,  the 
quick  eye  of  his  aide-de-camp,  Lieutenant  Eliot,  was  attracted 
by  a  bristling  of  lance-points  peeping  up  over  the  Causeway 
Heights  to  the  north.  Then  came  the  pennons  or  "  banderoles/' 
as  the  swallow-tailed  lance  flags  are  called,  and  in  solid  squad- 
rons riding  "  closed  in  mass"  3,000  Russian  horsemen  suddenly 
appeared.  It  was  a  sight  to  shake  the  nerve  of  any  soldier. 
Not  six  hundred  yards  away,  these  ponderous  masses  came 
trotting  over  the  ridge  apparently  bent  on  rushing  down  the 
slope  and  overwhelming  the  slender  ranks  of  the  British,  but 
when  light  guns  began  to  pop  up  the  crest  beside  them,  and 
more  squadrons  show  in  their  rear,  things  looked  desperate. 
A  justifiable  impulse  on  the  part  of  any  cavalryman  with  so 
small  a  force  as  Scarlett's  would  have  been  to  wheel  to  the  right 
and  trot  rapidly  off  out  of  the  way,  but  Scarlett  was  a  bull-dog. 
He  wheeled  to  the  left,  and  flew  straight  at  the  throat  of  his  foe. 
It  was  simply  magnificent.  "  Left  wheel  into  line  "  was  the 
ringing  order  from  his  lips.  The  trumpets  echoed  the  signal ; 
the  slender  red  ranks  swung  round  to  the  left,  halted,  "dressed" 
as  though  on  drill,  and  then,  as  though  stunned  by  the  very 
audacity  of  his  island  enemy,  the  Russian  commander  ordered 
halt!  Anything  more  idiotic  he  could  not  have  done.  Had  he 
kept  on — riding  down  the  slope  at  rapid  trot — the  mere  weight 
and  inertia  of  his  sixteen-deep  squadrons  would  have  rolled 
over  the  two-rank  formation  of  the  British  and  swept  them  from 
the  field.  Scarlett  and  Eliot  saw  the  woful  blunder  at  the  in- 
stant "  Forward  "  was  the  order,  then  came  "  gallop  "  and,  as 
they  neared  the  amazed  thousands  in  dusky  gray,  "  charge ! " 
and,  way  ahead  of  their  leading  line,  Scarlett  and  Eliot,  side  by 
side,  close  followed  by  their  trumpeter  and  "orderly"  (the  latter 
a  powerful  and  veteran  swordsman,  whose  very  name,  Shegog, 
gave  the  idea  of  a  giant),  crashed  headlong  into  the  solid  mass 
of  Russians.  A  splendid-looking  officer  sat  in  his  saddle  in 


CHARGE   OF  THE    HEAVY   BRIGADE.  541 

front  of  the  centre  of  the  line.  General  Scarlett  wore  the  red 
coat  and  brass  helmet  of  his  brigade ;  Eliot  the  chapeau  and 
blue  frock  of  the  staff  officer,  and  the  Russian  colonel,  sup- 
posing the  latter  to  be  the  ranking  officer — a  general,  perhaps — 
let  Scarlett  rush  past  him  unopposed,  but  made  a  furious  cut  at 
Eliot  as  the  latter  dashed  by  on  his  right ;  but  Eliot's  ready 
blade  parried  the  blow  and  in  the  same  instant  drove  to  the  very 
hilt  through  the  colonel's  body,  whirled  him  round  in  his  saddle, 
and  hurled  him  to  earth  a  corpse,  while  the  Englishman's  charger 
bore  the  aide-de-camp  and  his  now  reeking  sabre  into  the  midst 
of  the  enemy.  Behind  them,  with  low,  savage  roar,  came  the 
rank  of  Scots'  Greys.  Off  to  their  right,  with  a  wild  Irish 
"  hurroo,"  the  Inniskillings  crashed  in  on  the  Russian  mass,  and 
then  began  the  most  extraordinary  cavalry  combat  on  record. 
Three  hundred  British  troopers  were  endeavoring  to  hew  their 
way  up  hill  through  three  thousand  Russians.  Their  horses 
had  wedged  their  way  in  among  the  leading  ranks,  and,  hewing, 
hacking,  thrusting,  hurling  men  out  of  the  saddle  with  their 
brawny  arms,  the  stalwart  Scotch  and  half-savage  Paddies  were 
playing  havoc  with  the  helpless  Muscovites.  They  and  their 
officers  seemed  paralyzed  by  the  audacity  of  the  Islanders.  Al- 
ready had  Scarlett  cut  his  way  into  the  very  centre  of  the  mass, 
and  the  leading  ranks  of  Greys  and  Inniskillings  were  abso- 
lutely swallowed  up  in  the  Russian  square  (for  such  it  practically 
was),  but,  though  in  imminent  peril  themselves,  such  was  the 
activity  of  their  good  swords,  and  so  great  was  the  consternation 
of  the  enemy,  that  in  many  instances  Russian  horsemen  threw 
themselves  out  of  their  saddles  and  took  refuge  among  the 
chargers'  heels  rather  than  face  the  British  blades. 

And  yet  there  was  very  little  slaughter  going  on  after  the  on- 
set. The  thick  head-gear  of  the  Russians  and  the  very  heavy 
material  of  their  overcoats  proved  most  effective  defensive  armor 
against  the  whirling  sword-blades,  while  British  helmet  and 
bear-skin  shako  answered  a  like  purpose.  The  horses,  wedged 
in  like  cattle  in  a  pen,  ducked  their  heads  for  shelter  from  the 
rain  of  blows,  and  though  fierce  and  savage  cuts  and  thrusts 
were  given  in  every  direction,  and  blood  flowed  freely  from 


542 


BALACLAVA. 


gaping  wounds  on  head  and  face,  comparatively  few  mortal  hurts 
had  been  inflicted.  Hardly  a  man  of  the  Heavies  escaped  with- 
out some  memento  of  the  combat. 

But  now  the  Royals  and  the  Fourth  and  Fifth  Dragoon 
Guards,  who  had  been  farther  to  the  rear  when  Scarlett  made 
his  daring  rush,  came  tearing  in  at  headlong  charge — the  Royals 
trotting  up  to  a  point  opposite  the  Russian  right,  between  them 
and  the  envious  horsemen  of  the  Light  Brigade,  then  wheeled 
into  line  to  their  right,  took  the  gallop  and  charge,  and  burst 
upon  the  flank  at  right-angles  to  the  line  of  Greys  and  Innis- 
killings.  Lord  Lucan  himself  had  arrived  on  the  scene  and 
directed  the  assault  to  the  aid  of  Scarlett ;  and  now,  riven  from 
front  to  centre  by  the  piercing  sabres  of  their  first  assailants, 
and  furiously  charged  on  both  flanks  by  fresh  and  confident 
horsemen,  the  whole  Russian  mass  seemed  to  heave  helplessly 
backward  up  the  slope;  then  to  disintegrate  and  crumble  away; 
then  to  surge  back  in  a  dingy  gray  torrent  on  the  supporting 
Cossacks,  sweeping  them  away  with  their  flood ;  then  the  guns 
whirled  about  and  with  galloping  steeds  went  thundering  away 
down  the  north  valley,  and  in  less  time  than  it  takes  to  write 
it,  the  whole  column  of  General  Ryjoff  was  in  disorderly  rout 
towards  the  east.  Now,  now  was  the  time  for  Cardigan.  There 
he  sat  with  nearly  seven  hundred  eager  troopers  almost  implor- 
ing to  be  let  go ;  officers  and  men  fairly  ready  to  cry  with  rage 
and  mortification  at  being  held  back.  Now  was  his  time  to 
launch  in  the  Light  Brigade,  and  Ryjoff's  horsemen  would 
never  have  rallied  this  side  of  the  Tchernaya,  and  under  the  very 
noses  of  Liprandi  and  Jabrokritsky,  the  British  cavalry  could 
have  taken  every  one  of  the  Russian  horse-batteries,  and  won  a 
victory  over  four  times  their  weight  in  foes  that  would  have 
thrilled  the  world  with  admiration ;  but  the  hero  of  the  Home 
office,  the  chosen  of  her  majesty's  ministry,  had  about  as  much 
idea  of  the  use  of  cavalry  as  he  had  of  morality.  "  Damn  those 
Heavies.  They've  got  the  laugh  of  us  this  day,"  was  his  com- 
ment on  the  situation,  and  to  the  absolute  amaze  of  the  throng 
of  spectators  on  the  heights,  to  the  sly  ridicule  of  the  French,  to 
the  groaning  disappointment  of  the  English,  the  "swells  "  of  the 


BRILLIANT   INDIVIDUAL   EXPLOITS.  543 

Light  Brigade  were  held  in  the  leash,  and  the  Russians  got 
away  in  safety.  Scarlett's  men,  exhausted,  were  rallied  and  re- 
formed. Ryj  off 's<  guns  and  horse  scampered  to  the  other  end 
of  the  valley,  a  mile  and  a  half  away,  then  reined  about  and  once 
more  faced  westward.  The  chance  was  gone. 

So  far  the  honors  of  the  day  were  with  the  "  Heavies." 
Most  gallantly  had  they  borne  themselves — most  astonish- 
ing was  their  success,  yet  their  loss  was  only  seventy-eight 
killed  and  seriously  wounded,  but  the  "  scratches "  and  cuts 
were  innumerable ;  and  now  as,  panting  for  breath,  they  slowly 
returned  from  the  brief  pursuit,  cheer  upon  cheer  went  up 
from  the  swarms  of  spectators.  "  Well  done  !  "  came  from  the 
lips  of  Lord  Raglan ;  and  brave  old  Sir  Colin  Campbell  rode 
over  in  front  of  his  countrymen,  uncovered  his  white  head  and 
called  them  by  their  old  pet  name :  "  Greys !  gallant  Greys  !  I 
should  be  proud  to  be  in  your  ranks." 

Well  they  deserved  the  lavish  praises !  Double  their  number 
in  Russian  horsemen  were  left  upon  the  ground  dead  or  harm- 
less. It  was  the  grandest  cavalry  exploit  of  the  century — even 
Murat  had  done  nothing  to  excel  it. 

Now  to  speak  of  some  individual  experiences  that  should  never 
be  forgotten  in  connection  with  this  fight. 

The  first  to  pierce  the  Russian  mass  was  Scarlett  himself,  a 
man  who  had  no  pretensions  to  being  much  of  a  swordsman, 
but  such  was  his  courage  and  vim  that  he  not  only  bore  himself 
superbly  through  the  host  of  hostile  swords  and  lances,  but  ab- 
solutely cut  his  way  entirely  through  the  square  and  emerged, 
battered  and  bleeding,  but  still  erect  in  the  saddle,  on  the  left 
flank  of  the  Russian  cavalry  in  plain  sight  of  Lord  Lucan,  who 
was  then  directing  the  assault  of  the  Fifth  Dragoon  Guards. 
The  brigadier  had  received  five  sharp  and 'painful  wounds  from 
lance  or  sabre,  and  his  helmet  was  battered  into  a  shapeless 
mass,  but  he  hardly  seemed  to  know  he  was  hurt.  Colonel 
Griffith  of  the  Scots  Greys  had  been  shot  in  the  head  by  a 
carbine  ball  early  in  the  charge.  Major  Clarke  of  the  Greys 
lost  his  bearskin  shako,  but  leaped  into  the  fight  bare-headed, 
and  was  in  desperate  danger  until  rescued  by  his  men.  The 


544  BALACLAVA. 

instances  of  personal  bravery  and  daring  are  innumerable,  but 
of  one  man,  especially,  the  "  Heavies  "  could  never  say  enough : 
that  man  was  Alexander  Eliot. 

He  it  will  be  remembered  had  killed  the  first  of  the  enemy, 
the  Russian  officer  who  led  the  centre,  and  then,  jerking  out  his 
sword,  but  never  slackening  the  pace,  had  leaped  in  among  the 
gray  coats.  His  distinctive  dress,  that  of  the  staff-officer,  made 
him  the  conspicuous  object  of  the  enemy's  attention.  Believing 
him  to  be  the  general  they  swarmed  upon  him  from  every  side, 
but  his  sword-play  was  wonderful,  and  man  after  man  went 
down  before  him.  It  was  a  revival  of  the  old-time  fighting — the 
days  of  mace  and  battle-axe,  and  mailed  knight  errantry ;  only 
Eliot  had  neither  shield,  casque  nor  coat  of  mail ;  his  heavy 
sword,  unusually  long,  strong  and  sharp,  served  both  for  offence 
and  defence,  and  he  found  an  unexpected  ally  in  his  charger. 
The  horse  was  so  furious  at  being  swarmed  upon  and  crowded 
by  the  Russian  steeds  that  he  took  to  biting,  kicking  and  lash- 
ing out  with  his  heels  in  every  direction,  vastly  aiding  his  mas- 
ter in  warding  off  attacks  from  the  rear.  But  Eliot  had  cut  his 
way  in  so  far  as  to  be  alone  in  the  midst  of  enemies,  and  a 
dozen  seemed  bent  on  despatching  him.  A  sabre-gash  in  the 
forehead  blinded  him  for  a  moment,  the  blood  flowing  into  his 
eyes,  and  with  savage  yells  the  Russians  closed  in  around  him,  and 
all  in  an  instant  one  sword  cut  a  deep  slashing  wound  right  down 
the  middle  of  his  face,  another  crashed  through  his  chapeau, 
and  another  still,  a  weighty  one,  laid  bare  the  skull  behind  the 
ear.  Bleeding  from  every  pore,  the  daring  fellow,  nevertheless, 
fought  on,  giving  full  measure  for  all  he  got ;  and  when  at  last 
the  Russians  were  put  to  rout,  and  he  was  picked  up  uncon- 
scious but  alive,  fourteen  gaping  sabre  and  lance  wounds  were 
counted  upon  him  as  his  share  of  the  honorable  trophies  of 
combat.  No  wonder  Greys  and  Royals  and  Inniskillings 
cheered  the  gallant  aide-de-camp.  No  wonder  General  Scarlett 
in  his  report  of  the  battle  to  Lord  Lucan  mentioned  Lieutenant 
Eliot,  as  especially  "  entitled  to  the  notice  of  the  commander 
of  the  forces,"  and  eventually  named  him  for  the  Victoria  Cross. 
No  wonder  all  right-thinking  men  and  honest  soldiers  swore  at 


INSUFFERABLE   ARROGANCE   OF    LUCAN.  545 

the  cool,  insufferable  arrogance  with  which  Lord  Lucan  treated 
Scarlett's  recommendations.  Eliot's  name  was  not  even  "  men- 
tioned in  the  despatches,"  and  Lord  Lucan's  report  of  the  cavalry 
engagements  of  the  25th  of  October  merely  allude  to  him  as 
"  slightly  wounded." 

Just  how  to  reconcile  Lord  Lucan's  conduct  towards  this 
heroic  soldier  with  his  pretensions  of  being  himself  an  officer 
and  a  gentleman,  is  for  American  soldiers  too  complex  a 
problem.  Scarlett's  report  of  the  action  was  made  two  days 
after  it  occurred,  and  never  till  the  following  December  did  he 
learn  that  Eliot  had  been  entirely  ignored  by  the  division  com- 
mander. That  he  should  be  refused  the  Victoria  Cross  on  plea 
that  in  being  the  most  conspicuous  man  in  the  fight  "  he  had 
done  no  more  than  his  duty  "  was  perhaps  to  be  expected ;  but 
it  may  be  safely  asserted  that  no  such  excuse  would  have 
been  resorted  to  had  Eliot  been  the  son  of  a  peer  of  the  realm. 

Called  upon  to  explain  his  omission  of  Eliot's  name  in  the 
despatches,  Lord  Lucan  replied :  "  I  did  not  consider  it  fitting 
especially  to  name  him.  ...  I  think  that  the  obvious  conse- 
quences of  such  general  and  indiscriminate  recommendations 
would  be  that  but  little  value  would  be  attached  to  general 
officers'  requests." 

No;  Lord  Lucan  declined  to  mention  Mr.  Eliot,  who  was  the 
hero  of  the  charge  of  the  Heavy  Brigade.  Instead  of  him  he 
named  as  most  distinguished,  his  own  aide-de-camp,  who  took  no 
part  whatsoever  in  either  of  the  great  charges,  and  the  nature  of 
whose  gallant  services  on  that  day  is,  to  this,  an  impenetrable 
mystery. 

However,  this  was  by  no  means  Lord  Lucan's  worst  blunder 
at  Balaclava.  It  is  small  wonder  that  even  the  imbecility  of  the 
British  war-office  could  put  up  with  his  incapacities  no  longer, 
and  that  it  speedily  became  necessary  to  relieve  him  of  the  com- 
mand of  what  he  had  not  sacrificed  of  his  division,  and  send  him 
home.  The  most  patient  and  painstaking  and  loyal  of  English 
historians,  Mr.  Kinglake,  can  find  little  or  nothing  to  say  in  ex- 
tenuation of  his  lordship's  colossal  shortcomings  as  a  com- 
mander ;  and  it  is  to  his  elaborate  account  of  Balaclava  that  we 
35 


546  BALACLAVA. 

are  mainly  indebted  for  the  details  of  the  affair.  Lord  Lucan 
was  destined  to  sacrifice  the  flower  of  the  British  army — the 
gallant  and  spirited  Light  Brigade. 

The  wonderful  exploit  of  the  "  Heavies  "  had  been  witnessed  by 
thousands  of  stunned  foemen  as  well  as  by  hundreds  of  delighted 
friends.  By  this  time  the  Sapoune  Heights  began  to  blaze  with 
the  scarlet  tunics  of  the  guardsmen  under  the  Duke  of  Cam- 
bridge, and  those  of  the  Light  Division.  Lord  Raglan's  rein- 
forcements were  coming  up. 

On  the  other  hand  RyjofTs  disordered  cavalry,  accompanied 
by  the  light  guns,  had  scurried  back  down  the  long  north  valley, 
and  then,  finding  itself  unpursued  (for  Scarlett's  men  were 
breathless  and  Cardigan's  held  in  restraint),  had  at  last  rallied 
under  the  slopes  of  Mount  Hasfort,  and  then  the  Cossack  bat- 
teries unlimbered  their  ugly  black  guns,  and  now  a  dozen  of 
them  were  pointing  squarely  up  the  valley  in  case  the  British 
horsemen  should  advance.  Off  on  the  Fedioukine  Heights, 
north  of  the  valley,  the  slopes  for  nearly  a  mile  and  a  half  were 
lined  with  field-guns  and  riflemen  from  the  Russian  ranks,  and 
over  on  the  Causeway  Heights  to  the  south,  the  Odessa  regi- 
ment was  slowly  retiring  from  its  advanced  position,  and  falling 
back  eastward  upon  the  heavy  supports  farther  along  the  ridge. 
But  they  were  not  going  empty-handed.  Far  up  on  the 
Chersonese,  keen-sighted  soldiers  had  marked  the  scurry  of 
artillery  teams.  Already,  seeing  the  Russian  infantry  falling 
back,  Lord  Raglan  had  sent  to  Lord  Lucan  an  order  in  writ- 
ing :  "  Cavalry  to  advance  and  take  advantage  of  any  opportunity 
to  recover  the  heights,"  and  Lucan,  who  now  had  his  whole 
division  in  line  facing  down  the  North  valley  just  north  of  the 
Woronzoff  road,  was  giving  the  Heavies  a  brief  breathing  spell, 
and  casting  about  in  his  mind  for  the  actual  meaning  of  this 
order,  spent  very  nearly  an  hour  in  doing  absolutely  nothing, 
when,  sudden,  sharp  and  peremptory,  there  came  an  order  which 
admitted  of  no  temporizing.  By  this  time  Lord  Raglan,  his 
staff,  and  all  spectators  were  chafing  with  excitement,  even  of 
indignation  at  Lucan's  torpor,  for,  over  to  the  right  front,  in 
plain  view  of  the  Sapoune  Heights,  the  Russians  were  hitching 


LORD    RAGLAN'S    FAMOUS    ORDER.  547 

spare  teams  to  the  guns  in  the  abandoned  redoubts  along  the 
Causeway,  and  were  lugging  them  off  to  the  rear.  These  were 
English  guns,  and  the  idea  of  letting  them  go  in  this  way  was 
shameful.  Some  of  the  younger  officers  were  vehemently  growling 
their  "  impatience  and  indignation,"  and  Lord  Raglan,  fired  by 
the  sight,  directed  his  chief  of  staff,  General  Airey,  to  write  an 
immediate  order  to  Lord  Lucan  to  advance  and  put  a  stop  to  the 
Russian  captures.  Airey  wrote  the  order  in  pencil  and  it  read 
thus: 

"  Lord  Raglan  wishes  the  cavalry  to  advance  rapidly  to  the  front,  and  try  to 
prevent  the  enemy  carrying  away  the  guns.  Troop  of  horse  artillery  may  accom- 
pany. French  cavalry  is  on  your  left.  Immediate. 

(Signed)  "  R.  AIREY." 

The  words  of  the  order  left  not  the  faintest  doubt  what  "  guns  " 
were  meant,  for  the  only  guns  the  Russians  were  "  carrying  off" 
were  those  on  the  Causeway  Heights  to  the  right  front  of  the 
cavalry  division,  and  when  Lucan  combined  that  order  with  the 
one  directing  him  to  reoccupy  the  heights,  there  was  absolutely 
nothing  to  admit  of  his  supposing  that  any  other  guns  were 
meant.  But  Lucan,  we  have  said,  was  a  persistent  critic  of  all 
orders  from  superior  authority.  He  never  obeyed  an  order 
without  first  endeavoring  to  pick  it  to  pieces,  and  this  particular 
order  came  to  him  in  a  manner  that  made  him  more  than  usually 
crabbed  and  ill-disposed.  The  circumstances  were  as  follows : 

Lord  Raglan  had  already  begun  to  fathom  the  character  of  his 
crotchety  chief  of  cavalry ;  but,  respecting  the  undoubted  cour- 
age and  energy  of  the  man,  he  had  sought  to  humor  him  as 
much  as  possible,  and  to  avoid  giving  him  opportunity  for  tak- 
ing offence.  To  this  end,  knowing  Lord  Lucan's  petulant 
objection  to  instructions  or  orders  coming  through  the  chief  of 
staff  of  the  army,  General  Airey,  "  the  commander  of  the  forces  " 
had  frequently  sent  them  in  his  own  hand,  an  amiable  piece  of 
weakness  that  should  have  had  no  place  in  active  campaigning. 
Lucan  disliked  General  Airey,  and  strove  to  ignore  him  on  all 
occasions  when  it  could  be  done,  and  now  he  was  about  to  receive 
an  order  written  and  signed  by  General  Airey,  and  more  than  that, 
borne  by  General  Airey's  aide-de-camp.  It  was  absolutely  none 


548 


BALACLAVA. 


of  his  business  who  was  the  bearer.  So  long  as  it  was  signed 
by  the  chief  of  staffor  an  aide-de-camp  of  Lord  Raglan,  and  given 
in  Lord  Raglan's  name,  it  was  his  duty  to  receive  it  with  all 
soldierly  respect  and  obey  it  accordingly.  He  did  neither.  The 
"instant  he  had  read  it  he  dared  to  break  out  into  an  insubordi- 
nate denunciation  of  the  order,  and  virtually  to  challenge  the 
aide-de-camp  who  bore  it,  to  a  defence  of  its  merits.  He  believed 
it  to  be  Airey's  order,  for  here  it  came  by  Airey's  aide-de-camp, 
Captain  Louis  Nolan,  and  of  all  men  in  the  English  army  Nolan 
was  perhaps  the  last  one  from  whose  hands  Lord  Lucan  would 
have  kindly  received  an  order  of  any  kind. 

There  was  a  singular  fatality  in  the  selection  of  this  young 
cavalry  captain  as  bearer  of  the  message.  Colonel  Qalthorpe, 
Lord  Raglan's  own  aide,  was  seated  in  the  saddle  at  his  side  as 
Airey  finished  writing,  and  yet  his  lordship  called  up  Airey's 
aide-de-camp,  intrusted  the  paper  to  him,  and  bade  him  deliver 
it  with  all  speed.  They  were  up  on  the  crest  of  the  Sapoune 
Heights  it  will  be  remembered,  and  the  whole  animated  scene  lay 
before  their  eyes.  Lord  Lucan  was  sitting  out  in  front  of  his 
division,  half  a  mile,  probably,  from  the  base  of  the  heights,  and 
several  hundred  feet  below  them.  The  road  wound  its  way  down 
along  the  slopes,  a  devious  course.  Perhaps  it  was  because  Lord 
Raglan  wished  to  avail  himself  of  Nolan's  superb  horsemanship 
that  he  selected  him.  Certain  it  is  that  the  instant  the  order 
was  in  his  hand  the  captain  put  spurs  to  his  horse,  and,  disdain- 
ing the  gradual  descent  of  the  highway,  darted  straight  down  the 
steep  hillside,  swift  and  straight  as  any  Sioux  Indian  would  ride, 
and  all  men  watched  him  admiringly  as  he  sped  on  the  last 
errand  of  his  soldierly  life. 

Louis  Nolan  was  a  vehement  and  enthusiastic  lover  of  his 
profession.  He  believed  that  there  was  nothing  a  cavalryman 
could  not  do  in  the  way  of  clearing  a  battle-field  of  all  enemies. 
He  had  for  two  months  past  been  chafing  and  swearing  over  the 
inaction  of  his  comrades.  He  had  heard  the  covert  sneers  at 
the  expense  of  his  idols,  the  Light  Brigade,  and  was  stung  to  the 
quick  at  the  contemplation  of  their  neglected  opportunities  after 
the  battle  of  the  Alma.  He  blamed  it  all  on  Lord  Lucan.  He 


ENTHUSIASM   OF    CAPTAIN    NOLAN.  549 

openly  spoke  of  him  as  the  clog  to  all  action  on  the  part  of  the 
cavalry  division,  and  criticised  the  division  commander  as  freely 
as  the  latter  criticised  his  own  superiors.  With  all  its  pomp, 
formality  and  etiquette,  there  must  have  been  an  odd  state  of 
discipline  in  the  British  army  in  1854.  Very  probably  some  of 
this  talk  had  reached  Lucan's  ears,  and  added  to  his  dislike  of 
the  brilliant  young  cavalryman,  who,  a  commoner,  had  dared 
criticise  his  methods.  At  all  events  he  was  in  no  mood  to  be 
told  to  do  anything  through  such  a  channel. 

It  so  happened  that  Nolan,  sweeping  around  the  flank  of  the 
horse  at  rapid  gallop  in  search  of  their  chief,  had  to  make  a  large 
circle  with  his  own  steed  before  he  reined  up  in  front  of  Lord 
Lucan.  His  back  was  now  down  the  valley,  he  was  facing  the 
general,  the  centre  of  the  division,  and  the  broad  background 
of  the  Sapoune  Heights,  which  he  had  just  quitted.  Breathlessly 
the  officers  and  men  of  the  two  brigades  watched  the  gallant 
young  aide  they  knew  so  well,  as,  saluting  with  calm  respect,  he 
handed  the  fateful  despatch  to  Lord  Lucan.  Well  they  knew  it 
meant  another  fight,  and  eager  and  impatient  hearts  were  beating 
throughout  the  silent  ranks. 

Lord  Lucan  took  and  read  with  angry  eyes  the  hurriedly  writ- 
ten lines.  Then,  glaring  at  the  aide-de-camp,  he  broke  forth 
into  his  ill-tempered  and  insubordinate  tirade  against  the  order. 
He  had  not  even  carefully  read  the  words.  He  was  obliged  to 
admit  in  his  report  two  days  after,  that  he  was  "  instructed  to 
make  a  rapid  advance  to  prevent  the  enemy  carrying  the  guns 
lost  by  the  Turkish  troops  in  the  morning;"  but  now,  ready  to 
snarl  and  find  fault,  he  chose  to  think  that  he  was  ordered  to 
attack  the  strong  position  of  the  Cossack  battery  way  down  the 
valley.  Seated  on  their  horses,  a  low  ridge  in  their  front  pre- 
vented Lucan  and  his  staff,  so  he  said,  from  seeing  the  guns 
themselves,  and  this  gave  him  another  opportunity. 

Feeling  that  no  time  was  to  be  lost,  and  that  he  was  called 
upon  to  answer  the  denunciation  of  the  order,  Captain  Nolan, 
still  respectfully  (though  with  marked  emphasis,  for  he  was  burn- 
ing with  zeal  and  impatience,  and  raging  in  his  heart  at  this  per- 
sistent old  obstructer  of  all  cavalry  enterprise),  replied  :  "  Lord 


550  BALACLAVA. 

Raglan's  orders  are,  that  the  cavalry  should  attack  immedi- 
ately." 

And  then  again,  angrily,  even  contemptuously,  Lord  Lucan 
spoke : 

"Attack,  sir!     Attack  what?     What  guns,  sir?" 

It  was  too  much  for  Nolan's  fiery  nature.  Throwing  back  his 
head,  and  pointing  over  his  shoulder,  the  young  captain  answered 
in  a  most  significant  manner : 

"  There,  my  lord,  is  your  enemy ;  there  are  your  guns." 

And  Lord  Lucan  declares  that  he  pointed  not  towards  the 
Causeway  Heights,  but  squarely  down  the  valley  towards  the 
Cossack  battery. 

It  is  too  poor,  too  pitiful  an  excuse  for  a  man  of  Lucan's 
character  to  urge,  but  urge  it  he  did.  He  held  in  his  hand  the 
order  which  set  down  in  black  and  white  the  guns  he  was  to 
ride  at,  and  he  ignored  that  order,  permitted  the  thoughtless 
gesture  of  an  irritated  staff-officer  to  take  its  place,  and — 
launched  in  the  gallant  Light  Brigade  to  its  martyrdom. 

Turning  aw.ay  in  hot-headed  wrath,  alone  and  unattended,  he 
rode  out  to  where  Cardigan  sat,  in  front  of  the  light  dragoons 
and  lancers.  The  Heavies  had  done  their  share  of  the  sharp 
work.  Now  the  "  fine  gentlemen "  should  have  their  turn. 
Nolan's  rebuke  was  audible  to  half  the  command,  and  Lord 
Lucan  was  in  no  fit  frame  of  mind  to  consider  the  case.  When 
the  question  arose  next  day  as  to  who  was  responsible  for  the 
slaughter,  Cardigan  and  Lucan  differed  utterly  in  their  state- 
ments. Lucan  declared  that  he  told  Cardigan  simply  "  to  ad- 
vance, keeping  his  men  well  in  hand,"  and  did  not  order  an 
attack.  Cardigan  said  that  his  orders  from  Lucan  were  explicit 
— "Attack  the  enemy  in  the  valley" — and  the  weight  of  testi- 
mony would  go  to  show  that  Cardigan  tells  the  truth.  Lord 
Lucan  was  confessedly  in  an  excited  and  angered  frame  of 
mind.  Cardigan  was  utterly  cool  and  composed,  far  better  fit  to 
judge  exactly  what  was  said.  But  that  is  not  all.  There  is 
even  stronger  evidence  that  Lord  Lucan  gave  the  order  to  at- 
tack the  battery  at  the  other  end  of  the  valley,  for  he  admits 
that  Cardigan's  next  words  were  as  Cardigan  himself  reports 


LUCAN   AND    CARDIGAN   DISAGREE.  551 

them,  and  the  latter  would  have  had  no  occasion  to  use  the 
words,  if  he  had  not  understood  that  the  order  required  him  to 
move  squarely  down  the  valley  between  the  bristling  heights. 
It  seems  that  on  receiving  the  instructions  of  his  division 
commander,  Lord  Cardigan  lowered  his  sword  in  salute  and 
said : 

"Certainly,  sir;  but  allow  me  to  point  out  to  you  that  the 
Russians  have  a  battery  in  the  valley  in  our  front,  and  batteries 
and  riflemen  on  each  flank,"  and  Lord  Lucan,  shrugging  his 
shoulders,  answered :  "  I  know  it,  but  Lord  Raglan  will  have 
it,  and  we  have  no  choice  but  to  obey,"  and  so  saying,  he  con- 
demned his  heroic  men  to  a  wild  and  senseless  assault  that  Lord 
Raglan  never  for  an  instant  contemplated,  and  that  had  he  been 
any  kind  of  a  cavalry-soldier,  Lord  Lucan  could  never  have 
ordered.  The  Light  Brigade  was  to  charge  through  a  mile-long 
lane  of  batteries  and  riflemen,  and  attack  directly  in  front,  twelve 
guns  supported  by  ten  times  their  force  in  cavalry,  and  while 
Lucan  promised  to  support  with  the  Heavy  Brigade,  and 
D'Allonville,  with  the  French  cavalry,  proposed  to  attack  the 
Russians  on  the  Fedioukine  Heights,  and  the  infantry  divisions 
were  moving  down  upon  the  plain,  Lord  Cardigan  knew  that  the 
whole  brunt  of  the  action  would  fall  upon  him  and  his  gallant 
little  regiments  ;  but  with  one  sweeping  glance  along  their  eager 
ranks,  he  gave  his  quiet  order. 

The  brigade  was  drawn  up  in  two  lines.  The  first  was  made 
up  of  the  Thirteenth  Light  Dragoons,  Seventeenth  Lancers  and 
the  gorgeous  Eleventh  Hussars;  the  second,  of  the  Eighth  Hus- 
sars and  the  Fourth  Light  Dragoons ;  but  as  Lord  Cardigan  placed 
himself  in  front,  and  calmly  ordered  "  The  brigade  will  advance," 
Lucan  himself  directed  Colonel  Douglas  with  the  Eleventh 
Hussars  to  fall  back  and  act  in  support,  and  so  it  happened  that 
as  the  brilliantly  uniformed  little  command  swept  forward,  three 
distinct  lines  were  noticed ;  Cardigan  himself,  glittering  in  the 
gold-trimmed  pelisse  and  crimson  trousers  of  his  pet  regiment, 
the  Eleventh  Hussars,  rode  well  out  to  the  front  of  all,  Captains 
Oldham  of  the  Thirteenth  and  Morris  of  the  Seventeenth  led 
the  centres  of  their  regiments.  Colonel  Douglas  appeared  in 


552  BALACLAVA. 

front  of  the  beautiful  squadrons  of  the  Eleventh,  and  Lord 
George  Paget  and  Colonel  Shewell  led  those  of  the  Fourth  and 
Eighth  in  the  rear. 

It  was  a  glorious  moment  The  eyes  of  five  nations  were 
fixed  on  that  enthusiastic  little  command  as  the  "Six  Hundred" 
shook  free  their  bridle-reins,  grasped  firmly  lance  or  sabre,  and 
at  quiet  walk  disengaged  themselves  from  the  lines  of  the 
Heavy  Brigade,  and,  ascending  the  gentle  slope  before  them, 
came  upon  the  low  ridge  which,  curtain-like,  had  shut  off  their 
view  down  the  valley,  and  now  the  whole  scene  lay  before  them. 
Off  to  their  right  front  on  the  Causeway,  the  Russians  were 
hurriedly  hitching  and  driving  off  the  captured  guns.  These 
slopes  were  clear  of  rock  or  tree.  Nothing  intervened  between 
them  and  the  retreating  infantry  and  the  scurrying  teams  to 
prevent  a  full,  free  gallop  up,  and  in  among  the  captured  guns. 
All  that  was  needed  was  a  quarter  wheel  to  the  right  to  bring 
them  directly  upon  the  proper  course,  a  slight  deflection  of  not 
more  than  thirty  degrees.  Square  to  their  front  they  could  see 
the  dark-gray  masses  of  Ryjoff's  squadrons,  and  the  black 
blotches  of  the  Cossack  guns  and  gunners  across  the  valley ; 
while  both  on  right  and  left-front,  on  Causeway  crest  and 
Fedioukine,  the  slopes  were  thick  with  guns  and  riflemen.  For 
weeks  they  had  been  chafing  with  eagerness  for  just  such  a 
sight.  The  chivalry,  the  knightood,  the  "  gallants  of  England  " 
rode  in  those  dainty  ranks,  and  all  athrob  with  exultant,  daring 
courage,  they  pressed  forward  in  eager  desire  to  show  the  world 
the  mettle  of  the  Light  Brigade. 

Far  back  on  the  Sapoune  Heights  all  eyes  are  strained  in 
eager  and  confident  gaze  upon  their  move.  From  Lord  Raglan 
down,  every  spectator  expects  to  see  them  wheel  or  incline 
slightly  to  the  right,  then  take  the  trot,  gallop  and  sweep  across 
the  valley  to  the  Causeway  Heights.  No  one  questions  for  an 
instant  their  ability  to  retake  the  guns,  even  though  the  Russian 
foot  turn  back  to  defend  them.  Already  they  have  moved  some 
two  hundred  yards  to  the  front.  Scarlett's  heavies  are  begin- 
ning their  advance.  D'Allonville's  Chasseurs  d'Afrique  are 
crossing  to  the  left  front,  just  under  the  Chersonese,  and  still 


THE    LIGHT    BRIGADE    DARTING    INTO   DEATH.  553 

Cardigan  is  riding  straight  forward.  "  Why  don't  he  wheel  ?  " 
is  the  anxious  question.  Then  a  trumpet-call  floats  upward 
from  the  plain  below.  "Ah !  there  goes  the  signal.  Now  he's 
all  right,"  say  some  with  a  sigh  of  relief.  "  No,  by  heaven ! 
it  was  trot  he  sounded.  Look,  look ! "  is  the  excited  cry  of 
another  looker-on.  What  can  it  mean  ?  what  can  it  mean  ?  In- 
stead of  changing  direction  to  the  right  the  Light  Brigade  has 
taken  a  rapid  trot  and  is  moving  straight  down  the  valley  in  the 
very  teeth  of  the  Russian  guns,  and  see !  there  goes  Lucan  with 
the  Heavies  almost  in  their  tracks.  God  of  battles,  what  mad- 
ness !  what  suicide  !  Is  there  no  way  to  stop  them  ?  Can  noth- 
ing be  done?  Staff-officers  leap  into  saddle.  Strong  men 
burst  into  tears  of  rage  and  dismay.  Vain  every  word  of  recall. 
No  horse  can  eatery  them  now.  The  Light  Brigade  is  darting 
into  death. 

Off  on  the  Causeway  Heights,  feeling  sure  that  they  must  be 
the  object  of  attack,  the  infantry  are  forming  squares  to  resist 
cavalry.  The  riflemen  are  running  to  cover,  the  guns  are  "  lim- 
bering-up ;  "  but  even  as  skirmishers  run  and  gunners  work,  their 
officers  note,  first  with  incredulity,  then  amaze,  then  exultation, 
that  the  brilliant  horsemen  are  not  coming  their  way.  Passing 
them  by  they  are  rashly,  daringly  trotting  to  the  very  jaws  of 
destruction,  heading  down  the  valley.  For  an  instant  the 
battery-men  cannot  realize  the  truth.  Then  the  stern  word 
of  command  brings  them  to  their  senses,  quickly  the  guns  are 
swung  about,  the  black  muzzles  trained  down  into  the  valley  ? 
the  shells  rammed  home,  and  in  another  instant,  right,  left  and 
front,  the  ten  gallant  squadrons  are  enveloped  in  the  smoke  of 
an  hundred  guns,  and  round-shot,  shell  and  canister  are  shriek- 
ing through  the  devoted  ranks.  Then  the  pace  quickens ;  a 
dense  cloud  of  mingled  shell-smoke  and  dust  settles  in  the 
valley,  and  with  the  thundering  roar  of  the  Russian  guns  shak- 
ing the  earth  and  dinning  their  ears,  the  amazed  and  grief- 
stricken  spectators  on  the  Chersonese  take  their  last  look  at  the 
Light  Brigade.  It  is  swallowed  up  in  "  the  jaws  of  hell." 

Lord  Cardigan  had  received  his  orders  with  becoming  courtesy 
and  respect,  had  pointed  out  to  his  very  much  detested  brother- 


554  BALACLAVA. 

in-law  the  extreme  peril  of  the  attack  which  the  latter  had 
ordered,  and  then,  finding  him  inflexible,  had  contented  himself 
with  saying  to  Lord  George  Paget,  colonel  of  the  Fourth 
dragoons :  "  I  expect  your  best  support.  Mind,  Lord  George, 
your  best  support,"  and  then  had  taken  his  place  way  in  front 
of  everybody  and  given  the  order  to  advance.  From  this  mo- 
ment he  never  once  looked  back  until  the  charge  was  over. 
Once  well  forward  in  plain  view  of  the  enemy  he  had  struck  a 
rapid  trot,  the  brigade  took  up  the  same  gait,  and  then,  without 
a  word  from  any  one  except  an  occasional  "  Steady,"  "  Keep 
back  there  on  the  right,"  "  Back  left  flank,"  or  a  caution  to  some 
too  eager  trooper,  the  Six  Hundred  swept  onward.  And  now 
came  the  first  tragedy. 

Having  given  his  instructions  to  Lord  Lucan,  Captain  Nolan 
had  ridden  back  among  the  file-closers  in  rear  of  the  Seventeenth 
lancers,  and  was  gleefully  congratulating  his  comrades  on  the 
brilliant  prospect  before  them,  when  the  trumpets  sounded  the 
advance,  and  Nolan,  drawing  his  sword,  determined  to  have  "  his 
share  of  the  dance."  For  a  moment  or  two  he  rode  in  rear  of 
the  Seventeenth,  for  by  the  etiquette  of  the  British  cavalry  only 
commanders  of  regiments  or  squadrons  could  lead  in  a  charge ; 
but  all  of  a  sudden  there  came  the  signal  to  trot,  and  then  to 
his  dismay  Nolan  saw  that  instead  of  sweeping  around  to  the 
right  towards  the  Causeway,  the  brigade  was  going  straight 
ahead  down  the  valley — the  very  last  place  they  should  go.  In 
utter  consternation  now,  forgetting  all  formality,  he  dashed 
around  the  left  flank  of  the  lancers  and  obliquely  across  the 
front  of  the  brigade,  well  out  in  front  of  Lord  Cardigan  himself, 
shouting :  "  This  way,  this  way,"  and  pointing  with  his  sword 
towards  the  guns  on  the  Causeway.  Cardigan,  furious  at  such 
a  piece  of  audacious  interference  on  part  of  a  mere  captain,  paid 
no  attention  whatever  to  his  vehement  signals,  and  would 
doubtless  have  ordered  him  out  of  the  way,  when  a  shell,  burst- 
ing in  air,  sent  a  whirring  fragment  through  the  gallant  breast  of 
the  foremost  soldier,  and,  with  his  heart  torn  in  twain,  with  his 
sabre  arm  still  uplifted,  with  an  appalling  death-cry  on  his  lips, 
poor  Louis  Nolan,  a  superb  horseman  even  when  his  soul  had 


NOLAN   THE    FIRST   VICTIM.  555 

fled,  rode  back  a  corpse  through  the  interval  between  the  lancers 
and  dragoons,  and  there  the  life-ridden  body  slowly  toppled  from 
the  saddle  and  sank  to  earth.  With  him  went  the  last  chance 
of  saving  the  Light  Brigade.  Its  most  enthusiastic  champion, 
Nolan  was  the  first  to  fall. 

And  now  with  shot  and  shell  crashing  through  their  ranks  his 
comrades  are  spurring  on.  No  one  cares  to  ask  where  they  are 
going.  No  one  "  reasons  why."  Deeper  into  the  smoke-black- 
ened valley  they  plunge ;  horses  and  men  going  headlong  to 
earth  every- instant,  and  still  at  that  relentless,  inflexible  trot,  no 
faster,  no  slower,  Cardigan  leads  them  down.  Enveloped  in  a 
perfect  hell  of  fire,  closing  in  their  shattered  ranks,  they  keep  on 
their  desperate  way ;  no  guide  now  but  the  flash  of  those  dead-i- 
deating guns  in  front ;  no  support  or  aid  of  any  kind,  for  Lucan 
is  almost  out  of  range  behind,  and  D'Allonville  has  not  yet 
reached  the  Fedioukine.  One-half  the  leading  rank  is  by  this 
time  shot  away,  and  the  supports  are  riding  over  prostrate  corses 
of  charger  and  trooper,  or  striving  to  leap  over  or  by  many  a 
struggling  form.  Riderless  horses  with  piteous  cries  are  crowd- 
ing into  their  old  places  in  the  ranks  with  that  strange  instinct 
that  leads  all  old  chargers  to  seek  their  accustomed  place  in 
the  turmoil  of  battle.  Other  horses,  some  dragging  the  senseless 
form  of  their  masters,  crowd  between  the  squadrons.  Others  still 
range  alongside  the  squadron  leaders  of  the  second  and  third 
lines.  Lord  George  Paget  has  to  use  his  sword  to  free  himself 
from  their  gory  flanks.  The  fire  is  so  murderous  that  Captain 
White,  of  the  Seventeenth,  eagerly  strives  to  force  the  pace  and 
get  in  among  the  guns  ;  but  Cardigan,  martinet  to  the  last,  sternly 
checks  him  until  they  are  within  a  hundred  yards  of  the  battery, 
and  then,  with  one  mad  impulse,  the  first  line,  dragoons  and 
lancers,  leaps  forward  at  racing  speed  into  the  bank  of  smoke,  and 
all  formation  is  lost  in  the  dash  of  the  hunting-field.  One  last 
salvo  is  given  by  the  battery,  a  parting  salute  that  sweeps  down 
many  a  superb  soldier,  for  here  Captains  Oldham  and  Goad,  of 
the  Thirteenth,  and  Winter  and  Thompson,  of  the  Seventeenth, 
are  killed.  Captains  White  and  Webb  and  Sir  William  Gordon 
are  hurled  to  earth,  and  Sir  George  Wombwell,  Cardigan's  aide, 


556  BALACLAVA. 

loses  his  horse.  Only  some  fifty  men,  all  told,  are  left  to  repre- 
sent that  heroic  front  line ;  but  "  plunged  in  the  battery  smoke  " 
in  they  rush,  Cardigan  and  Morris  leading  faultlessly  on,  and 
with  one  ringing  cheer  they  burst  upon  the  cavalry  supports  be- 
hind the  battery.  Morns'  sword  is.  driven  to  the  hilt  through  the 
body  of  the  Russian  squadron  leader,  and,  as  the  transfixed 
corpse  goes  crashing  to  the  ground,  Morris  himself,  hacked  over 
the  head  by  furious  swordsmen,  falls  senseless  upon  the  body  of 
his  victim.  Then  in  come  the  light  horsemen  of  the  Eleventh 
Hussars,  cruelly,  pitifully  diminished  in  numbers,  but  still  superb 
in  their  array ;  and,  abandoning  their  guns,  the  Russians  wheel 
about  and  flee  in  terror  for  the  valley  of  the  Tchernaya  behind 
them. 

Shewell,  with  the  single  squadron  of  the  Royal  Irish,  is  driv- 
ing a  whole  regiment  of  gray-coated  cavalry.  Douglas  and 
Paget,  with  the  remnant  of  the  Eleventh  and  Fourth,  are  hewing 
at  the  backs  of  the  fugitive  squadrons.  All  is  in  precipitate 
retreat  before  the  battle-thinned  bands  of  English  horsemen ; 
but,  little  by  little,  the  Russian  officers  are  able  to  see  that  they 
are  pursued  by  a  mere  handful,  and  call  upon  their  men  to  halt 
and  rally ;  little  by  little  the  pursuers  pause  for  breath  and  look 
about  them,  and  then  comes  the  moment  when  what  is  left  of 
the  Light  Brigade  finds  it  necessary  to  fall  back.  It  has  ridden 
deep  into  the  very  centre  of  an  overpowering  enemy.  It  is 
utterly  without  support.  It  has  made  the  most  daring  and 
desperate  charge  in  the  annals  of  history.  Two-thirds  of  its 
numbers  are  stretched  dead,  dying  or  wounded  upon  their  torn 
and  blood-stained  track,  and  now,  the  wearied  survivors  must 
"  hark  back  "  to  their  lines.  A  second  time  they  must  run  the 
gauntlet  of  those  guns  and  riflemen,  and  drifting  back  through 
the  Cossack  battery,  now  silent  and  abandoned,  they  come  upon 
scores  of  these  half-savage  horsemen  engaged  in  the  brutal 
task  of  prodding  to  death  the  helpless  and  wounded  troopers 
who  had  fallen  in  the  charge. 

Slowly,  painfully  the  survivors  make  their  way  towards  the 
upper  end  of  the  now  corpse-strewn  valley,  dark  and  sombre 
under  its  heavy  pall  of  battle-smoke,  and,  singly  or  in  groups 


"IT   WAS   A   MAD-BRAINED    TRICK."  557 

of  two  or  three,  they  rejoin  their  unhorsed  comrades  who  had 
been  able  to  hobble  to  the  starting-point.  It  is  a  sorry  muster, 
and  though  a  cheer  goes  up  from  the  shattered  group  as  some 
favorite  officer  or  man  comes  forward  to  join  them,  all  are  sad 
and  depressed.  Cardigan  orders  them  to  "  fall  in,"  and  directs 
the  rolls  to  be  called.  "  It  was  a  mad-brained  trick,"  he  tells 
them ;  "  but  it  was  no  fault  of  mine,"  and  one  can  hardly  see 
how  Cardigan  could  be  blamed  after  his  interview  with  Lord 
Lucan  just  before  the  charge.  He  was  no  more  popular  among 
his  officers  than  was  the  division  commander,  yet  they  say  of 
him  that  from  the  moment  of  his  reception  of  the  order  until  all 
were  obscured  in  the  smoke  of  the  Cossack  battery  he  was  the 
foremost  man,  and  that  he  superbly  led  the  charge  of  the  Light 
Brigade. 

It  was  said  of  Lord  Cardigan,  however,  that  he  came  back  too 
soon.  It  seems  that  after  riding  through  the  guns  he  found  him- 
self surrounded  by  a  number  of  Russian  lancers,  had  a  sharp 
struggle  to  free  himself,  was  slightly  wounded,  and  when  he 
managed  to  get  clear  of  them  he  could  see  nothing  of  his  men 
except  those  who  were  now  slowly  retreating  up  the  valley.  He 
rode  back  to  the  Heavy  Brigade  (which  Lord  Lucan  had  halted 
under  the  fire  of  the  Causeway  guns,  after  losing  some  valuable 
officers  and  men)  and  burst  out  in  a  tirade  of  abuse  of  Nolan. 
It  was  pithily  observed  by  an  officer  of  the  guards  that  day  that 
whoever  might  be  the  really  responsible  party  for  that  terrible 
blunder,  the  blame  would  be  thrown  upon  poor  Nolan,  for  he 
was  dead  and  defenceless.  Dead !  yes,  and  for  a  long  time  well- 
nigh  defenceless,  for  the  all  powerful  arm  of  the  English  aris- 
tocracy was  thrown  around  the  reputations  of  Lucan  and  Car- 
digan, and  they,  though  relieved  from  their  commands  and 
returned  to  England,  had  the  press  of  the  nation,  the  house  of 
peers  and  the  tongues  of  the  nobility  and  gentry  to  ventilate 
their  side  of  the  story.  "  The  king  can  do  no  wrong,"  say  the 
royalists.  "A  peer  of  England  cannot  blunder,"  is  the  military 
maxim  that  for  years  has  sent  many  a  gallant  soldier  to  certain 
and  needless  death,  because  titled  incompetents  had  to  be  grati- 
fied with  important  commands.  Lucan's  lamentable  failure  in 


558  BALACLAVA. 

the  Crimea,  Lord  Chelmsford's  wholesale  sacrifice  of  the  Twenty- 
fourth  regiment  at  Isandlhwana  are  part  and  parcel  of  the  same 
false  system  of  appointment — family  connection — "  influence" — 
taking  the  place  of  soldierly  merit,  and  then  when  her  sons  are 
slaughtered  and  somebody  must  bear  the  brunt,  loyal  England 
rises  to  the  vehement  defence  of  these  high-born  blunderers  and 
casts  the 'blame  upon  her  martyred  dead. 

And  so  it  was  with  Louis  Nolan.  Despite  the  opinion  of  the 
cavalry  division,  and  the  statements  of  its  officers,  the  nation  for 
some  time  was  carefully  taught  to  believe  that  he  was  responsi- 
ble for  the  mad  charge.  Lords  Lucan  and  Cardigan  were  speedily 
back  in  London  telling  their  side  of  the  story,  but  the  soldiers 
were  kept  far  away  in  the  Crimea  until  little  by  little  the  bitter- 
ness of  feeling  died  away ;  and  then,  link  by  link,  slowly  and 
carefully  it  was  left  to  such  a  conscientious  historian  as  Alex- 
ander Kinglake  to  elicit  all  the  facts,  to  lay  them  before  the 
world,  and  to  exonecate  the  first  and  greatest  victim  of  the 
Light  cavalry  charge. 

It  had  taken  the  "Heavies"  just  eight  minutes  to  hack  and 
hew  the  Russian  cavalry  to  pieces.  It  took  less  than  twenty 
minutes  to  destroy  the  Light  Brigade.  It  rode  in  with  673 
horsemen.  It  came  out  with  195,  and  one  regiment,  the  Thir- 
teenth Light  Dragoons,  could  muster  only  ten  men  after  the 
charge.  The  actual  losses  in  killed  and  wounded  were  247, 
officers  and  men ;  but  the  number  of  horses  killed  and  disabled 
was  over  500,  which  accounts  in  a  measure  for  the  small  force 
which  the  brigade  was  able  to  muster  in  saddle  when  reassem- 
bled in  the  north  valley. 

The  incidents  of  this  wonderful  exploit  would  fill  a  volume, 
but  space  forbids  them  here.  Despite  the  terrible  fire  it  had 
encountered,  the  Light  Brigade  had  charged  in  front  a  powerful 
battery,  and  absolutely  driven  in  disorder  an  army  in  position. 
Well  might  the  admiring  Frenchmen  say  of  it :  "  It  is  magnificent; 
but  it  is  not  war." 


MANASSAS, 


OR 

SECOND  BULL  RUN. 

1862. 

N  telling  of  the  battles  of  our  own  land  there  is 
little  need  for  preliminaries.  Thanks  to  our 
public  school  system,  almost  every  boy  or  girl 
in  America  knows  the  history  of  the  great  war 
waged  between  the  North  and  the  seceding 
States  of  the  South.  The  North  fought  to  pre- 
serve the  Union,  the  South  for  utter  indepen- 
dence. The  far-seeing  statesmen  of  the  Union 
knew  well  that,  with  the  bond  once  broken,  the 
nation  as  such  would  speedily  fall  to  pieces.  The  political  lead- 
ers of  the  South,  who,  for  years,  through  the  democratic  party, 
had  been  accustomed  to  govern  the  entire  country,  found  them- 
selves "  out  of  power  "  by  the  election  of  Abraham  Lincoln  to 
the  Presidency ;  and,  being  determined  either  to  rule  or  ruin, 
called  upon  their  brave  and  devoted  people  to  follow  them,  cut 
loose  from  the  Union,  and  set  up  an  administration  of  their  own 
against  the  general  government.  -*  The  flag  of  the  United  States 
was  shot  down  at  Sumter,  and  the  North  sprang  to  arms  to 
defend  the  capital  city  from  the  attack  already  menaced.  The 
President  called  upon  the  militia,  and  Washington  was  saved. 
Then  came  the  first  attempt  to  chastise  the  South.  Big  Bethel 
and  Bull  Run  were  the  consequences.  The  North  woke  up  to 
a  realization  of  the  fact  that  the  South  could  fight  most  gallantly 
and  scientifically,  and  that  not  three  months  but  three  years,  not 
seventy-five  thousand  but  seven  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  men, 

(559) 


560  MANASSAS. 

would  be  needed  to  bring  it  to  terms.  A  great  army  had  to  be 
raised,  drilled  and  disciplined,  and,  as  the  only  man  who  had 
met  with  any  success,  small  or  great,  so  far,  George  B.  McClellan 
was  put  at  the  head  of  the  raw  organization  ;  the  veteran  Scott 
gracefully  retired,  and  the  hopes,  prayers  and  the  enthusiastic 
admiration  of  the  nation  centred  in  the  young  general,  thus 
suddenly  lifted  to  nearly  supreme  command. 

He  had  a  colossal  task  before  him.  With  all  its  patriotism, 
the  North  contained  about  as  unmilitary  a  population  as  ever 
lived.  The  arts  of  peace  and  the  pursuit  of  "  the  almighty  dol- 
lar "  had  absorbed  the  entire  attention  of  all  but  a  very  small 
portion  of  its  law-abiding  and  pacific  citizens.  Not  one  man  in 
fifty  knew  the  use  of  rifle  or  pistol ;  not  one  in  a  hundred  could 
bestride  a  horse  without  making  a  guy  of  himself.  Some  few 
fine  militia  organizations  existed  in  New  York,  Massachusetts 
and  Pennsylvania,  but,  as  a  rule,  military  exercises  were  frowned 
upon  by  the  press,  military  associations  denounced  by  the  pulpit, 
and  military  dress  or  bearing  sneered  at,  if  not  insulted,  by  the 
public.  The  maxim  of  our  great  Washington,  "  In  time  of 
peace  prepare  for  war,"  was  utterly  ignored.  It  sometimes 
happened  that  vacancies  existed  in  the  cadetships  at  the 
national  military  academy  at  West  Point,  for  which  no  appli- 
cants would  be  found  in  the  congressional  districts  of  the 
North.  Even  the  allurement  of  being  fed,  clothed,  educated 
and  paid  by  the  general  government  was  not  sufficient  to  over- 
come, in  many  communities,  the  prejudice  against  the  profession 
of  arms. 

Not  so  in  the  South.  From  the  days  of  the  revolution  its 
men  were  bred  to  a  life  in  the  saddle,  and  skilled  in  the  use  of 
fire-arms.  The  young  man  who  was  not  a  bold  rider  and  a 
passable  shot  was  looked  upon  almost  as  a  milksop  among  his 
comrades.  More  than  that,  by  sisters,  sweethearts  and  wives. 
Contempt  for  danger  and  death  was  a  part  of  the  Southerner's 
creed.  He  was  forced  to  assume  it  whether  he  felt  it  or  not, 
and  however  harmful,  pernicious  and  lawless  may  have  been  the 
system,  the  "  code,"  as  it  was  called,  that  made  men  answerable 
to  an  opponent's  pistol  for  any  offence  from  direct  insult  to 


MILITARY   SPIRIT   IN   THE   SOUTH. 

trivial  discourtesy,  had  the  effect  of  teaching  the  South  the  use 
of  arms,  and  made  ready  soldiers  of  its  people. 

The  war  with  Mexico,  an  unpopular  contest  in  the  minds  of 
Northerners,  created  a  whirlwind  of  enthusiasm  throughout  the 
South.  From  that  time  every  Southern  family  of  prominence 
was  represented  in  the  army.  The  best  names,  the  best  blood, 
the  best  intellects  in  the  South,  were  found  in  the  military  ser- 
vice of  the  nation.  Successive  Presidents  sought  among  South- 
ern politicians  for  their  secretaries  of  war,  and  such  men  as 
Conrad,  Jefferson  Davis  and  John  B.  Floyd  eagerly  seized  every 
opportunity  to  fill  the  vacancies  that  went  a  begging  in  the 
North,  with  importations  from  the  South.  The  army  was  con- 
trolled, led,  influenced  and  taught  by  Southerners;  West  Point 
was  imbued  with  the  doctrine  of  States'  rights,  and  the  battalion 
of  cadets  was  virtually  commanded  by  Southern  officers.  The 
Northern  States  had  one  military  school  worthy  of  mention  as 
such,  outside  of  West  Point.  The  South  was  full  of  them.  The 
North  had  only  three  or  four  military  organizations  to  which  a 
gentleman  could  belong  without  losing  caste  in  society.  The 
South  was  full  of  companies,  battalions  or  batteries  which  its 
people  gloried  in.  Southern  graduates  of  West  Point  stuck  to 
the  army  and  made  it  their  home.  Northern  graduates  in  great 
numbers  resigned  and  went  into  civil  life.  Northern  cadets  who 
failed  to  pass  their  examinations,  and  were  returned  to  their 
homes,  went  back  as  a  rule  disgusted  with  their  ill-success,  and 
strove  to  conceal  the  fact  that  they  had  ever  been  at  West  Point. 
Southern  boys  in  a  like  predicament  went  home  and  put  what 
they  had  learned  to  some  account  in  their  local  militia.  Between 
the  Mexican  war  and  1861  there  were  two  hundred  and  forty- 
four  appointees  from  slave  States  who  failed  to  be  graduated ; 
there  were  dozens  more  who,  though  appointed  "At  Large," 
hailed  from  the  South,  and  so  in  addition  to  the  large  number 
of  Southern  officers  who  were  commissioned  as  graduates  of  the 
academy,  the  South  was  full  of  admirably  instructed  young 
company  and  battery  commanders  when  our  great  war  broke  out. 

As  an  instance  of  this  we  cite  the  distinguished  Virginia 
family  of  Taliaferro.  Six  of  its  men  between  the  years  1815 
36 


562  MANASSAS. 

and  1859  entered  West  Point,  none  succeeded  in  getting 
through,  yet  some  of  those  Taliaferros  were  admirable  soldiers, 
and  one  of  them  a  division  commander  under  Stonewall  Jack- 
son. Other  distinguished  Southern  names  there  were  that  ap- 
peared for  a  time  upon  the  rolls  at  the  Military  Academy, 
and,  afterwards,  shone  brilliantly  on  Southern  battle-fields — 
Armisteads,  Andersons,  Gordons,  Locketts,  Rossers,  Coopers, 
Garnetts,  Wilcox,  Robertson  (of  Texas)  and  dozens  more.  From 
first  to  last,  the  South  never  lacked  for  accomplished  officers, 
and,  at  the  start,  we  of  the  North  were  hard  pushed  to  find 
soldiers  of  any  kind.  In  this  emergency  the  government  re- 
ceived with  open  arms  large  numbers  of  soldiers  of  fortune 
from  across  the  sea — men  who  had  no  earthly  interest  in  our 
mortal  struggle,  and  only  came  to  us  attracted  by  liberal  pay 
and  the  easily  obtained  command  of  regiments,  even  of  brigades. 
For  the  first  year  of  the  war,  while  our  serious,  plodding  and 
hard-studying  volunteer  officers  were  learning  their  duties,  these 
brilliantly  uniformed  and  heavy  moustachioed  foreigners  swag- 
gered about  the  streets  of  New  York,  Philadelphia  and  Wash- 
ington, lionized  and  feted  by  scores  and  hundreds ;  but  by  the 
second  year  they  were  seen  only  occasionally  in  the  camps  and 
field;  many  of  them  drifted  into  the  Eleventh  corps  and  ran  like 
sheep  before  "Stonewall"  Jackson's  men  at  Chancellorsville  and 
Gettysburg,  and  by  the  third  year  of  the  war  most  of  their 
names  had  dropped  from  the  muster-rolls,  and  few  had  attained 
honorable  distinction.  The  war  was  fought  out  by  Ameri<^ms, 
as  a  rule,  "  native  and  to  the  manner  born." 

The  Southern  forces  completely  whipped  the  undisciplined 
militia  of  the  North  at  Bull  Run  in  July,  1861.  Then  McClellan 
proceeded  to  organize  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  and  after 
eight  months  of  incessant  drill  and  preparation,  led  it  to  the 
peninsula  between  the  York  and  the  James  rivers,  fought  his 
way  slowly  up  towards  Richmond,  gaining  some  slight  successes, 
but,  being  badly  worsted  along  the  Chickahominy,  was  compelled 
to  "  change  his  base  "  to  the  James  river.  He  made  a  superb 
fight  at  Malvern  Hill,  and,  had  he  followed  up  the  advantage 
there  gained,  his  victorious  troops  might  have  marched  into 


GENERALS   HALLECK   AND   POPE   LOOM   UP.  563 

Richmond ;  but  McClellan  was  over-cautious.  He  had  not 
thorough  confidence  in  all  his  corps  commanders,  nor  had  all 
of  them  thorough  confidence  in  him.  He  had  organized  and 
built  up  this  admirable  army  from  a  chaos  of  raw  regiments, 
but  he  failed  to  handle  it  to  the  best  advantage.  Southern  gen- 
erals spoke  of  McClellan  as  a  "  book-soldier,"  whose  every  move 
they  could  anticipate,  and  in  the  North,  thanks  to  the  fears  of  the 
administration  for  the  safety  of  the  capital,  he  had  been  greatly 
hampered  by  conflicting  orders,  and  compelled  to  take  the  field, 
leaving  behind  him  some  40,000  men  upon  whose  services  he 
had  counted. 

And  now  after  Malvern  he  clamored  for  reinforcements  to  aid 
him  in  a  projected  onward  move;  but  he  had  not  the  confidence 
of  the  President  and  Cabinet,  and  though  he  had  with  him 
nearly  ninety  thousand  men  and  was  eager  to  resume  operations, 
the  answer  was  an  order  to  abandon  the  peninsula  and  bring  his 
army  back  to  Acquia  Creek  on  the  Potomac.  We  had  then 
been  fighting  nearly  a  year,  and  the  South  had  had  by  far  the 
best  of  it. 

Before  issuing  the  order  recalling  McClellan  from  the  penin- 
sula a  new  army,  composed  of  the  fine  corps  of  McDowell, 
ind  the  troops  hitherto  serving  under  Banks  and  Fremont  in 
Northern  and  Western  Virginia,  had  been  organized  in  front  of 
Washington.  It  was  called  "  The  Army  of  Virginia,"  and  its 
first  duty  was  to  be  the  defence  of  the  national  capital.  About 
the  same  time  the  President,  in  his  grievous  perplexity  and  dis- 
tress of  mind,  summoned  from  the  West  two  generals  who  had 
been  prominently  and  successfully  before  the  public  during  the 
first  year  of  the  war  in  their  campaigns  along  the  Mississippi. 
These  officers  were  Henry  W.  Halleck,  who  was  called  to 
Washington  to  be  general-in-chief,  and  John  Pope,  who  was  as- 
signed to  the  new  command,  the  Army  of  Virginia.  Any  lin- 
gering vestige  of  cordiality  between  the  Cabinet  and  General 
McClellan  was  destroyed  from  this  moment,  and  the  army 
itself  became  divided  in  sentiment — many  officers  and  men 
enthusiastically  calling  themselves  champions  of  the  cause  of 
their  still  popular  young  general;  others  preferring  to  stand  by 


564  MANASSAS. 

the  actions  of  the  general  government,  right  or  wrong.  General 
Halleck  never  succeeded  in  getting  on  smoothly  with  any  of  the 
commanders  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  and  General  Pope's 
very  first  move  was  one  that  called  down  upon  him  the  animosity 
of  General  McClellan's  adherents.  He  issued  a  "pronuncia- 
mento  "  to  his  new  command,  making  comparisons  that  were 
emphatically  odious  between  the  methods  of  the  Eastern  army 
and  those  of  the  Western  men  with  whom  he  had  been  asso- 
ciated. It  was  a  most  unfortunate  start. 

However,  General  Pope  had  nearly  50,000  men,  and  with 
them  he  moved  forward  along  the  line  of  the  Orange  and  Alex- 
andria railway  towards  Gordonsville,  and  General  Lee,  feeling 
assured  that  McClellan  had  no  more  desire  for  fight  at  that  mo- 
ment, sent "  Stonewall "  Jackson,  his  great  lieutenant,  with  two  fine 
divisions,  to  go  up  and  see  what  he  could  do  with  Pope.  Early 
in  August  he  further  reinforced  Jackson,  who  on  the  7th  and  8th 
of  that  month  crossed  the  Rapidan  with  his  own  division  and 
those  of  Ewell  and  A.  P.  Hill.  On  the  Qth  Jackson's  command 
encountered  the  corps  of  General  Banks  at  Cedar  Mountain, 
and  a  spirited  battle  took  place  in  which  the  untried  troops  of 
Banks  behaved  admirably  against  the  veterans  of  the  South,  but 
General  Halleck  at  Washington  was  greatly  alarmed  for  the 
safety  of  the  capital,  and  then  it  was  that  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac  was  hurried  back  from  the  peninsula  to  the  support  of 
Pope.  The  moment  McClellan  fell  back  from  Harrison's  Land- 
ing on  the  James,  General  Lee  with  his  whole  available  com- 
mand, except  the  garrison  of  Richmond,  marched  northward  in 
all  haste.  His  plan  was  to  fall  upon  and  crush  Pope  out  of 
existence  before  McClellan's  men,  moving  round  by  water  from 
Fortress  Monroe,  could  reach  and  relieve  him. 

On  the  1 5th  of  August  Longstreet's  and  Hood's  divisions 
reached  Gordonsville  with  Stuart's  cavalry.  On  the  2Oth  Jack- 
son and  Longstreet  crossed  the  Rapidan,  and  Pope  fell  back  be- 
hind the  Rappahannock,  holding  the  fords  in  strong  force,  and 
now  the  two  armies,  Lee's  veterans  and  Pope's  almost  untried 
troops,  stood  facing  each  other  along  that  storied  stream.  The 
Southern  general  learned  that  reinforcements  from  McClellan's 


STUART   IN   POPE'S   REAR.  565 

army  were  already  in  march  to  join  Pope,  and  that  Reno's  divi- 
sion of  Burnside's  corps  (just  returned  from  the  expedition  to 
the  North  Carolina  coast)  had  already  arrived  from  Acquia 
creek.  No  time  was  to  be  lost.  He  had  not  more  than  70,000 
men  with  him,  and  .Pope  might  soon  have  twice  that  Dumber. 
General  Lee  ordered  up  from  Richmond  the  divisions  of  McLaws 
and  D.  H.  Hill,  and  Wade  Hampton's  cavalry,  and  at  once  set 
about  the  task  of  giving  Pope  a  beating  before  his  supports  could 
arrive. 

The  Northern  army,  on  the  2Oth  of  August,  occupied  the  north 
bank  of  the  Rappahannock  from  Kelly's  ford  to  a  point  some 
three  or  four  miles  above  the  railway  bridge.  On  the  2ist  Lee 
appeared  in  force  along  the  south  bank,  and  all  that  day  and  the 
next  the  batteries  of  the  opposing  armies  hammered  away  at  one 
another  without  much  effect.  The  Southern  generals  found 
every  ford  strongly  guarded  and  were  unable  to  force  a  passage. 
Then  that  irrepressible  Stonewall  Jackson  obtained  the  consent 
of  his  chief,  moved  farther  "  up  stream,"  crossed  Early's  brigade 
at  Sulphur  Springs  above  Pope's  army,  and  would  probably 
have  essayed  his  favorite  manoeuvre  of  attacking  our  flank  had 
not  a  violent  storm  set  in.  The  torrents  of  rain  that  fell  con- 
verted the  placid  Rappahannock  into  a  raging  flood.  Jackson 
could  not  get  across  to  support  Early,  and  Early  was  in  desperate 
danger  of  capture  or  destruction ;  but  his  energetic  officers 
patched  up  a  ricketty  bridge,  and  the  brigade  got  back  to  the 
lower  bank  in  safety.  Meantime  the  daring  cavalry  leader, 
Stuart,  with  only  a  few  hundred  troopers,  had  crossed  the  Rappa- 
hannock at  Waterloo  bridge,  swept  round  the  rear  of  Pope's 
army,  struck  the  railway  at  Catlett's  Station,  captured  all  the 
headquarters'  papers  and  baggage,  three  hundred  prisoners  and 
a  quantity  of  provisions,  set  fire  to  the  station,  and  trotted  gayly 
off  in  the  darkness,  laughing  at  the  consternation  his  dash  had 
created  in  the  camps  of  the  headquarters  and  convoy  guards. 
Luckily  for  "  the  Army  of  Virginia  "  the  night  was  so  very  dark 
that  Stuart  failed  to  see  that  an  immense  train  of  supplies  and 
provisions  was  parked  near  the  station.  He  rode  away  without 
burning  either  that  or  the  railway  bridge,  as  he  might  easily 
have  done. 


566  MANASSAS. 

And  now,  after  the  storm,  General  Pope  extended  his  lines  to 
the  west,  sending  the  corps  of  Sigel  and  Banks  up  to  Sulphur 
Springs,  where  Early  had  crossed  and  recrossed.  On  the  other 
side  Longstreet's  command  covered  the  whole  front  recently 
occupied  by  his  and  Jackson's  combined;  and,  on  the  25th  of 
August,  with  the  entire  consent  of  General  Lee,  Stonewall  Jack- 
son set  forth  on  an  expedition  that  was  daring  to  the  verge  of 
insanity ;  a  piece  of  recklessness  that  nothing  but  absolute  con- 
tempt for  his  adversary  could  justify,  and  that  nothing  but  the 
greatest  good  luck  could  withhold  from  dire  disaster.  For  four 
days  Pope  with  50,000  men,  obedient  to  the  vehement  orders  of 
Halleck  to  "  fight  like  the  devil,"  and  hold  the  line  of  the  Rappa- 
hannock,  had  been  foiling  Lee's  direct  attempts  to  cross  with 
70,000.  Time  was  precious,  and  Jackson,  who  knew  every  bridle 
or  wood-path  in  the  country,  urged  a  bold  move.  The  map  will 
show  the  whole  scheme.  Pope's  supplies  and  reinforcements 
could  reach  him  only  by  the  line  of  the  Orange  and  Alexandria 
railway,  and  the  broad  turnpike  from  Alexandria  to  Warrenton. 
The  former  passes  through  Manassas  Junction  south  of  the  old 
Bull  Run  battle-field  of  the  previous  year;  the  latter  goes  right 
through  it,  crossing  Bull  Run  on  the  stone  bridge  which  be- 
came famous  that  hot  July  Sunday.  Warrenton  is  a  pretty 
country  town  lying  among  the  bold  hills  that  form  the  southern 
end  of  the  low,  wooded  range  known  as  Bull  Run  mountains. 
Beginning  here  near  Warrenton  this  range  runs  nearly  due  north 
to  the  Potomac  near  Leesburg,  and  it  is  crossed  or  penetrated  by 
only  three  roads  of  any  account — one  near  Leesburg,  one  at 
Aldie  from  Fairfax,  and  south  of  these  by  the  Manassas  Gap 
railway  and  the  parallel  well-travelled  road  at  Thoroughfare 
Gap,  a  crooked  and  easily  defensible  pass  that  lies  about 
five  miles  west  of  Gainesville,  where  the  railway,  the  War- 
renton pike  and  the  Gap  road  all  meet.  About  fifteen  miles 
south  of  east  of  Gainesville  lies  Manassas  Junction,  where  the 
railways  unite,  and  where  immense  stores  of  rations,  clothing  and 
ammunition  were  deposited.  Jackson's  plan  was  to  make  a 
forced  march  up  the  valley  west  of  the  Bull  Run  mountains,  to 
push  through  Thoroughfare  Gap,  swoop  down  on  Manassas 


STONEWALL  JACKSON'S   AUDACIOUS   MOVE.  5(J7 

Junction  and  destroy  everything  there  before  Pope  could  get 
back  from  the  Rappahannock,  or  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  get 
forward  from  Alexandria,  to  defend  it.  By  letting  him  go  and 
thus  dividing  his  army  in  two  widely  separated  commands  or 
wings,  General  Lee  took  the  grave  risk  of  having  either  half 
attacked  by  overwhelming  numbers  and  of  being  "beaten  in 
detail ; "  but  such  was  his  confidence  in  Jackson's  luck  and 
ability  that  he  took  the  risk  without  apparent  hesitation.  It  was 
the  most  audacious  thing  even  Jackson  had  yet  attempted. 

Early  on  the  morning  of  August  25th,  with  three  veteran 
divisions,  his  own  old  division  now  led  by  Taliaferro,  and  those 
of  Ewell  and  A.  P.  Hill,  Jackson  crossed  the  Rappahannock  at 
Hinson's  ford  beyond  Pope's  outposts  on  the  upper  stream/ 
reached  the  town  of  Orleans  and  then  pushed  boldly  northward 
through  the  fertile  valley.  Stuart  with  his  daring  troopers  rode 
well  out  on  his  right  at  the  base  of  the  hills  so  as  to  prevent 
Pope's  cavalry  from  peering  into  his  movements ;  and  so  through 
the  long  August  day  in  disciplined  silence  the  sinewy  footmen 
trudged  along  behind  their  trusted  leader.  He  had  forbidden 
all  cheering,  all  noise  of  any  kind.  He  led  them  through  forest 
aisles  and  by  short  cuts  across  the  fields,  raising  as  little  dust  as 
possible.  The  guns  came  "  clinking  "  along  behind  with  that 
jingling  rumble  that  all  old  artillerymen  know  so  well.  The 
wagons  with  their  scanty  rations  were  left  far  in  rear,  and  the 
men  had  only  a  little  hard  tack  in  their  lean  haversacks,  or 
munched  the  handfuls  of  parched  corn  given  them  by  sympathiz- 
ing friends  among  the  farms  through  which  they  passed ;  but 
every  now  and  then  Jackson  would  rein  in  his  raw-boned  horse 
and  take  a  look  at  them  from  under  the  shabby  yellow-gray  for- 
age cap  he  wore,  pulled  down  over  his  keen  eyes,  and  then  they 
would  tramp  by  him,  waving  their  battered  old  felt  hats  until 
some  irrepressible  spirit  would  start  a  yell  of  delight,  when  the 
whole  column  would  break  into  a  chorus  that  old  Stonewall 
had  hard  work  stopping.  Ragged,  barefooted,  hungry  as  they 
were,  those  magnificent  fellows  marched  thirty-five  miles  that 
day,  and  never  halted  until  they  reached  the  Manassas  Gap  rail- 
way at  Salem  just  before  sunset.  There  they  bivouacked  for  the 


568  MANASSAS. 

night ;  rose  before  the  sun  on  the  26th,  pushed  eastward  through 
Thoroughfare  Gap  all  unopposed,  reached  Gainesville  on  the 
Warrenton  pike,  and  then,  obedient  to  his  orders  to  "  break  up 
his  (Pope's)  railroad  communications  with  the  Federal  capital," 
Jackson  swooped  down  on  Bristoe.  Station  just  at  sunset,  while 
Stuart  galloped  into  Manassas  Junction,  took  several  hundred 
prisoners  and  eight  guns,  and  made  himself  master  of  the  vast 
supply  of  commissary  and  quartermaster's  stores.  It  was  the 
"  kiggest  haul "  made  during  the  war,  a  God-send  to  the  hungry 
and  tattered  soldiers;  and  one  can  readily  imagine  the  merry 
night  Stuart's  men  had  in  "  fitting  out "  and  feasting  at  the 
expense  of  Uncle  Sam. 

Jackson  destroyed  Bristoe  and  the  railway  near  it ;  then,  leav- 
ing Ewell  as  rear-guard,  moved  seven  miles  up  the  road  to 
Manassas  Junction,  where  he  and  the  divisions  with  him  pro- 
ceeded to  help  themselves  to  the  provisions,  new  shoes,  socks 
and  underclothing  so  lavishly  supplied  them.  In  many  cases, 
too,  ragged  gray  uniforms  were  replaced  by  the  spotless  blue  of 
the  Union.  The  dust  would  soon  make  it  as  dingy  as  the  old 
garb,  so  what  was  the  difference?  Ewell  held  his  post  at  Bristoe 
until  late  in  the  afternoon  of  the  2/th,  when  he  was  attacked  by 
superior  force  and  driven  in;  then  he  too  backed  up  to  Manassas 
and  joined  the  main  body. 

Meantime  what  had  Pope  been  doing  ? 

Jackson  was  well  across  the  Rappahannock  and  west  of 
Warrenton  when  tidings  of  his  astonishing  move  were  brought 
to  the  Northern  general.  In  all  probability  the  latter  could  not 
believe  that  even  Jackson  would  dare  separate  himself  by  such 
a  distance  from  the  main  army,  and  so,  up  to  nightfall  on  the 
25th,  half  expected  one  of  his  impetuous  attacks  on  the  right 
flank.  Reno  and  Sigel,  who  were  at  Sulphur  Springs  and  Wa- 
terloo Bridge,  were  held  in  readiness  to  move  wherever  he  might 
show  his  skirmish  line,  and  McDowell's  corps,  composed  of  the 
strong  divisions  of  King  and  Ricketts,  moved  up  between  War- 
renton and  Sulphur  Springs.  To  McDowell's  command  was 
here  added  a  little  division  of  2,800  men,  the  remnants  of 
McCall's  Pennsylvania  Reserves  that  so  recently  had  been 


POPE'S   GREAT  OPPORTUNITY.  569 

severely  handled  on  the  peninsula,  and  John  F.  Reynolds  had 
succeeded  to  the  command  of  what  was  left  of  the  division.  But 
the  25th  passed  without  attack  from  the  west,  though  Longstreet 
kept  everybody  busy  along  the  Rappahannock,  and  not  until 
well  along  on  the  26th  did  General  Pope  begin  to  realize  what 
Jackson  was  driving  at.  It  was  with  absolute  delight  he  learned 
that  the  rash  Virginian  with  not  more  than  30,000  men  was 
between  him  and  Washington,  an  easy  prey  to  the  overwhelming 
force  he  could  throw  upon  him,  for  that  very  day  the  strong 
corps  of  Fitz  John  Porter  and  Heintzelman  had  arrived  from  the 
Army  of  the  Potomac,  and  he  knew  that  the  rest  of  that  army, 
the  corps  of  Sumner  and  Franklin,  were,  or  ought  to  be,  in 
march  from  Alexandria  to  join  him. 

On  the  night  of  the  26th  he  learned  that  Jackson  and  Stuart 
were  on  the  railway  behind  him,  and,  facing  about  with  a  large 
portion  of  his  command,  he  started  early  on  the  morning  of  the 
2/th  to  surround  and  capture  them.  Leaving  Generals  Banks 
and  Porter  to  look  after  Longstreet  should  he  cross  the  Rappa- 
hannock in  pursuit,  Pope  turned  his  back  on  General  Lee  and 
hurried  northward,  expecting  very  justly  to  "bag  the  whole 
crowd."  Never  had  Northern  commander  such  a  chance  before. 
McDowell  was  charged  with  the  duty  of  heading  Jackson  off  on 
the  west  and  preventing  his  getting  back  through  the  gap.  To 
this  end,  he  with  his  own  divisions,  Sigel's  corps  and  Reynolds' 
little  command  were  ordered  to  hasten  to  Gainesville.  Reno  and 
Kearney  with  their  divisions  were  to  march  "  cross  country," 
through  Greenwich,  ready  to  support  either  McDowell  on  the 
pike  or  Pope  on  the  railway,  which  ever  should  first  meet  Jack- 
son ;  and  Pope  himself  with  Hooker's  division  marched  up  the 
railway,  leaving  Porter  at  Warrenton  Junction.  The  only  way 
left  for  Jackson  to  get  out  of  the  scrape,  apparently,  was  to  push 
southeastward  from  Manassas  Junction  through  a  tangled  and 
almost  roadless  country  where  his  trains  could  not  have  followed 
him;  but  Jackson  was  taking  things  very  coolly,  as  we  have 
seen,  and  was  in  no  way  hurried.  Not  until  late  on  the  after- 
noon of  the  2/th  did  any  engagement  occur  between  his  people 
and  their  pursuers.  Then  Swell's  men  at  Kettle  Run  were 


570  .  MANASSAS. 

fiercely  attacked  by  Hooker  and  driven  up  the  road.  That 
night,  Jackson's  entire  force  was  with  him  at  Manassas,  while 
Stuart's  troopers,  thrown  out  in  every  direction,  covered  him 
like  an  impenetrable  veil.  At  Washington  all  was  consterna- 
tion. Not  a  word  could  be  heard,  from  Pope.  All  wires  were 
cut,  all  roads  destroyed,  all  couriers  captured  by  the  active 
horsemen.  General  Halleck  and  the  cabinet  were  ready  to  be- 
lieve that  Lee's  whole  army  was  advancing  upon  them  and  that 
Pope  was  nowhere. 

But  Jackson  well  knew  he  could  not  stay  at  Manassas.  Dark 
as  was  the  night  of  the  27th,  after  burning  and  destroying  every- 
thing he  could  not  use  or  take  with  him,  he  again  called  on  his 
men  and  slipped  out  northward  toward  Sudley  Springs,  sending 
A.  P.  Hill  off  to  the  northeast  and  way  around  by  Centreville. 
Pope  felt  sure  he  would  attempt  to  get  away  towards  the  south 
and  east,  and  so  sent  orders  calling  in  Reno  and  Kearney  to  the 
railroad,  and  directing  McDowell's  command  (which,  was  biv- 
ouacked for  the  night  of  the  2/th  on  the  turnpike  southwest  of 
Gainesville)  to  march  at  early  dawn  along  the  Manassas  Gap 
railway  to  the  junction.  This  was  all  very  well  if  Jackson  would 
be  idiot  enough  to  stay  there,  or  to  attempt  to  cut  through  the 
woods  to  the  lower  Rappahannock,  but  Jackson  meant  to  do 
neither.  He  knew  well  that  Lee  and  Longstreet  would  follow 
on  his  trail  to  Thoroughfare  Gap  the  moment  Pope  fell  back 
from  the  river,  and  all  he  wanted  was  clear  ground  between  him 
and  Bull  Run  mountains,  to  enable  him  to  make  a  junction  with 
his  friends  the  moment  they  should  appear.  If  cut  off  from 
Thoroughfare,  he  could  fall  back  to  the  northwest  towards  the 
upper  gap  at  Aldie. 

Early  on  the  morning  of  the  28th  of  August,  Jackson  with 
Ewell  and  Taliaferro  crossed  the  Warrenton  turnpike  near  Bull 
Run  and  kept  on  towards  Sudley  Springs.  A.  P.  Hill  as  rear- 
guard was  still  hanging  about  the  smouldering  ruins  of  the 
trains  at  Manassas  Junction.  By  eight  o'clock  Reno  and  Kear- 
ney had  joined  Hooker  at  Bristoe,  and  with  these  three  divisions 
Pope  made  the  seven  mile  march  to  the  Junction,  only  to  find 
that  Jackson  had  given  him  the  slip  after  doing  incalculable 


JACKSON   CROUCHING    IN    HIS   LAIR. 

damage.  Buford  with  his  cavalry  had  already  been  sent  off 
towards  Thoroughfare  Gap  to  hold  it,  if  possible,  should  Lee 
and  Longstreet  come  that  way,  and  Pope  did  not  really  know 
which  way  Jackson  had  gone  when  word  was  brought  in  that 
his  rear  guard  was  even  then  crossing  Blackburn's  ford  on  Bull 
Run,  and  moving  towards  Centreville.  Instantly  the  Union 
general  had  to  change  all  his  plans.  Kearney  and  Reno  were 
hurried  off  in  pursuit.  Porter,  who  had  finally  worked  up  to 
Bristoe,  was  ordered  up  to  Manassas  Junction,  and  McDowell, 
who  had  already  passed  through  Gainesville,  and  was  approach- 
ing Manassas  Junction  from  that  point,  was  ordered  to  turn 
back,  regain  the  Warrenton  pike,  and  march  on  Centreville.  It 
took  hours  to  get  things  straightened  out  to  meet  the  new  situa- 
tion. 

Meantime,  Jackson's  craft  had  succeeded  admirably.  He  had 
moved  quietly  into  a  very  strong  position  north  of  the  turnpike 
along  the  embankment  of  an  unfinished  railway  that  extended 
from  Sudley  Springs  to  Gainesville;  and  here,  while  Stuart 
vigilantly  watched  everything  off  to  the  west — Jackson's  right 
flank — he  and  his  men,  hidden  in  the  leafy  woods,  rested  quietly 
through  the  long  summer  day,  while  Hill  led  Kearney  and  Reno 
a  veritable  "  wild  goose  chase  "  way  up  to  Centreville.  During 
the  morning  and  afternoon  the  corps  of  Sigel  and  the  little  divi- 
sion of  Pennsylvanians  under  Reynolds  came  trudging  rather 
wearily  through  the  fields  from  the  southwest.  Some  shots 
were  exchanged  between  the  flankers  and  skirmishers,  and  the 
Union  generals  led  their  commands  off  into  the  woods  along 
the  Sudley  Springs  road-way,  south  of  the  pike,  and  waited  for 
orders  or  instructions.  They  certainly  had  not  expected  to  find 
Jackson  there.  About  this  time,  too,  came  A.  P.  Hill  from 
Centreville,  "  doubling  on  his  tracks,"  and  successfully  eluding 
Kearney,  who  could  even  now  be  heard  five  miles  away  to  the 
eastward  volleying  at  the  rear  guard  regiments  of  Hill's  com- 
mand. Far  off  to  the  distant  west,  too,  where  the  low  blue  line 
of  the  Bull  Run  Mountains  spanned  the  horizon,  the  boom, 
boom  of  cannon  told  Jackson  that  Lee  and  Longstreet  were 
fighting  their  way  through  the  Gap,  and  unless  strenuously  op- 


572 


MANASSAS. 


posed,  would  be  with  him  on  the  morrow.  Evidently  they  were 
not  opposed  in  force,  since  at  least  13,000  Union  troops  had 
already  marched  eastward  below  Groveton,  and  Stuart  was  able  to 
report  that  Buford's  cavalry  was  falling  back  before  Longstreet, 
who  had  even  sent  a  force  through  Hopewell  Gap,  a  rugged 
pass  three  miles  higher  up  the  range,  and  had  turned  the  flank 
of  Ricketts'  division  sent  thither  to  help  Buford ;  and  Ricketts, 
too,  was  falling  back  towards  Gainesville.  No  wonder  old 
Stonewall  was  in  the  best  possible  spirits.  He  had  outwitted 
his  antagonists,  and  he  and  his  men  were  serenely  ^sure  of  hold- 
ing their  ground  until  reinforced. 

But  was  that  all  ?  The  day  had  passed  without  a  fight  so  far 
as  he  was  concerned,  and  his  men,  now  refreshed,  clothed  and 
fed,  were  eager  for  a  brush  of  some  kind,  and  it  was  barely  half- 
past  five.  Suddenly  there  came  from  down  the  road  a  burst  of 
martial  music,  and  a  mile  or  so  to  the  west  there  issued  from 
the  wood-roads  leading  to  the  Junction  a  solid,  compact  column 
of  blue-clad  infantry.  Regiment  after  regiment  filed  out  upon 
the  pike,  and,  to  the  stirring  marches  of  their  bands,  moved 
jauntily  forward  until  finally  four  strong  brigades  were  in  sight, 
the  leading  one  by  this  time  directly  opposite  Ewell's  position. 
It  was  King's  division  of  McDowell's  corps,  ignorant  of  the 
proximity  of  either  friend  or  foe,  marching  towards  Centreville 
in  compliance  with  the  new  orders.  The  sight  was  too  much 
for  Jackson  and  his  men.  Three  light  batteries  hastily  "  hitched 
in,"  the  first  one  ready,  trotted  out  upon  the  slopes  to  the  south, 
whirled  around  "  in  battery,"  and  in  another  minute  was  thun- 
dering its  salute  at  the  waving  colors  of  the  blue  column. 

Somewhere  about  three  o'clock  that  afternoon  General  Mc- 
Dowell, riding  with  General  King  through  the  woods  down  by 
Bethlehem  Church,  was  met  by  Pope's  order  to  turn  back  and 
make  for  Centreville  as  soon  as  he  could  regain  the  pike.  Sigel 
and  Reynolds  were  already  somewhere  off  to  the  east  near  Bull 
Run,  and  King's  men,  resting  meantime  in  the  woods,  were 
countermarched  as  soon  as  the  way  was  clear.  McDowell  him- 
self was  puzzled  by  the  conflicting  orders.  He  had  taken  the 
responsibility  of  detaching  Ricketts  and  sending  him  back  towards 


EWELL   POUNCES   ON   GIBBON.  573 

Thoroughfare  Gap  from  Gainesville,  and  now  he  decided  to  go 
and  find  General  Pope,  "  with  the  best  intentions  in  the  world  " 
of  informing  him  as  to  the  neighborhood,  with  which  he  thought 
himself  familiar  after  his  experience  of  the  previous  year ;  but 
it  may  be  said  right  here  that  McDowell  not  only  did  not  find 
General  Pope  that  afternoon  or  until  the  following  day,  but  that 
he  could  not  himself  be  found  when  greatly  needed. 

Obedient  to  his  orders  General  King  had  moved  out  on  the 
pike  towards  five  p.  M.  All  was  clear,  the  bands  soon  ceased 
their  music,  and  the  men  trudged  along  at  route  step ;  the  leading 
brigade  (Hatch's)  well  ahead,  passed  over  the  Groveton  ridge, 
and  the  next  brigade  came  marching  out  from  the  shelter  of 
some  thick  woods  north  of  the  pike.  At  its  head  rode  General 
John  Gibbon,  recently  commander  of  the  fine  battery  of  the 
Fourth  (regular)  artillery  that  accompanied  the  brigade.  Three 
regiments  of  his  command  were  from  Wisconsin,  one  from 
Indiana.  It  was  the  only  exclusively  "  far-western  "  brigade  in 
the  army  then  serving  in  Virginia,  and  it  was  a  superb  one. 
The  instant  its  column  was  well  out  opposite  the  open  slopes  to 
the  north,  there  came  the  sudden  salute  of  Jackson's  battery. 
"Halt!"  rang  along  the  ranks,  and  in  another  instant  with 
cracking  whips  and  charging  steeds  battery  "  B  "  came  tearing 
up  the  road  at  full  gallop.  Gibbon  himself  placed  it  in  position, 
opened  rapid  fire  on  the  opposing  guns ;  then,  calling  to  the 
Second  Wisconsin  to  follow  him,  he  plunged  into  the  woods  to 
his  left  front  and  rode  forward  intent  on  the  capture  of  the 
Southern  battery.  Just  beyond  the  skirt  of  woods  the  regiment, 
deploying,  ran  upon  a  skirmish  line  of  infantry  lying  in  the  tall 
grass.  Sharp  musketry  fire  began  at  once;  the  rest  of  the  brigade 
was  ordered  forward  and  soon  formed  line  on  the  Second  Wis- 
consin, and  then,  to  their  utter  amaze,  there  came  sweeping  over 
the  low  slopes  before  them  six  splendid  brigades  of  infantry — 
Taliaferro's  whole  division  and  two  brigades  of  Swell's.  Jack- 
son meant  to  have  one  rattling  fight  then  before  the  sun  went 
down. 

Well — he  had  it.  It  was  the  first  time  that  western  brigade 
had  been  engaged,  but  it  won  a  name  that  night  never  forgotten 


574  MANASSAS. 

to  this  day.  For  one  mortal  hour  it  held  its  ground  against 
those  six  brigades  of  Jackson's  with  what  he  termed  "  obstinate 
determination,"  though  losing  forty  per  cent,  of  its  officers  and 
men,  and  being  eventually  supported  only  by  Doubleday's  little 
brigade,  which  also  suffered  severely.  Hatch  and  Patrick,  com- 
manding the  head  and  rear  of  King's  column,  did  not  get  into 
action,  for  darkness  put  an  end  to  the  bloody  combat  by  the 
time  they  reached  the  spot.  Not  one  inch  of  ground  had  King's 
men  yielded,  and  for  once  at  least  Jackson's  celebrated  division 
had  met  its  match.  Ewell  lost  a  leg,  Taliaferro  was  severely 
wounded,  and  a  large  number  of  field-officers  of  the  Southern 
side  had  been  killed.  Far  better  would  it  have  been  for  Jackson 
had  he  allowed  that  particular  division  to  pursue  its  march  un- 
molested. Yet  the  western  brigade  that  had  so  heroically 
borne  the  whole  brunt  of  the  battle  was  fearfully  cut  up.  Most 
of  its  field-officers  were  killed  or  wounded,  and  the  ground  was 
strewn  with  dead  and  dying. 

But  they  had  found  Jackson.  The  prisoners  who  were 
brought  before  General  King  stoutly  affirmed  that  ,old  Stone- 
wall was  right  there  with  from  40,000  to  60,000  men,  and  King, 
not  knowing  that  Sigel's  corps  was  only  a  few  miles  away,  sent  a 
note  to  Ricketts  urging  him  to  come  to  his  support  and  that  he 
would  hold  the  ground  until  then.  Staff-officers  were  sent  to 
report  the  situation  to  Pope  and  McDowell,  but  neither  Pope 
nor  McDowell  could  be  found  in  the  darkness  of  the  night,  and,' 
though  they  heard  the  firing  and  knew  well  that  it  must  be 
King's  division  engaged  with  Jackson,  they  probably  thought 
that  Sigel  and  Reynolds  were  supporting  him  and  sent  no 
orders.  Believing  that  Jackson  was  attempting  to  retreat  to- 
wards Thoroughfare,  and  that  Sigel,  King  and  Reynolds  with 
20,000  men  were  blocking  the  way,  all  their  energies  were 
centred  on  getting  up  troops  to  attack  him  in  rear  with  the  com- 
ing of  day.  But  Jackson  had  not  a  thought  of  going.  Secure 
in  his  position,  and  knowing  that  two  of  Longstreet's  divisions 
were  through  the  gap,  he  was  only  waiting  until  daybreak  to 
pounce  upon  that  isolated  division  of  King  that  had  given  him 
so  hard  a  tussle  at  sunset,  and  completely  demolish  it  before 
supports  could  arrive. 


BITTER   DISAPPOINTMENT    OF    POPE.  575 

King's  brigade  commanders  had  assembled  after  nine  o'clock 
to  talk  over  the  situation  with  him,  and  this  view  of  the  case  was 
strongly  represented.  He  could  not  order  Ricketts  to  abandon 
the  work  of  detaining  Longstreet  and  come  to  his  assistance. 
No  one  was  there  who  could  give  such  orders.  General  Rey- 
nolds had  ridden  over  through  the  woods  and  assured  King  that 
he  was  off  there  on  his  right,  and  all  who  knew  Reynolds  knew 
that  as  early  as  possible  he  would  come ;  but  he  was  two  miles 
off  with  only  2,800  men,  and  Jackson  was  already  there  with 
28,000.  Prisoners  said  twice  28,000.  The  peril  of  the  situation 
was  evident  to  all.  They  could  not  stay  where  they  were  with- 
out every  prospect  of  being  annihilated  at  dawn ;  so,  urged  by 
his  brigade  commanders,  General  King  most  reluctantly  gave 
the  order  to  fall  back  across  the  pike,  and  at  one  o'clock  in  the 
morning  through  the  wooded  roads,  in  the  dense  darkness,  he 
and  his  wearied  division  groped  their  way  off  to  the  right  in 
search  of  Manassas  Junction  and  supports.  Ricketts  had  halted 
at  Gainesville  for  the  night ;  but  on  learning  after  midnight  by  a 
letter  from  General  King  of  the  move  of  that  division,  he  roused 
his  men  and  took  the  first  road  to  the  railway.  It  landed 
him  at  Bristoe  Station  early  in  the  morning  of  the  29th, 
about  the  time  that  King  and  Porter  met  face  to  face  at  the 
Junction. 

And  so  the  road  from  Thoroughfare  Gap  to  Jackson  was  left 
open.  Longstreet  pushed  ahead,  and  by  noon  on  the  2Qth  his 
leading  troops  were  deploying,  facing  east  across  the  Warrenton 
pike,  and  Stonewall  Jackson  was  safely  out  of  the  tightest  place 
in  which  he  had  ever  marched  his  willing  command. 

Bitterly  disappointed  as  was  General  Pope,  he  was  hopeful 
and  energetic  as  ever.  He  came  at  all  speed  back  from  Centre  - 
ville  to  the  west  bank  of  Bull  Run,  ignorant  of  the  coming  of 
Longstreet,  and  bent  on  crushing  Jackson  as  the  latter  retreated. 
McDowell,  who  had  bivouacked  somewhere  in  the  woods  over 
night,  unable  to  find  his  way  in  any  direction,  was  again  in 
saddle.  Porter's  fine  corps  had  come  up  from  Bristoe  and  was 
extended  in  long  column  on  the  road  from  the  Junction  out 
towards  Gainesville,  its  leading  regiment  having  deployed  as 


576  MANASSAS. 

skirmishers  across  the  little  stream  known  as  Dawkin's  branch. 
King's  wearied  division,  now  only  about  5,000  strong,  was  rest- 
ing by  the  roadside.  Reynolds  had  early  pushed  out  his 
skirmishers,  and  "  felt "  those  of  Jackson  along  the  pike.  Sigel 
during  the  morning  made  an  unsuccessful  attack  and  had  kept 
up  a  scattering  fire  at  the  advance  troops  of  Jackson's  lines,  but 
everything  was  uncertainty  and  confusion  on  the  Union  side, 
while  with  the,  army  of  Lee  matters  seemed  to 'be  going  like 
clock-work.  Longstreet  and  Lee  had  reached  the  field  of  battle  ; 
the  lines  of  the  former's  troops  were  actually  deployed  and  ready 
to  fight  soon  after  noon  on  that  much-disputed  day,  and  General 
Pope*  fondly  cherished  the  belief  that  only  Jackson  was  in  his 
front. 

Early  in  the  afternoon,  however,  he  was  ready  to  resume  the 
attack.  Kearney,  Reno  and  Sigel,  facing  west,  were  to  assault 
from  Sudley  Springs  on  the  north  along  Jackson's  front.  King's 
and  Ricketts'  divisions  were  ordered  to  move  up  towards  the 
pike  by  the  Sudley  Springs  road ;  and  it  was  General  Pope's 
plan  that  Porter's  whole  corps,  facing  northwest,  should  fall 
upon  the  right  flank  of  the  enemy,  while  he  with  all  his  force 
made  a  grand  attack  from  the  east.  If  it  could  have  been 
promptly  executed  there  would  have  been  fair  probability  of  a 
crowning  success ;  but  just  at  the  time  it  was  desired  that  Porter 
should  deploy  his  column,  taking  King's  division  with  him, 
McDowell,  his  senior  in  rank,  rode  upon  the  field  and  gave  con- 
flicting instructions — the  nature  of  which  has  been  a  matter  of 
dispute  ever  since. 

Then  McDowell  proceeded  to  take  King's  division  away  on  a 
long  march  through  the  wood-roads  to  the  right.  Pope  waited 
eagerly  for  the  sound  of  Porter's  guns  before  ordering  his  ready 
men  to  leap  into  the  assault.  Three  o'clock,  four  o'clock  came 
and  went ;  nothing  had  been  done.  All  ignorant  of  the  misun- 
derstanding between  Porter  and  McDowell,  Pope  believed  that 
Porter  was  failing  him  at  this  most  critical  juncture,  and  Porter, 
who  certainly  could  have  done  something  better  than  remain 
absolutely  inactive  an  entire  afternoon,  was  "  waiting  further  in- 
structions." He  had  been  told  that  he  should  have  King's  divi- 


A   DAY   OF   WRETCHED    MISUNDERSTANDINGS.  577 

sion  to  support  him  in  his  attack,  and,  as  McDowell  had  stepped 
in  and  taken  King  away,  he  did  not  seem  to  see  fit  to  exert  him- 
self. 

Exasperated  at  this  delay  and  inaction  Pope  at  4.30  P.  M.  sent 
a  peremptory  order  to  Porter  to  attack  at  once  in  force ;  but  it 
was  a  long  way  round,  the  order  did  not  reach  him  until  about 
six  o'clock ;  and  Porter,  arguing  that  it  would  soon  be  too  dark, 
and  that  Pope  could  not  have  known  of  Longstreet's  presence 
when  he  wrote  the  order,  decided  not  to  obey.  Consequently, 
when  Pope's  men  advanced  to  the  attack  along  the  Bull  Run 
lines,  they  were  met  by  an  unembarrassed  and  admirably  posted 
enemy,  mowed  down  by  a  withering  fire,  and  the  final  charge, 
"  a  furious  attack  by  King's  division  down  the  turnpike,"  was  met 
and  foiled  by  Hood's  Texans  of  Longstreet's  corps,  whom  it  was 
hoped,  Porter  would  have  kept  busy  elsewhere.  It  was  a  day  of 
wretched  misunderstandings  and  balks  of  every  kind ;  and  at 
nightfall  the  Northern  army  was  tired,  hungry  and  footsore,  ex- 
cept Porter's  command,  which  had  done  practically  nothing. 
No  rations  were  to  be  had  west  of  Bull  Run,  and  things  looked 
very  forlorn  for  the  morrow. 

Nevertheless,  General  Pope  was  full  of  pluck,  hope  and  spirit. 
He  confidently  believed  that  Jackson  was  bound  to  retreat ;  he 
honestly  thought  he  could  crush  him  before  reinforcements 
could  reach  him,  and  he  issued  orders  that  McDowell  should 
conduct  the  pursuit  and  give  chase  on  the  3Oth,  and  Jackson  had 
not  budged  an  inch  and  did  not  mean  to.  Porter  was  ordered 
to  bring  his  corps  up  to  the  pike  and  report  in  person  the  first 
thing  in  the  morning,  and  at  daybreak  on  the  3<Dth  of  August 
the  battle  broke  out  with  renewed  fury. 

Already  Pope  had  lost  from  six  to  eight  thousand  men,  and 
"  straggling  "  had  become  so  universal  that  his  regiments  were 
as  greatly  reduced  in  this  way,  as  they  were  by  battle,  hunger 
and  fatigue.  He  had  gained  absolutely  nothing  on  the  29th. 
He  knew  now  that  Longstreet  was  there  before  his  left  in  full 
force,  and  that  Lee  in  person  was  directing  movements  on  the 
Southern  side.  The  obvious  thing  for  the  Union  general  to  do 
was  to  fall  back  to  the  heights  of  Centreville,  five  miles  away, 
37 


578  MANASSAS. 

and  there  obtain  provisions  and  make  firm  stand  until  reinforced 
by  the  corps  of  Franklin  and  Sumner,  but  the  prisoners  brought 
in  from  the  skirmish  lines  before  dawn  said  that  "  Jackson  was 
retiring  to  unite  with  Longstreet "  (very  possibly  they  had  been 
sent  forward  purposely  to  be  taken  and  to  tell  that  story),  and 
to  give  color  to  it  Jackson  drew  back  some  of  Hill's  men  so  as 
to  make  the  embankment  look  abandoned  in  front  of  Hooker 
and  Kearney.  The  wool  was  successfully  pulled  over  Pope's 
eyes.  He  flashed  off  a  message  to  Washington  that  the  enemy 
was  retreating  to  the  mountains,  and  then  ordered  Porter's  corps 
to  rush  in  to  the  pursuit. 

But  he  had  been  obliged  to  spend  the  whole  morning  in  re- 
arranging his  lines.  Hooker  and  Kearney  were  still  on  the 
extreme  right  near  Sudley  Springs ;  Reno  and  Sigel  opposite 
Jackson's  centre ;  King's  reduced  division  next  to  Sigel ;  then 
came  Porter's  corps  (minus  Griffin's  brigade,  which  had  unac- 
countably marched  off  to  Centreville  all  by  itself).  Ricketts' 
division  was  supporting  the  commands  of  Hooker,  Kearney  and 
Reno,  all  north  of  the  Warrenton  pike,  and  nothing  .was  left  to 
hold  the  commanding  hills  south  of  that  broad  thoroughfare  but 
the  little  division  of  John  F.  Reynolds,  composed  of  the  three  at- 
tenuated brigades  of  Meade,  Seymour  and  Jackson,  no  one  of 
them  as  strong  numerically  as  a  good-sized  regiment.  Confident 
that  all  he  had  to  do  was  to  mass  his  whole  force  on  what  remained 
of  "  Stonewall "  Jackson  and  make  one  grand  assault,  Pope 
gave  no  thought  to  the  left  of  his  line,  and  Lee  and  Longstreet, 
discovering  this,  sent  the  divisions  of  Jones,  Kemper  and  Wilcox 
to  feel  their  way  eastward  through  the  thick  woods  towards 
those  rugged  heights  south  of  the  pike.  If  they  could  be  gained 
the  whole  position  of  Pope's  army  would  not  only  be  turned  and 
enfiladed,  but  his  line  of  retreat  across  the  stone  bridge  might 
be  commanded.  His  plight  would  then  indeed  be  desperate. 
At  the  same  time  Hood's  division  moved  stealthily  forward 
among  the  trees  close  to  the  pike,  and  Colonel  S.  D.  Lee  ran 
his  light  batteries  forward  and  planted  them  on  a  rising  ground 
near  Groveton,  from  which  point  he  could  sweep  the  open  fields 
in  front  of  Jackson's  line,  and  so  it  happened  that  while  Pope 


M'D.OWELL  ORDERS   PORTER   TO  ATTACK.  579 

was  concentrating  all  his  strength  to  hurl  upon  Lee's  strongly 
posted  and  defended  left,  Lee  was  crouching  for  a  spring  on 
Pope's  left  which  was  not  defended  at  all. 

Noon  has  come  and  gone,  the  sun  is  hot,  the  dust  stifling, 
and  in  their  grimy  flannel  blouses  the  soldiers  of  the  Union 
army  are  lying  along  the  wood-roads  seeking  shelter  from  the 
burning  rays  or  from  the  occasional  shells  that  burst  among 
the  branches  above  their  heads.  All  the  long  morning  the 
guns  have  been  sullenly  booming  at  one  another  across  the  open 
field,  but  the  rattle  of  small  arms  has  well-nigh  ceased. 

And  now,  towards  two  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  Pope  decides 
that  all  is  in  readiness  for  the  assault.  McDowell,  commanding 
the  entire  left  from  Reno  to  Reynolds,  from  half  way  to  Sudley 
Church  on  the  north  of  the  pike  to  the  Henry  House  on  the 
hill  just  south  of  it,  orders  Porter  to  attack,  and,  with  the  eyes 
of  the  whole  army  upon  him,  that  brilliant  soldier  leads  in  his  two 
ine  divisions,  Morell  in  the  front  line,  Sykes  in  reserve.  Sweep- 
ing out  across  the  open  fields  north  of  the  highway,  in  long  ex- 
tended lines  of  battle,  with  banners  waving  and  with  spirited 
bearing,  his  troops  steadily  advance  towards  the  low  slopes  north 
of  Groveton,  along  which  lies  in  ugly  relief  the  bare,  brown 
parapet  of  that  railway  embankment.  Porter's  men  have  to 
make  something  of  a  half  wheel  to  the  right  to  bring  their  front 
parallel  with  the  general  line  of  that  improvised  field-work,  but 
the  movement  is  steadily  performed  despite  the  rapid  bursting 
of  the  shells  already  whistling  over  their  devoted  heads ;  and 
now  in  splendid  form  they  are  directing  their  march  squarely 
upon  that  portion  of  the  breastwork  held  by  Starke  with  Jack- 
son's own  old  division,  and  Jackson,  seeing  that  only  Porter  is 
coming  and  that  all  the  rest  of  the  Union  lines  seem  looking 
on,  directs  Lawton  with  Ewell's  division  to  edge  to  his  right 
and  be  ready  to  help  Starke. 

And  now,  within  rifle  range,  the  crashing  volleys  mingle  with 
the  roar  of  the  field-guns;  the  embankment  is  one  long  cloud  of 
light,  bluish  smoke,  but  still  the  blue-clad  ranks  come  steadily 
on.  Soon  they  are  well  out  in  the  open  ground  north  of  Grove- 
ton,  and  now  the  pace  is  quickened ;  the  men  press  forward 


580  MANASSAS. 

eager  and  enthusiastic.  All  promises  well,  when  suddenly  from 
down  towards  their  left,  back  of  Groveton,  a  thunderbolt  seems 
to  burst  upon  the  little  mound  where  Colonel  Lee  had  planted 
his  guns.  The  slope  leaps  with  flame  and  soon  is  hidden  in 
dense  volumes  of  smoke,  but  twelve  well-handled  light  guns  are 
deluging  Porter's  left  and  sweeping  his  long  lines,  raking  them 
with  canister,  and  farther  on,  mowing  them  down  with  case-shot. 
A  superb  and  desperate  and  gallant  fight  is  made.  His  men 
reach  the  embankment  and  struggle  hand-to-hand  with  the 
swarming  gray-coats  on  the  other  side,  but  all  the  time  those 
dreadful  guns  are  pouring  in  their  fire,  and  though  King's  division 
comes  up,  and  Sigel  is  ordered  to  move  forward  and  support  them 
on  their  right,  nothing  sustains  the  shattered  left,  nor  are  there 
guns  to  oppose  to  Lee's  brilliantly  handled  artillery.  Why  is 
this  ? 

Just  about  three  o'clock,  when  Porter  was  most  heavily  en- 
gaged and  fighting  with  all  his  energy,  McDowell's  practised 
eye  had  caught  sight  of  heavy  clouds  of  dust  sweeping  sky- 
wards over  the  tree-tops  south  of  the  turnpike.  Nearer  and 
nearer  they  came,  and  it  needed  but  brief  reflection  to  teach  him 
what  it  meant — Longstreet  was  reaching  forward  to  seize  those 
heights  that  commanded  the  Northern  lines — two  hill-tops  a 
little  south  of  the  turnpike  and  separated  from  each  other  by  a 
brook  known  as  Chinn's  branch.  The  easternmost  of  the  two, 
broad  and  well-wooded  and  crowned  by  the  Henry  House,  had 
been  the  centre  of  battle  the  year  before.  The  westernmost, 
oblong  in  shape,  shorn  of  its  timber,  rocky,  rugged,  and  known 
as  Bald  Hill,  was  destined  to  be  the  centre  of  battle  this  scorch- 
ing August  afternoon.  Seeing  Longstreet's  rush  to  gain  it,  Mc- 
Dowell had  ordered  Reynolds  there  with  all  the  troops  he  had ; 
and  Warren  with  a  little  brigade — perhaps  a  thousand  men — was 
left  to  support  Porter's  left  flank.  No  one  else  could  be  sent  to 
help  him  from  that  side,  and  at  last,  well-nigh  exhausted,  having 
struggled  valiantly  for  more  than  two  hours,  Porter's  men  came 
slowly  falling  back  across  the  fields,  just  as  Longstreet's  divisions 
leaped  from  their  cover  south  of  the  pike  and  swarmed  forward 
on  Bald  Hill. 


A   DESPERATE   CRISIS.  581 

It  is  nearly  five  p.  M.,  and  now,  confident  of  success,  Lee 
orders  a  simultaneous  assault.  Yelling  like  demons,  all  along 
the  two  miles  of  embankment,  up  the  dusty  highway,  out  from 
the  cover  of  the  thick  woods  to  the  south,  the  red  battle-flags 
waving  over  their  heads,  the  exultant  soldiery  in  the  tattered 
gray  uniforms  spring  to  the  charge — and  at  this  moment  Pope 
has  not  45,000  men  to  meet  them.  Straggling  and  casualties 
have  reduced  his  force  more  than  one-half. 

It  is  a  desperate  crisis.  South  of  the  turnpike,  bursting 
through  the  woods  come  the  fierce  Texans  of  Hood's  division, 
closely  followed  by  Kemper,  Anderson  and  Wilcox,  while  D.  R. 
Jones'  strong  division  stretches  far  out  on  their  right,  and  laps 
around  the  threatened  height  from  the  south.  The  immediate 
need  of  covering  Porter's  retiring  lines  and  checking  the  pursuit, 
had  for  the  time  called  Reynolds  farther  to  the  right  front,  and 
for  a  few  moments  Bald  Hill,  the  key-point  of  the  line,  had  been 
defenceless.  Luckily  there  happened  to  be  just  north  of  the 
pike,  along  the  Sudley  Springs  road,  one  of  Sigel's  brigades  at 
the  moment  disengaged.  It  was  composed  entirely  of  Ohio 
men — four  fine  regiments,  the  Twenty-fifth,  Fifty-fifth,  Seventy- 
third  and  Seventy-fifth,  led  by  Colonel  N.  C.  McLean;  and  with 
all  speed  McLean's  brigade  was  marched  by  the  left  flank  to 
Bald  Hill.  In  ten  minutes  it  became  the  target  for  Longstreet's 
whole  corps. 

The  scene  at  half-past  five  P.  M.  is  something  grand  yet  terri- 
ble. For  three  successive  evenings  now,  the  little  hamlet  of 
Groveton  has  been  the  centre  of  a  mortal  struggle,  but  this  is 
the  most  appalling  yet.  Off  to  the  right,  north  of  the  pike,  the 
thinned  and  bleeding  lines  of  King  and  Porter  are  falling  sullenly 
back  to  the  Sudley  Springs  road.  After  them,  firing,  yelling, 
triumphant  come  the  long  lines  of  Jackson's  corps,  sweeping 
across  the  fields  already  thickly  strewn  with  the  dead  and  dying. 
To  the  right  rear  of  Bald  Hill  the  little  command  of  Warren, 
those  red-legged  Zouaves  of  the  Fifth  New  York  and  the  Ger- 
mans of  Bendix,  are  moving  back,  ordered  to  retire  and  reform 
at  Henry  House  hill.  Thither  too  are  moving  the  solid  regu- 
lars of  Sykes'  division,  and  Reynolds'  remnant  of  Pennsylvanians. 


582  MANASSAS. 

And  Bald  Hill,  isolated,  swept  by  artillery  and  musketry  fire, 
surrounded  now  on  northwest,  west  and  south,  is  manned  only 
by  that  one  little  brigade  of  McLean.  Small  wonder  their 
brave  commander  thinks  for  the  moment  that  he  is  abandoned 
by  his  friends.  Tower's  brigade  of  Rickett's  division  is  hasten- 
ing to  his  support,  but  as  yet  has  not  reached  him.  McLean  is 
practically  alone  when  Hood's  Texans  hurl  themselves  with  savage 
yells  upon  the  western  slopes,  and  Jones'  Georgians  burst  in 
upon  his  left  and  rear.  But  stout  hearts  are  beating  on  that 
barren  crest,  and  Ohio's  one  brigade,  the  only  distinctively 
Ohio  brigade  in  the  army,  stands  firm  against  the  shock  of  ten 
times  its  weight  in  foes  and  gives  them  gallant  battle.  Their 
orders  are  to  hold  Bald  Hill,  and  hold  it  they  do  until  Tower, 
moving  up  on  the  left,  and  Schenck,  dashing  in  with  Koltes-' 
brigade  on  the  right,  bring  partial  relief.  Though  "  reduced  to 
a  skeleton,"  McLean's  brigade  has  superbly  held  its  post  against 
all  comers.  Even  Hood's  dare-devil  Texans  have  twice  been 
hurled  back  from  its  steady  front,  and  Jones'  brigades  have  suf- 
fered severe  loss. 

But  now,  heavily  reinforced  by  Anderson  and  Wilcox  on  the 
west,  and  with  the  Georgian  lines  lapping  still  farther  around  to 
the  south,  threatening  to  envelop  them  entirely,  a  new  and  even. 
fiercer  assault  is  made  by  Longstreet  on  Bald  Hill  and  its  der 
fenders.  Tower  is  severely  wounded  and  his  brigade  reels; 
Koltes,  fighting  on  McLean's  right,  is  killed  ;  Schenck  is  hit 
and  disabled ;  Fletcher  Webster,  colonel  of  the  Twelfth  Massa- 
chusetts, and  son  of  the  great  orator  and  statesman,  is  killed ; 
and  on  the  other  side  Hood  has  lost  one-fourth  his  officers 
and  men  in  killed  and  wounded,  while  in  Jones'  brigades  hardly 
a  field-officer  is  left  to  lead  the  gallant  regiments  that  have  so 
desperately  striven  to  carry  the  height.  Terrible  as  had  been 
the  slaughter  in  front  of  Jackson's  earthen  parapet,  the  hardest 
fighting,  the  most  invincible  valor  of  that  hard-fought  field,  was 
shown  towards  sunset  around  the  blazing  slopes  of  Bald  Hill. 

But  by  this  time,  pressed  from  every  point,  Pope's  lines  were 
falling  steadily  back  towards  Bull  Run,  Henry  House  hill  being 
now  strongly  held  by  the  regular  division  and  the  divisions  of 


THE   FEDERAL   ARMY    FALLS   BACK.  583 

Reynolds  and  such  scattered  troops  as  drifted  in  from  the  front. 
The  batteries  were  drawn  back  and  planted  where  they  could 
sweep  the  approaches,  and  here  Pope  determined  to  make  the 
final  stand  with  his  rear  guard  and  cover  the  retirement  of  his 
army  across  the  Stone  Bridge. 

Bald  Hill,  outflanked  and  no  longer  of  use — no  longer  tenable 
— was  ordered  abandorfed.  The  shattered  remnants  of  the 
heroic  regiments  that  had  held  it  against  such  odds  were  slowly 
withdrawn  ;  Schenck's  men  fell  back  by  the  pike ;  Tower's  brig- 
ades down  the  valley  of  Chinn's  branch,  and  from  the  crest 
itself,  strewn  with  their  dead  and  dying,  McLean's  little  band 
of  Ohio  men  turned  reluctantly  away,  their  brave  leader  abso- 
lutely shedding  tears  at  having  to  abandon  the  position  he 
had  held  with  such  indomitable  resolution  and  at  such  frightful 
cost. 

And  now  Longstreet  hurls  his  whole  force  on  the  wooded 
crest  beyond.  There  stands  the  height  where  Bee  and  Bartow 
laid  down  their  lives  the  year  before.  There  is  the  field  where 
Jackson's  men  were  likened  to  the  stone  wall  they  lined — the  old 
battle-ground  of  First  Bull  Run.  Win  that,  now,  and  the  orderly 
retreat  of  the  Northerners  will  be  turned  as  it  was  that  July 
Sunday  afternoon  into  disorderly  rout.  Straining  every  nerve, 
hoarse  with  continuous  yelling  (and  never,  say  those  who  heard 
it,  "  Never  did  the  rebs  yell  as  they  did  at  Second  Bull  Run  "), 
the  divisions  of  Hood,  Anderson  and  Kemper  press  forward 
to  the  charge.  Jones  is  still  crawling  around  the  left  flank  and 
attacking  from  the  south,  but  here  again  they  encounter  cool, 
dauntless,  devoted  men.  The  Northern  batteries  are  magnifi- 
cently served;  the  regulars,  despite  their  small  numbers  and 
heavy  losses,  fight  with  a  calm,  disciplined,  matter-of-fact  sort  of 
valor  that  checks  the  rush  and  ardor  of  the  sons  of  Texas  and 
Virginia.  One  long  hour  of  crashing  volleys,  of  thundering 
cannon,  of  mad,  vengeful  yelling  that  little  by  little  died  away, 
and  as  darkness  fell  upon  the  scene,  the  three  days'  struggle 
around  the  "  plains  "  of  Manassas  was  at  an  end,  and,  again 
beaten,  but  this  time  in  perfect  order,  in  calm,  disciplined, 
coherent  organization,  the  army  of  the  North  fell  back  beyond 
Bull  Run,  and  bivouacked  upon  the  heights  of  Centreville. 


584  MANASSAS. 

Beaten  again  but  by  no  means  demoralized,  Pope  prepared 
to  resume  the  fight.  He  was  now  in  splendid  position ;  and 
small  as  was  his  command,  compared  with  the  numbers  on  the 
muster  rolls  of  the  combined  armies  of  Virginia  and  the  Potomac, 
he  had  plenty  of  men  to  beat  off  Lee  should  he  attempt  to  fol- 
low. Rations  were  obtained  at  Centreville,  and  all  day  on  the 
3  ist  the  army  waited  expecting  assault.  The  corps  of  Sumner 
and  Franklin  were  at  last  up  from  Alexandria,  and  it  behooved 
Lee  to  be  very  cautious  in  his  movements.  But  the  moral  effect 
of  having  pushed  Pope  way  back  from  the  Rapidan  to  the  near 
vicinity  of  Washington  was  immense,  and  the  greatest  consterna- 
tion and  alarm  had  spread  throughout  the  North.  Pope's  re- 
assuring despatches  to  the  capital  failed  in  their  effect.  Mc- 
Clellan  was  at  Alexandria  sneering  at  everything  that  Pope  had 
done  and  left  undone,  virtually  saying  that  had  he  been  there  it 
could  not  have  happened.  It  rained  dismally  all  the  day  of  the 
3 ist,  and  the  dismal  weather  added  to  the  general  gloom.  Peo- 
ple had  lost  faith  in  Pope,  and  withheld  support  and  confidence 
at  the  very  moment  when  he  most  needed  it. 

On  the  other  hand,  Lee,  the  Southern  army  and  the  jubilant 
South  were  wild  with  triumph.  Despite  his  heavy  losses  in  bat- 
tle the  Southern  leader  determined  to  finish  the  magnificent  work 
of  demolishing  the  army  of  Pope,  not  by  direct  attack  on  those 
heavily  fortified  heights,  but  by  the  daring  old  plan  which  Jack- 
son knew  so  well  how  to  execute,  that  of  striking  around  the 
flank  and  rear.  Once  again,  early  on  the  morning  of  September 
1st,  Jackson's  corps,  which  had  crossed  Bull  Run  at  Sudley  ford, 
reached  the  Little  River  turnpike,  then  turned  southeastward 
and  marched  down  through  Chantilly  and  past  Ox  Hill.  His 
plan  was  to  reach  the  great  highway  between  Centreville,  Fair- 
fax and  Washington,  and  "  cut  off  the  retreat "  of  Pope's  com- 
mand. With  perhaps  23,000  men  he  meant  to  try  and  bar  the 
passage  of  something  like  70,000.  It  was  just  as  wild  and  dar- 
ing a  scheme  as  the  flank  march  through  Thoroughfare  Gap  ; 
but  that  had  succeeded.  Longstreet  was  to  follow  him  only  a 
few  hours  behind,  so  he  had  no  fears  for  the  result  of  this. 

Late  in  the  afternoon  he  found  himself  confronted  by  Hooker 


GENERALS   KEARNEY   AND    STEVENS   KILLED.  535 

on  the  Little  River  pike.  He  could  not  get  to  Fairfax  that  way, 
so  he  turned  down  to  his  right  through  a  cross-road  until  Hill's 
division  was  almost  filing  on  the  Warrenton  pike,  and  there  he 
found  himself  suddenly  attacked  by  Reno  and  Kearney,  his 
antagonists  of  two  days  before.  Then  came  a  savage  fight  in  a 
pouring  rain,  and  then,  luckily  for  Jackson,  darkness ;  for  but  for 
that  he  would  have  been  utterly  hemmed  in  by  overpowering 
numbers,  and  probably  ruined  before  Longstreet  could  reach 
him ;  but  here  again  the  fortune  of  war  was  on  his  side.  His 
men  had  the  best  of  the  fight  while  it  lasted,  and  that  night  all 
Washington  knew  that  Jackson  was  in  sight  of  the  fortifications, 
that  there  had  been  another  fierce  engagement,  and  that  two 
superb  soldiers  and  generals,  "  Phil "  Kearney  and  Isaac  I. 
Stevens,  were  killed  in  the  midst  of  disaster.  It  ended  Pope's 
career.  The  army  was  ordered  to  hasten  back  to  the  fortifications, 
and,  not  knowing  what  else  to  do  in  the  bitter  emergency,  the 
government  once  more  placed  McClellan  at  the  head  of  affairs 
in  the  field.  The.  campaign  of  Second  Bull  Run  in  Manassas 
was  at  an  end. 

As  to  results :  the  Northern  army  had  lost  from  Cedar  moun- 
tain to  the  Potomac  more  than  one-fourth  its  number  in  killed, 
wounded  and  prisoners.  Sickness  and  straggling  had  still 
further  reduced  it,  but  the  stragglers  as  a  rule  reassembled  under 
the  colors  back  of  Centreville.  Yet  such  had  been  the  disci- 
pline and  determination  of  the  men  that  the  proportion  of  un- 
wounded  prisoners  was  very  small,  and,  except  in  the  great  battle 
of  the  3Oth,  it  had  lost  no  batteries  in  action  or  on  the  march. 
Those  captured  by  Stuart  at  the  Junction  were  unguarded.  The 
killed  and  wounded  in  the  fighting  of  the  28th  and  29th  in  Gen- 
eral Pope's  army  summed  up  4,500,  and  on  the  3Oth  it  must  have 
been  somewhat  heavier ;  but  in  killed,  wounded  and  prisoners  it 
is  not  probable  that  his  loss  on  those  three  days  of  fighting  ex- 
ceeded 12,000,  while  on  the  afternoon  of  the  3Oth  alone  Long- 
street's  corps  lost  3,498  in  killed  and  wounded ;  and  the  total 
killed,  wounded  and  prisoners  of  Lee's  army  on  the  plains  of 
Manassas  could  not  have  been  less  than  8,000  men. 

From  first  to  last  brilliancy,  daring  and  consummate  good 


586 


MANASSAS. 


luck  marked  every  move  on  the  Southern  side,  while  dogged 
and  disciplined  courage,  that  rose  superior  to  misfortune  and  a 
host  of -misunderstandings,  was  the  characteristic  of  the  Northern 
army.  An  awful  gloom  overspread  the  loyal  States  after  the 
retreat  to  Washington,  and,  but  for-  McClellan's  bloody  yet  fruit- 
less victory  at  Antietam,  there  is  no  telling  what  might  have  re- 
sulted from  the  renewed  machinations  of  the  "  peace  party." 
National  fortunes  seemed  indeed  at  the  lowest  ebb ;  but  forti- 
tude, patience  and  courage  finally  prevailed.  Lee's  retreat  south 
of  the  Rappahannock  measurably  restored  public  confidence, 
and  the  armies  went  into  winter  quarters  to  repair  damages  and 
prepare  for  the  next  move. 


BATTLE-FIELD    OF    MANASSAS. 

(Position  of  the  troops  at  sunset,  Aug.  28,  1862.) 


GETTYSBURG. 

1863. 

REAT  as  had  been  the  elation  throughout  the 
Southern  States  after  the  victory  of  their  arms 
at  Manassas  in  '62,  it  was  as  nothing  com- 
pared with  the  whirlwind  of  delight  in  May 
and  June,  '63.  Talking  to  Americans  it  is 
needless  to  go  into  details.  The  intervening 
events  may  be  briefly  told  as  regards  the  war 
in  Virginia. 

Emboldened  by  success,  General  Lee  de- 
cided to  carry  the  war  into  Maryland,  hoping  to  win  that  entire 
State  to  the  Southern  cause ;  and,  though  met  and  defeated  at 
Antietam,  it  was  a  fruitless  victory  for  the  North.  Lee  got 
safely  back  across  the  Potomac,  and  in  the  following  winter 
crushed  General  Burnside  at  Fredericksburg  (December  1 3th, 
'62),  and  in  the  following  spring  emphatically  paralyzed  General 
Hooker  at  Chancellorsville  (April  2Qth  to  May  4th,  '63).  All 
these  engagements  had  been  fraught  with  bitter  loss  and  humilia- 
tion to  the  Union  cause,  and  the  Northern  people  were  in  deep 
distress  of  mind.  Despite  the  acknowledged  steadfastness  and 
bravery  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  it  seemed  as  though  noth- 
ing could  prevail  against  the  skill  and  daring  of  the  Southern 
leaders.  With  them  there  appeared  to  be  such  perfect  concord 
of  action.  They  "  backed  one  another  up  "  on  every  occasion, 
as  in  the  old  days  we  have  seen  Marlborough  and  Prince  Eugene 
pulling  together  and  never  losing  a  fight ;  while  on  the  North- 
ern side  it  reminded  one  of  the  homely  old  saying,  "  Too  many 
cooks  spoil  the  broth."  This  brings  to  mind  a  second  proverb 
which  ought  to  have  been  of  use  to  the  Union :  "  In  multiplicity 

(587) 


588  GETTYSBURG. 

of  councils  there  is  wisdom,"  and  this  recalls  a  third,  which, 
wrung  from  the  lips  of  an  exasperated  general-in-chief  after 
Gettysburg,  fairly  demolished  the  second :  "  Councils  (of  war) 
never  fight." 

It  is  thrilling  to  look  back  on  the  situation  in  Virginia  up  to 
Chancellorsville  and  mark  how  Lee,  with  his  great  lieutenants, 
Jackson,  Longstreet,  Stuart,  Ewell  and  A.  P.  Hill,  with  far  in- 
ferior forces,  thwarted  the  manoeuvres  of  the  Northern  arms. 
It  is  painful  to  us  Northerners  to  take  this  retrospect  and  see 
how  we  "  experimented  "  wit|i  chief  after  chief.  They,  the  South- 
erners, picked  out  their  leaders  after  the  first  few  months,  and 
stood  by  them  from  first  to  last.  We  only  set  a  man  up  to 
knock  him  down.  The  Army  of  the  Potomac  was  always  in  a 
state  of  ferment,  not  to  say  divided  loyalty,  as  regarded  its 
leaders.  No  commander  it  ever  had  commanded  its  undivided 
allegiance,  unless  it  was  that,  tired  and  sick  of  dissension,  it 
concluded  to  make  its  best  effort  under  the  gallant  gentleman 
who  led  it  to  victory,  at  last,  at  Gettysburg,  and  who  thenceforth 
was  its  chief  until  the  final  disbandment. 

And  yet,  despite  all  this,  it  was  ready  to  march  and  fight  and 
get  whipped  time  and  again  with  a  "  never-say-die  "  determina- 
tion that  entitles  it  to  the  lasting  love  and  respect  of  the  nation 
it  finally  saved  from  ruin,  or  at  least  took  the  lion's  share  of  the 
hard  knocks  in  doing  it ;  for  nowhere  else  were  such  foemen 
gathered  in  such  force  as  breasted  its  blows  and  so  scientifically 
returned  them. 

But  things  were  black  enough  after  Chancellorsville.  Hooker, 
not  his  army,  was  demoralized.  Lee  knew  it,  and  now  with  his 
army  in  glorious  discipline  and  "  trim,"  the  Southern  leader 
determined  to  take  advantage  of  Northern  indetermination, 
march  squarely  into  Pennsylvania,  and  conquer  a  peace  at  the 
gates  of  the  wealthy  and  populous  cities  of  the  North. 

Of  course  now,  as  heretofore,  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  was 
"  luggmg  its  drag-chain,"  that  never-to-be-neglected  duty  of 
defending  the  capital  city.  Let  the  South  once  get  hold  of 
Washington,  and  England  and  France,  both  of  them  only 
too  ready  and  eager,  would  "  recognize  "  the  independence  of 


LEE   INVADES   THE   NORTH.  589 

the  South  and  forbid  further  proceedings  on  the  part  of  the 
North.  Then  we  would  have  been  split  in  twain.  Other  divi- 
sions would  soon  have  come,  and  the  Great  Republic  would 
have  gone  to  pieces.  In  his  sleepless  anxiety,  that  patient, 
God-given  figure-head  of  the  nation,  Abraham  Lincoln,  had 
summoned  to  his  side,  and  made  general-in-chief  of  all  the  armies, 
the  late  General  Henry  W.  Halleck,  a  man  learned  as  a  lawyer 
and  as  a  soldier,  a  man  who  would  have  made  a  surprisingly  good 
campaign  in  the  open  country  of  Europe;  but  he  too  was 
weighted  with  that  incubus,  the  defence  of  Washington,  and  had 
the  faculty  of  worrying  the  generals  in  the  field;  and  the  arrange- 
ment did  not  work  smoothly. 

(__As  though  in  utter  contempt  for  his  adversary,  General  Lee 
sent  away  corps  after  corps,  leaving  at  last  only  General  Hill 
with  his  corps  to  hold  the  lines  of  Fredericksburg  against 
Hooker,  who  still  hung  to  his  camps  around  Falmouth.  The 
Southern  army  was  strung  out  over  the  country  in  long  column 
of  march  towards  Culpeper  Court-House. 

Now  was  the  time  to  crush  it — but  it  was  not  crushed.  Their 
move  began  on  the  3d  of  June.  By  the  8th,  Lee  and  the  lead- 
ing troops  were  at  Culpeper;  still  the  Fredericksburg  heights 
were  heavily  occupied,  and  not  until  the  Qth  did  Hooker  do 
anything  but  puzzle  over  the  situation. 

That  day  he  pushed  out  his  cavalry  to  see  what  was  going  on, 
and  they  found  out.  Buford  and  Gregg,  two  sterling  leaders  of 
horse,  took  their  divisions  across  the  Rappahannock  way  up  on 
Hooker's  right,  and  dashed  into  a  large  force  of  Stuart's  cavalry. 
Then  followed  the  only  real  cavalry  combat  of  the  war,  the 
combined  fight  of  Beverly  Ford  and  Brandy  Station.  It  lasted 
until  night,  and,  if  official  reports  are  to  be  believed,  both  sides 
got  the  best  of  it.  At  all  events  it  was  a  spirited  and  dashing 
affair,  and  for  the  first  time  the  Southerners  began  to  feel  some 
respect  for  Northern  horsemen.  All  the  cavalry  in  the  two 
armies  took,  part  in  it,  charging  and  counter-charging,  sabre  in 
hand.  A  loss  of  half  a  thousand  was  sustained  on  each  side, 
and  after  that,  as  a  rule,  except  in  skirmishes,  the  cavalry  dis- 
mounted to  fight. 


590  GETTYSBURG. 

On  June  I3th  it  began  to  dawn  upon  the  Union  generally  that 
something  was  coming  northward,  for  on  that  evening  Ewell's 
corps  had  suddenly  appeared  in  the  Shenandoah,  and  all  Hook- 
er's army  had  found  out  that  Lee  was  a  week  ahead  on  a  race 
for  the  Potomac.  This  was  ghastly.  Washington  was  panic- 
stricken.  Hooker  sent  his  right  wing  off  in  pursuit,  but  wanted 
to  stop  and  demolish  Hill  with  the  rest  of  his  army,  but  Wash- 
ington would  not  listen  to  it.  It  would  have  been  a  splendid 
thing,  but  the  President,  Cabinet  and  General  Halleck  said  no. 
"  Head  him  off.  Get  between  him  and  us.  Dp  this.  Don't  do 
it."  Such,  in  unprofessional  language,  was  about  the  nature  of 
the  orders  that  came  pouring  in  on  General  Hooker,  who,  now 
that  he  was  awake,  was  fully  alive  to  the  situation.  Before  he 
got  to  the  Potomac  he  had  lost  all  patience.  Worse  than  that, 
the  entire  Southern  army  was  already  across  and  sweeping  up  the 
Cumberland  valley,  while  Ewell,  far  ahead  of  everybody,  was 
well  up  towards  Harrisburg. 

|  Crossing  his  own  army  at  Edward's  Ferry  on  the  25th  of 
June,  Hooker,  "  swearing  mad  "  by  this  time,  hurried  to  Frederick, 
and  there,  considering  himself  hampered  in  every  way  by  the 
contradictory  orders  from  Washington,  and  certainly  forbidden 
to  do  the  very  things  he  considered  essential  to  success,  on  June 
27th  the  general  begged  to  be,  and  was,  relieved  from  the  com- 
mand. 

He  had  been  a  splendid  division  commander — had  not  been  a 
loyal  and  subordinate  corps  commander  when  serving  under 
Burnside,  yet,  "in  spite  of  these  things,  not  because  of  them,"  as 
Mr.  Lincoln  wrote  him,  he  had  stepped  into  the  chief  command 
of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  and  had  vastly  improved  it,  espe- 
cially its  cavalry;  but  Chancellorsville  broke  his  popularity  and 
really  undermined  him.  He  did  gallant  service  subsequently  in 
the  West,  but  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  saw  him  no  more. 

Now  for  the  next  man.     On  the  28th  of  June,  the  army  was 
somewhat  surprised  to  hear  that  its  destinies  were  to  be  confided 
to  Major-General  George  G.  Meade,  the  then  leader  of  the  gal-^ 
lant  Fifth  corps,  and  no  one  was  more  surprised  than  himself.   ] 
He  was   not  the  senior  corps   commander.     Less  than  a  year 


MEADE   AT   THE    HEAD    OF   THE    ARMY.  591 

before  we  saw  him  at  the  head  of  a  tiny  brigade  in  the  little  divi- 
sion of  Pennsylvanians  under  John  F.  Reynolds,  and  Reynolds 
was  on  the  spot  with  an  unimpeachable  record  and  the  reputa- 
tion of  being  a  soldier  of  unusual  brilliancy.  Meade  had  never 
sought  the  position.  He  was  a  modest,  faithful  soldier,  a  man 
who  cared ,  nothing  for  popularity,  but  commanded  respect ;  a 
man  who  lived  and  died  a  gentleman,  and  who,  stepping  into 
the  chieftaincy  of  this  great  army  at  the  crisis  of  its  history,  was 
destined  to  lead  it  to  its  greatest  victory,  and  never  thenceforth 
to  be  other  than  chief  on  its  rolls. 

r  And  now  we  have  both  our  armies  north  of  the  Potomac. 
The  whole  country  ^  north  and  south,  is  waiting  the  result  in 
breathless  anxiety,  and,  as  the  greatest  battle  ever  known  on 
the  continent  is  about  to  be  fought,  let  us  look  well  at  the  com- 
batants. 

On  the  Southern  side  is  their  noble  and  invincible  Lee,  the 
beau  ideal  of  the  soldier  and  the  gentleman,  the  idol  of  the 
South,  the  now  honored  of  the  reunited  nation.  With  him  he 
brings  three  superbly  disciplined  and  devoted  corps  of  infantry, 
and  those  reckless,  hard-riding  troopers  of  the  cavalier  'Stuart. 
Just  now  they  are  widely  scattered  over  the  broad  lands  of 
Maryland  and  Pennsylvania — everything  getting  out  of  their 
way  with  justifiable  speed.  Farthest  north  of  all,  scaring  the 
militia  into  burning  the  beautiful  bridge  across  the  Susquehanna, 
and  now  somewhere  about  Carlisle,  is  the  most  renowned  march- 
ing corps  in  either  army,  that  of  old  Stonewall  Jackson ;  but  he 
himself  lies  far  away  in  his  honored  grave,  and  Lee's  right-hand 
man  is  no  more.  In  his  place  rides  his  division  commander, 
Ewell,  who,  less  than  a  year  ago,  we  saw  lose  his  leg  in  front  of 
the  stubborn  line  of  the  Iron  Brigade.  Tutored  as  he  was,  no 
fear  that  Ewell  will  fail  his  great  commander.  Daring  soldiers 
head  his  divisions  in  Early  and  Johnson  and  Rodes. 

The  next  corps  is  led  by  A.  P.  Hill,  a  most  accomplished  and 
gallant  officer  of  the  old  army,  and  Heth,  Anderson  and  Fender 
are  his  division  commanders ;  while  the  third  corps,  numeri- 
cally the  First,  perhaps  the  finest  of  all,  is  that  of  the  old  war- 
dog,  Longstreet,  who  has  three  superb  divisions,  famous 


592  GETTYSBURG. 

"  stayers,"  and  as  one  of  them,  "  Hood's  Texans  "  are  marvels 
in  attack.  Another,  Pickett's  Virginians,  are  "  die-hards,"  and 
prove  it  in  this  very  battle.  The  third,  McLaw's,  is  more  mixed 
in  composition— but  is  a  good  one. 

But  now  as  Lee  is  marching  eastward  to  concentrate  near 
Gettysburg,  and  Ewell  is  coming  southward  to  join  him,  what  is 
most  needed  is  his  cavalry,  "  the  eyes  of  the  army ; "  and,  by  great 
bad  luck  for  him,  Stuart  with  his  whole  force  of  troopers  is  far 
over  to  the  southeast  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  Union  army, 
which  is  hurrying  northward  with  all  speed  in  search  of  Lee. 

Knowing  that  he  would  have  a  much  larger  army  to  fight,  the 
great  Southern  leader  had  promised  his  generals  that  he  would 
not  be  the  assailant,  but  that  he  would  take  up  a  strong  position 
and  compel  the  Northern  armies  to  attack  him.  To  effect  this 
it  was  absolutely  necessary  that  he  should  have  his  "  eyes  "  way 
out  in  every  direction  to  give  timely  warning  of  the  coming  of 
the  foe;  but  the  first  troopers  he  was  destined  to  see  were 
Buford's  "  Yanks."  The  two  leading  divisions  of  Hill's  corps, 
bivouacked  on  the  broad  pike  from  Chambersburg  to  Baltimore, 
and  Pettigrew's  men,  thrown  well  out  to  the  front,  not  six  miles 
from  the  town,  suddenly  encountered  long  lines  of  cavalry  skir- 
mishers. These  are  Buford's  boys.  This  is  the  first  meeting  of 
the  great  combat  so  soon  to  rage  in  fury,  and  it  is  late  on  the 
afternoon  of  the  last  day  of  June. 

The  principal  leaders  of  the  Southern  army  having  been 
named,  it  remains  now  to  look  at  those  of  the  North.  For  years 
their  names  and  their  jportraits  were  far  more  familiar  than  pen 
can  make  them  now.  jJLee,  with  three  large  corps  d'arm'ee — his 
army  numbering  70,000  "  present  for  duty,"  was  being  pursued 
by  Meade  with  six  smaller  corps,  and  his  cavalry,  a  total  of 
100,000  men,  "  with  the  colors."  Lee  had  206  guns.  Meade 
had  352.  _Lee  had  but  recently  reorganized  his  army,  still  keep- 
ing up  that  superb  system  of  brigading  his  men  by  States,  so 
that  entire  divisions,  Pickett's  for  instance,  were  recruited  from 
one  commonwealth.  With  us,  regiments  were  assigned  accord- 
ing to  no  apparent  system — Maine,  Pennsylvania  and  Wisconsin 
perhaps  being  grouped  in  the  same  brigade.  Lee  had  three 


SKETCHES   OF   NORTHERN   LEADERS.  593 

large  divisions  to  each  corps.  Meade  had  sometimes  three, 
sometimes  two,  but  smaller  than  Lee's  in  every  case.  When  it 
is  said,  therefore,  that  on  the  3Oth  of  June,  1863,  six  Northern 
corps  were  about  to  engage  three  from  the  South,  the  effect  pro- 
duced is  not  justifiable. 

£jt  was  with  the  First,  Second,  Third,  Fifth,  Eleventh  and 
Twelfth  corps  that  General  Meade  essayed  the  task  of  bringing 
the  Southern  force  to  bay,  and  his  generals  were  as  follows :  first, 
and  deservedly  first,  John  F.  Reynolds,  First  corps,  a  man  uni- 
versally regarded  as  the  most  brilliant,  and  one  of  the  most  gal- 
lant soldiers  in  the  whole  army.  His  division  commanders  were 
the  veteran  Wadsworth,  of  New  York,  in  whose  division,  under 
Meredith,  is  the  Iron  Brigade  we  saw  fighting  so  stubbornly  a 
year  agone.  The  Second  division  is  commanded  by  Robinson, 
a  soldier  of  tried  mettle ;  and  the  Third  by  Doubleday  of  Fort 
Sumter  fame,  and  a  man  who  won  the  record  of  being  a  "  stayer  " 
at  Antietam. 

Then  comes  the  Second  corps,  and  at  its  head  is  the  knightly 
Hancock,  a  soldier  the  world  has  since  learned  to  know  and  to 
honor,  and  his  fine  divisions  are  led  by  Caldwell,  Gibbon  (whom 
we  saw  fighting  all  Jackson's  corps  with  that  one  brigade  last 
year)  and  Hays,  who,  already  severely  wounded,  is  destined  to 
do  some  hard  hitting  in  the  next  two  days. 

General  Daniel  E.  Sickles  commands  the  Third  corps.  Soldier- 
ing was  not  his  profession  before  the  war,  but  he  takes  to  it  with 
wonderful  ease.  He  has  but  two  divisions  ;  but  they  are  led  by 
Birney  of  Peninsula  fame,  and  by  Humphreys,  than  whom  the 
army  contains  no  more  determined  a  fighter,  and  few  men  so 
thoroughly  skilled  in  their  profession. 

Then  comes  the  Fifth  corps,  so  lately  commanded  by  General 
Meade.  It  is  now  led  by  General  George  Sykes,  a  cool,  stead- 
fast, reliable  old  regular.  All  the  regular  infantry  is  in  this 
corps  in  the  brigade  of  General  Ayres,  lately  a  dashing  battery 
commander.  Barnes  commands  the  First  division,  and  Craw- 
ford, a  hero  of  Sumter  and  Cedar  Mountain,  the  Third. 

The   Sixth   corps   stands   next   in   numerical    order,  and   its 
magnificent    leader,   brave,   steadfast   General   John  Sedgwick, 
38 


594  GETTYSBURG. 

commands  the  respect  and  admiration  of  the  whole  army.  The 
Sixth  corps  is  especially  strong  in  artillery,  it  having  eight 
batteries,  forty-eight  guns  in  all,  four  batteries  being  the  usual 
allowance  at  this  period  of  the  war.  Wright,  Howe  and 
Wheaton  are  the  division  commanders.  All  "  regular  "  soldiers 
and  men  of  experience  in  many  fields. 

Then  comes  the  Eleventh  corps,  an  ill-starred  command,  only 
just  recovering  from  the  shock  received  at  the  hands  of  Stone- 
wall Jackson  at  Chanccllorsville.  General  Howard  now,  as  at 
that  time,  is  its  commander,  a  man  more  eminent  for  piety  and 
personal  gallantry  than  for  success  as  a  soldier.  His  divisions 
are  led  by  Barlow  (who  nearly  loses  his  life  in  trying  to  rally  it 
the  next  day,  and  is  left  for  dead  behind  it),  Von  Steinwehr,  a 
Prussian  well  schooled  in  the  art  of  war,  and  General  Carl 
Schurz,  who  knows  little  about  it,  but  makes  up  for  it  in  courage 
and  intelligence. 

The  Twelfth  corps  is  the  command  of  Major-General  Slocum, 
who  is  senior  in  rank  to  all  the  others,  and  who  saw  service  at 
Antietam ;  but  he  has  but  two  small  divisions,  Williams'  and 
Geary's,  with  many  untried  troops.  Yet  they  are  destined  to  do 
gooj$  work  in  the  next  three  days. 

^General  Lee,  as  has  been  seen,  was  without  the  services  of  his 
cavalry  at  Gettysburg.  Not  so  with  Meade.  j  He  is  blessed 
with  three  divisions,  small  in  numbers,  perhaps,  but  already 
becoming  adepts  in  their  duties.  General  Pleasonton  heads  the 
corps,  and  has  for  his  assistants,  first  and  foremost,  John  Buford, 
the  best  cavalry  leader  of  his  day ;  and  Gregg  and  Kilpatrick, 
both  men  of  energy.  But  it  is  among  the  brigade  commanders 
that  we  find  the  names  that  became  most  distinguished  in  their 
peculiar  arm — Farnsworth,  Merritt,  Custer  and  Devin. 

General  Meade  is  also  fortunate  in  having  a  staff,  some  of 
which,  notably  the  brilliant  engineer  Warren,  are  men  of  un- 
equalled efficiency.  He  has  also  admirable  light  artillery  and  a 
chief  (Hunt)  who  knows  how  to  use  it.  In  fact,  take  it  all  in 
all,  the  Northern  army  is  far  superior  in  many  respects  to  the 
Southern ;  but  it  lacks  the  discipline,  the  unanimity  and  the 
supreme  confidence  of  the  latter. 


CONCENTRATING   AT   GETTYSBURG.  595 

I  Now  to  go  back  to  the  night  of  June  3Oth.  From  every 
point  of  the  compass,  troops  are  concentrating  on  Gettysburg — - 
Lee's  army,  oddly  enough,  from  the  north  and  west;  Meade's 
from  the  south  and  east.  \  Buford's  cavalry  division  is  the  only 
one  actually  at  the  spot  as  the  sun  goes  down.  The  nearest 
supports  are  at  Emmetsburg,  or  just  a  little  north,  say  five  miles 
from  Gettysburg,  where  General  Reynolds  with  the  First  and 
Eleventh  corps  has  gone  into  bivouac  for  the  night.  The  Third 
and  Twelfth  corps  are  not  very  much  farther  away  towards  the 
southeast. 

Two  of  Hill's  (Southern)  divisions,  as  has  been  said,  are  in 
bivouac,  five  or  six  miles  west  of  Gettysburg.  Ewell's  whole 
corps  is  within  easy  call,  eight  or  nine  miles  to  the  north ;  but 
Buford's  thin  cavalry  line  has  gone  out  toward  the  setting  sun, 
and  some  two  miles  west  of  the  town.  There  he  and  Petti- 
grew's  footmen  have  halted,  face  to  face,  and  the  skilled  cavalry- 
man knows  what  it  means  to  confront  an  infantry  ^brigade  at 
such  a  time  and  place.  There  are  others  behind  it.  (He  knows 
well  that  their  object  is  to  get  to  Gettysburg  before  Meade's  in- 
fantry, and  it  is  his  duty  to  stand  them  off  as  long  as  possible. 
"  We'll  have  to  fight  like  the  very  devil,"  he  says  to  General 
Devin ;  "  but  we  must  hold  them."  "  They'll  be  down  on  us 
first  thing  in  the  morning."  With  that,  night  closes  on  the 
scene  and  God's  truce  upon  the  opposing  armies. 

/  Gettysburg  is  a  little  town  in  southern  Pennsylvania  that,  but 
for  the  battle,  would  never  be  heard  of  outside  the  State ;  it  lies 
about  ninety  miles  due  west  from  Philadelphia.  Off  to  the  south- 
east, and  "  east  of  south  "  lie  Baltimore  and  Washington,  even  a 
less  distance  away.  The  town  lies  in  a  shallow  depression. 
Heights  or  ridges,  low,  rocky  and  wood-crowned,  surround  it  on 
every  side.  The  streams,  and  there  are  many  of  them,  all  run 
south.  Willoughby  Run  on  the  west,  Plum  Run  on  the  south, 
and  Rock  Creek  on  the  east — all  within  two  miles — are  the  prin- 
cipal water-courses.  North  and  east  the  slopes  are  low,  rolling 
and  heavily  wooded.  West,  shutting  off  the  view  and  separat- 
ing it  from  the  low  valley  of  Willoughby  Run,  is  a  ridge  running 
almost  north  and  south.  They  call  it  "  Seminary  Ridge,"  be- 


596 


GETTYSBURG. 


cause  of  a  Lutheran  institution  built  thereon  just  west  of  the  town. 
East  of  this  ridge  and  south  of  the  town  is  a  fertile  valley  about 
one  mile  in  width ;  and,  parallel  with  the  ridge,  bounding  the 
valley  on  the  east,  is  another  ridge,  bolder,  steeper,  rockier  and 
far  more  open.  This  is  the'  famed.  Cemetery  Ridge.  It  runs 
square  to  the  north  until  within  a  mile  of  the  town,  where  it 
sweeps  in  a  bold  curve  around  to  the  east  and  turns  south  again 
at  Rock  Creek.  Its  top  is  a  plateau  a  mile  wide.  At  its  north- 
eastern front  is  a  heavily  wooded  mound — Gulp's  Hill.  Its 
southern  extremity,  nearly  four  miles  from  Gettysburg,  is  marked 
by  a  huge,  jagged,  boulder-strewn  "  butte,"  it  would  be  called 
out  west.  This  is  Round  Top,  and  nestling  under  its  shoulder  to 
the  north  is  its  counterpart,  half-size — Little  Round  Top.  Be- 
tween them  and  to  the  west  of  Little  Round  Top,  lies  a  rocky 
gorge — mark  it  well.  That  is  Devil's  Den.  Plum  Run  curdles 
at  their  feet.  Then  out  in  the  valley  lies  a  wheat-field  nearly  op- 
posite Little  Round  Top,  and  out  farther  still,  reaching  to  the 
pike,  a  peach  orchard. 

Crossing  the  valley  from  the  southwest  to  northeast  in  long 
diagonal  is  the  broad  road  to  Emmetsburg.  It  runs  along  a 
low  ridge  of  its  own,  and,  just  skirting  the  northern  base  of 
Cemetery  Ridge,  enters  Gettysburg  from  the  south.  And  this, 
in  brief,  is  a  crude  description  of  the  ground  over  which  our 
greatest  battle  is  to  be  fought. 

But  first  we  have  a  prelude,  and  a  sad  one,  for  the  Union 
cause. 

At  first  break  of  day  on  the  1st  of  July,  as  though  by  one 
simultaneous  impulse,  the  scattered  soldiery  spring  to  arms. 
Those  who  are  happy  enough  to  possess  the  luxury,  gulp  down 
their  steaming  cans  of  coffee  and  take  a  bracing  souse  in  the 
nearest  stream.  Many  a  Southern  boy,  however,  sets  forth  on 
his  trudge  without  the  gladdening  beverage,  but  all  the  same  he 
swings  along,  cheerily  and  hopefully.  What  would  he  not  do  ? 
Where  would  he  not  go  for  "  Bob  Lee  ?  "  It  has  been  raining  off 
and  on,  through  June,  but  July  breaks  in  with  a  burst  of  sunshine. 
The  woods  are  green,  the  streams  are  bank-full,  the  roads  are 
clear  of  choking  dust.  What  more  could  soldier  ask  with  such 


MARYLAND 

. AND 

VIRGINIA. 


THE    BATTLE    BEGINS.  597 

a  glorious  prospect  before  him  ?  Meade  and  Lee  are  destined  to 
meet  right  here  in  this  peaceful  valley,  still  dim  and  misty  after  the 
dews  of  night,  and  neither  Meade  nor  Lee  knows  it.  The  former 
half  expects  to  form  his  battle-line  and  fight  along  Pipe  creek, 
farther  to  the  east.  The  latter  longs  for  Stuart  and  hopes  to 
hear  of  him  at  Gettysburg.  /It  is  his  worst  error  so  far — this 
sending  Stuart  off  on  a  distant  raid — and  the  chief  already  re- 
grets it.  But  it  is  too  late  now.  Stuart  is  sweeping  up  towards 
Carlisle. 

Morning  reveals  the  pickets  of  Pettigrew  and  Buford  grimly 
regarding  one  another  along  the  Chambersburg  pike.  Right  and 
left  through  the  thin  woods,  lines  of  sentinels  keep  watch  and  ward. 
Buford's  lines  are  in  a  sweeping  semicircle  west  and  northwest  a 
mile  out  from  town,  and  well  over  Seminary  Ridge ;  his  advance 
and  pickets  still  farther  out.  At  six  in  the  morning  gray-clad 
infantry  come  marching  eastward  along  the  pike.  It  is  Heth's 
division  moving  up  to  support  Pettigrew.  Warned  of  the  pres- 
ence of  "  Yanks,"  it  halts  and  deploys  into  line  of  battle  some 
distance  west  of  Willoughby  Run.  Not  until  nine  o'clock  is  the 
first  gun  fired.  Then  the  opposing  batteries  of  Northern  horse 
and  Southern  light-artillery  let  drive  at  one  another  along 
the  pike.  Gettysburg  has  begun.  Heth's  lines  sweep  forward 
through  the  woods  on  the  dismounted  troopers  of  Devin  and 
Gamble,  Buford's  brigade  commanders;  and  for  one  mortal 
hour  the  plucky  cavalrymen  stand  their  ground,  alone  and  un- 
supported. Buford  hangs  on  in  stern  determination,  but  still 
hopefully:  Reynolds  is  coming;  and  just  at  ten  o'clock  that 
superb  soldier  rides  out  on  the  field  in  full  view  of  the  Southern 
lines,  and  with  him  comes  gray-haired  old  Wadsworth,  leading 
his  division,  which,  though  composed  of  only  two  small  brigades, 
is  one  of  the  best  in  the  army.  Quickly  it  deploys ;  Cutler,  a 
veteran  "Badger"  from  Wisconsin,  throwing  his  line  facing  west 
across  the  deep  cut  of  an  unfinished  railway ;  Meredith,  of 
Indiana,  forming  on  his  left  with  the  celebrated  Iron  Brigade. 
Eager  hearts  are  beating  in  every  breast.  General  Doubleday, 
too  impatient  to  wait  for  his  own  division,  has  galloped  forward, 
and  Reynolds  has  placed  him  in  charge  of  the  left  of  the  field. 


598  GETTYSBURG. 

Out  to  the  front  is  a  little  cluster  of  trees  extending  up  and  down 
the  run.  Who  shall  have  it?  Archer  of  Heth's  division,  or 
Meredith  with  his  Western  boys  ?  "  Forward  and  seize  it,"  are 
Doubleday's  orders,  and  away  they  go.  Heth  has  four  brigades 
to  Wadsworth's  two.  The  troopers  are  now  farther  to  the  north, 
between  the  Chambersburg  pike  and  the  road  to  Mummasburg. 
Their  ammunition  is  well-nigh  spent,  and  they  must  soon  fall  back. 
A  new  danger  menaces  those  wearied  cavalrymen.  Long  lines  of 
gray-clad  infantry  emerge  from  the  woods  far  to  the  north,  and 
move  steadily  forward  towards  the  right  flank  of  the  Union  line. 
By  all  that  is  desperate,  Ewell  has  got  back  in  time !  Those  are 
the  men  of  Rodes'  division — too  far  away  as  yet  to  more  than 
threaten  ;  but  Reynolds  sends  urgent  orders  to  Howard  to  hasten 
forward  with  the  Eleventh  corps  and  face  them.  Then,  leaving 
to  Wadsworth  the  care  of  the  right,  he  gallops  over  just  in  time 
to  see  the  Iron  Brigade's  rush  upon  Archer,  who,  with  his  brigade, 
has  ventured  across  Willoughby  Run  to  attack  Cutler.  The 
clump  of  woods  is  for  the  moment  forgotten.  (..The  Second  Wis- 
consin, led  by  its  gallant  colonel,  Fairchild,  heads  the  dash  upon 
the  enemy's  flank,  and  General  Archer  and  several  hundred  of 
his  men  are  captured  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye.  Meantime  the 
brigade  of  General  Davis,  nearly  all  Mississippians,  has  driven 
back  Cutler's  right,  and  many  of  them  have  got  into  that  con- 
venient railway  cut.  The  chance  is  too  good  to  be  lost.  Before 
the  Mississippians  can  straighten  out,  Cutler's  three  remaining 
regiments  change  front  to  the  right,  run  to  the  edge  of  the  cut, 
and  have  Davis  and  his  men  at  their  mercy.  There  is  abso- 
lutely no  way  out  of  it  but  surrender,  and  surrender  the  Missis- 
sippians do — two  full  regiments  with  their  battle-flags.  So  far 
so  good.  Wadsworth's  division  has  covered  itself  with  glory. 
Where  is  Reynolds  now  ?  Wrhy  is  he  not  there  to  join  in  the 
ringing  cheers  and  to  heartily  congratulate  his  gallant  men  ? 
Alas  !  for  Northern  hearts  this  day.  Yonder  he  lies — stone-dead 
— with  a  bullet  through  his  brain. 

There  is  no  time  for  repining.  :Doubleday  takes  com- 
mand, sends  Cutler  farther  to  the  right,  and  himself  places  in 
position  the  divisions  of  Rowley  and  Robinson  just  marching 


DEATH   OF  THE   GALLANT   REYNOLDS..  599 

on  the  field.  They  come  in  the  highest  spirits,  eager  and 
enthusiastic./  "  Boys,  we've  come  to  stay,"  sings  out  Colonel 
Roy  Stone,  who  leads  the  brigade  at  head  of  Rowley's  column. 
"  We've  come  to  stay !  "  shout  the  men,  and  the  stirring  words 
go. cheerily  down  the  ranks. 

Robinson's  division  is  moved  off  northward  to  confront  the 
coming  lines  of  Ewell's  men.  For  the  time  being,  all  is  triumph. 
Robinson,  swinging  way  out  to  Cutler's  right,  is  so  fortunate  as 
to  catch  three  North  Carolina  regiments  napping,  and  they  too 
go  to  swell  the  list  of  prisoners.  ^  No  wonder  the  red  or  white 
balled  caps*  are  tossed  high  in  air,  and  the  First  corps  is  cheer- 
ing itself  hoarse.  Few  of  them  know  that  at  quarter-past  ten 
thejr  heroic  leader  met  his  soldier's  death. 

iBut  meantime  the  Southerners  are  far  from  idle.  Fender's  divi- 
sion has  come  up  and  reinforced  General  Hill,  whoj  despite  his  ill- 
ness, had  early  galloped  forward  and  assumed  command.  j^Rodes 
has  deployed  his  entire  line,  and,  advancing  from  the  north,  has 
taken  the  gallant  First*  corps  in  flank.  All  told  it  is  now  not 
more  than  six  thousand  strong,  and  Doubleday  is  hard  pressed.] 
Six  Southern  batteries  are  thundering  at  him,  and  he  has  but 
three  with  which  to  respond.  General  Howard  himself  has 
arrived,  and  is  in  command  of  the  field ;  but  his  main  anxiety 
appears  to  be  that  threatening  cloud  from  the  north,  where 
Ewell's  men  can  be  seen  in  the  distance  forming  their  lines  and 
preparing  for  a  swoop. 

It  is  half-past  one  o'clock  when  the  first  division  of  the  Elev- 
enth corps  comes  upon  the  field  under  General  Barlow.  It 
marches  through  Gettysburg,  and  is  deployed  north  of  the  town 
facing  Ewell.  Then  General  Schurz's  division  arrives  by  another 
road,  and  is  sent  in  between  Robinson  and  Barlow,  facing  north. 
[_But  General  Howard  retains  Von  Steinwehrand  his  division  on  the 
northern  end  of  Cemetery  Ridge,  and  Von  Steinwehr,  not  liking 
the  looks  of  things  far  to  the  north,  sets  his  men  to  work  at  once 
building  stone  breastworks  and  fence-rail  defences,  gets  his  guns 
into  position  and  waits;  so  does  General  Howard,  who,  from  his 

*  The  ball  or  sphere  was  the  badge  of  the  First  corps  j  Red  for  the  First  divi- 
sion; White  for  the  Second. 


600  GETTYSBURG. 

somewhat  elevated  position  two  miles  behind  both  his  north  and 
west  facing  lines,  takes  in  the  situation.  I  Out  on  the  north  front, 
now,  at  two  o'clock,  Carl  Schurz  is  in  command,  and  he  has  but 
two  divisions  with  which  to  hold  as  good  as  three,  for  yonder 
comes  old  Jubal  Early  with  Ewell's  second  division,  making 
eight  strong  brigades  in  all ;  and  now  it  is  all  up  with  Howard's 
dispositions.  He  has  tried  to  cover  too  big  a  front  with  too 
small  a  force.  Rodes  makes  a  dash  at  the  woody  eminence 
opposite  the  junction  of  the  First  and  Eleventh  corps — Oak 
Hill,  they  call  it.  It  is  his  almost  without  a  shot.  His  batteries 
are  promptly  placed  there.  They  enfilade  a  portion  of  the  First 
corps  line,  and  command  the  rest  of  the  field.  It  is  nearly  three 
o'clock  now,  and  the  Eleventh  corps  is  emphatically  ill  at  ease. 
Then  comes  the  inevitable  charge  and  that  ear-splitting,  nerve- 
shaking  "  rebel  yell."  Look  !  Out  to  the  north,  a  mile  beyond 
Gettysburg,  the  gray-clad  lines  come  tearing  down  the  slopes 
at  Barlow's  men.  When  did  the  Eleventh  corps  ever  stand  up 
against  Stonewall  Jackson,  dead  or  alive?  In  vain  gallant 
Barlow  cheers  and  shouts  and  strives  to  hold  them.  Von 
Gilsa's  men  leave  him  for  dead  behind  them  in  their  disorderly 
flight.  Rodes  takes  fire  at  the  sight  over  there  beyond  the  Car- 
lisle road.  "  Forward,  boys  !  Sweep  the  Dutchmen  into " 

well,  we  won't  say  where ;  and  just  as  at  Chancellorsville,  al- 
most without  a  shot,  like  so  many  sheep,  these  demoralized 
Teutons  of  Schimmelpfennig,  Von  Amsberg,  Von  Gilsa  and 
Kryzanowski  come  tearing  back  for  town — a  rabble — a  mob  ; 
and  the  gallant  First  corps  is  left  "  out  in  the  air." 

It  is  practically  the  end  of  the  first  day's  battle.  In  vain 
General  Howard  gallops  forward  and  strives  to  rally  his  shattered 
corps.  No  use.  Out  to  the  right  front,  all  alone  by  itself,  at 
half-past  three  o'clock,  one  little  brigade  is  making  manful  stand. 
It  is  Ames  with  the  Ohio  men — the  very  same  regiments  that, 
under  McLean,  were  the  last  to  leave  Bald  Hill  at  Manassas, 
and  the  last  to  go  at  Chancellorsville ;  but  north  and  northwest 
all  is  flight  and  confusion :  even  the  right  of  the  First  corps 
has  crumbled  away,  and  at  four  o'clock  the  army  of  the  North  is 
whipped. 


HANCOCK  ON   THE    FIELD.     • 

Fortunate  it  is  that  Howard  has  left  Von  Steinwehr  in  reserve 
on  the  heights  south  of  the  town.  Thither  the  fugitives  direct 
their  steps — those  who  succeed  in  escaping  Early,  who  springs 
forward  and  secures  5,000  prisoners  in  the  town;  and  then,  too, 
thank  God!  Hancock  has  arrived.;  What  Howard  cannot  do, 
he  can.  The  magnetism  of  his  presence,  the  calm  force  of  his 
demeanor,  revive  the  courage  and  command  the  respect  of  the 
troops.  He  has  been  sent  forward  by  Meade  to  straighten 
things  out  and  he  does  it.  By  five  o'clock  what  is  left  of  the 
Eleventh  corps  is  aligned  on  Von  Steinwehr  at  the  northern 
end  of  the  ridge.  Later,  Doubleday's  men  fall  slowly,  sullenly 
back  across  the  valley,  and  are  placed  facing  west  on  the  left  of 
the  Eleventh — all  but  one  division :  the  now  shattered  remnant  of 
Wadsworth's  command,  that  has  fought  so  heroically  all  day 
long,  is  placed  by  General  Hancock  at  Gulp's  Hill  to  the  right 
of  Von  Steinwehr.  Buford's  wearied  cavalry  form  in  stern  and 
forbidding  front  across  the  valley,  where  the  open  ground  would 
permit  of  their  charging  anything  that  came  along. ;_  Hill  from 
the  west,  Ewell  from  the  north,  take  a  look  at  the  new  posi- 
tion, and  conclude  not  to  attack.  General  Lee  has  arrived  in  all 
haste  and  assumed  command  on  his  side.  The  Twelfth  corps 
under  General  Slocum  begins  to  file  on  to  the  plateau  about  six 
o'clock,  and  is  placed  in  line  to  the  left  of  Doubleday.  With  the 
loss  of  nearly  ten  thousand  men  to  the  Northern  side,  the  first 
day's  battle  is  over,  and  Hancock,  his  duty  done,  rides  back  to 
report  to  General  Meade  at  Taneytown. 

It  may  be  safely  said  that  had  Stonewall  Jackson  been  there 
in  command  of  his  old  corps,  Gulp's  Hill  would  have  been 
stormed,  possibly  carried,  before  sunset.  As  it  is,  the  day  closes 
with  decided  advantage  to  the  Southern  forces,  but  not  all  that  it 
might  have  been.  Two  brigades  of  Heth's  division  are  practi- 
cally used  up,  but  he  has  two  left.  And  now  both  commanders 
strain  every  nerve  to  bring  up  all  their  forces  before  the  dawn  of 

THE  SECOND  DAY. 

<Jt  is  one  o'clock  in  the  morning  when  General  Meade,  after  a 
moonlight  ride  from  Taneytown,  arrives  at  Cemetery  Ridge  and 


602  GETTYSBURG. 

proceeds  to  make  an  immediate  inspection  of  the  field.  He  has 
ordered  forward  the  reserve  artillery,  called  in  the  outlying 
cavalry  of  Kilpatrick's  division,  and  directed  the  prompt  con- 
centration on  Gettysburg  of  all  the  infantry,  in  preparation  for 
the  struggle  he  knows  must  be  cm  his  hands  with  the  coming 
day.  This  concentration  is  a  most  creditable  piece  of  business 
to  all  concerned  except  the  stragglers,  for,  despite  the  fact  that 
some  of  the  corps  have  to  march  nearly  all  night,  and  that  most 
of  the  men  arrive  fatigued  and  little  in  the  mood  for  battle,  they 
are  there  on  time,  and  not  an  hour  is  wasted.  The  Third  corps 
under  Sickles,  arrives  early  on  the  evening  of  the  1st,  except  its 
rearmost  division,  which  is  in  by  sunrise.  The  Fifth  corps  after 
a  long  and  rapid  march  reports  its  presence  entire  at  nine  o'clock 
on  the  morning  of  the  2d.  The  Second  corps  had  been  pur- 
posely halted  near  Taneytown  "  to  cover  the  flank  and  commu- 
nications," but  comes  trudging  in  through  the  guns  of  the  artil- 
lery long  before  dawn  ;  and  the  Sixth  corps,  young  as  many  of 
its  soldiers  are/  marches  thirty-six  miles  from  Manchester  after 
getting  its  orders  the  evening  of  the  1st,  and  is  on  the  field  in 
time  for  all  the  fighting,  should  it  be  called  on.  It  arrives  at 
two  P.  M. 

At  dawn  on  the  2d  of  July,  General  Meade  has  decided  on 
an  arrangement  of  his  troops  pretty  much  as  follows : 

Beginning  on  his  extreme  right — the  northeast  face  of  Gulp's 
Hill — he  has  there  posted  General  Slocum  with  the  Twelfth 
corps,  as  it  is  evident  that  Johnson's  division  of  Ewell's  corps 
means  mischief  there.  Wadsworth,  of  the  First  corps,  is  moved 
a  little  to  the  left  so  as  to  connect  with  Ames'  (yesterday  Bar- 
low's) division  of  the  Eleventh  corps;  and  to  General  Howard 
with  that  corps  is  assigned  the  general  charge  of  the  northern 
end  of  the  Cemetery  Ridge,  which  Ewell,  with  Early 's  and 
Rodes'  divisions,  is  threatening.  Robinson's  division  of  the 
First  corps  is  extended  on  the  face  of  the  ridge  next  to  the  left 
of  Howard,  and  facing  west.  Doubleday,  with  his  division,  is 
in  support  of  Howard,  so  that  the  First  corps,  the  heroes  of  the 
first  day's  fight,  and  now  commanded  by  General  Newton,  are 
somewhat  scattered.  When  we  speak  of  them  as  the  heroes,  it 


MEADE'S    ARRANGEMENTS.  603 

must  not  be  understood  as  ignoring  •  Buford  and  his  gallant 
troopers,  who,  perhaps,  best  of  all  deserve  the  honors  of  that 
day. 

The  centre  of  the  position,  midway  between  the  Round  Tops 
and  the  northern  end  of  the  ridge,  is  occupied  by  the  very 
men  to  hold  it — the  gallant  Second  corps,  fresh  and  vigorous ; 
while  General  Sickles,  with  the  Third  corps,  holds  the  left  of 
the  line.  The  Fifth  corps,  early  in  the  day,  is  held  in  reserve. 
All  along  the  crest  the  men  are  busily  occupied  constructing 
rude  breastworks  and  shelters,  while  the  batteries  are  run  to  the 
front  and  crowded  into  every  available  space.  There  is  nowhere 
near  room  enough  for  half  the  guns.  Oddly  enough,  no  bat- 
tery, regiments  or  troops  of  any  kind  are  sent  to  occupy  the 
Round  Tops,  unless  we  except  the  signal  men  with  their  flags. 
It  is  an  oversight  that  comes  near  being  the  ruin  of  the  Army  of 
the  Potomac. 

[_On  the  other  side,  General  Lee  has  during  the  night  concen- 
trated all  his  troops  except  Stuart's  cavalry  and  Pickett's  division 
of  Virginians.  As  these  two  organizations  are  perhaps  the  flower 
of  the  Southern  army,  it  would  seem  as  though  the  gallant  gen- 
eral were  severely  "  handicapped  "  from  the  start. 
^  And  now,  with  a  line  five  miles  in  length,  sweeping  way 
around  from  Rock  Creek  in  front  of  Slocum,  through  Gettys- 
burg, then  down  Seminary  Ridge  until  really  beyond  Round 
Top,  with  possibly  sixty  thousand  men,  the  Southern  leader  is 
trying  to  encircle  an  army  of  greater  size  in  a  stronger  position. 
More  than  that,  he  proposes  to  attack  and  beat  them ;  and  it  may 
be  said  right  here,  that  that  is  General  Lee's  second  great  error. 
It  is  a  desperate  venture  and  not  warranted  by  the  situation ;  and 
yet  his  army  awaits  the  word  in  serene  confidence  that  they 
are  bound  to  win.  The  fact  is  that  in  the  Army  of  Virginia  there 
is  up  to  this  time,  a  feeling  of  contempt  for  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac. 

/  Lee's  army  is  placed  as  follows :  Longstreet's  corps  on  the 
right,  with  Hood's  division  opposite  the  Round  Tops ;  McLaws' 
opposite  Sickles  and  the  Third  corps ;  Hill's  three  divisions  cov- 
ering the  long  centre,  which  extends  along  Seminary  Ridge 


604  GETTYSBURG. 

from  McLaws  to  Rodes ;  Rodes  mainly  in  Gettysburg ;  Early 
and  Johnson  from  the  town  to  Rock  Creek.  iThe  Southerners 
have  one  point  in  their  favor :  on  this  long  line  they  can  use 
their  batteries  to  better  advantage,  and  Pendleton,  their  chief  of 
artillery,  is  no  bad  match  for  Hunt 

Lee  had,  as  we  have  seen,  determined  to  attack — Meade,  to 
await  attack ;  but  almost  the  entire  day  passed  in  eying  each 
other  before  an  aggressive  move  is  made,  beyond  the  mere 
"  tentative  "  of  Early  and  Johnson  the  first  thing  in  the  morning 
at  Gulp's  Hill.  It  is  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  before  the 
Southern  general  decides  just  where  to  strike  and  how  to  do  it; 
but,  when  the  blow  comes,  it  comes  fearfully  near  sweeping  the 
cause  of  the  Union  to  perdition,  and  this  is  how  it  happens: 

General  Meade  has  been  of  the  opinion  all  the  morning  that 
the  attack  in  force  would  come  on  his  right;  that  is,  the  northern 
face  of  Cemetery  Ridge  and  of  Gulp's  Hill.  General  Lee,  after 
thorough  reconnoissance  of  the  lines,  decides  to  assault  pretty 
much  as  he  did  with  Jackson  at  Chancellorsville,  by  enveloping 
the  unprotected  flank  and  "  enfilading  "  the  position.  But  he  no 
longer  has  Jackson  to  conduct  the  move.  In  fact  it  is  not  even 
to  be  conducted  by  Jackson's  successor,  or  any  of  old  "  Stone- 
wall's  "  men.  Lee  determines  to  reach  around  the  Union  left, 
seize  the  Round  Tops  and  attack  from  the  south,  while  Hill  is 
to  hold  things  steady  in  the  centre,  and  Ewell  is  to  keep  the 
troops  in  his  front  so  busy  as  to  prevent  their  slipping  off  to 
assist  the  corps  of  General  Sickles,  on  whom  the  brunt  of  the 
attack  will  fall.  To  Longstreet  is  confided  the  arrangement  of 
this  assault  on  the  Union  left,  and  Longstreet  is  very  long  in 
getting  ready.  It  is  said  of  him  that  he  disapproves  the  plan 
and  is  unwilling  to  undertake  it ;  and  yet,  thanks  to  the  error  of 
General  Sickles,  no  plan  could  have  been  better.  '7 

It  so  happens  that  just  north  of  the  "  tops  "  and  south  of  the 
well-defined  portion  of  Cemetery  Ridge,  occupied  by  Hancock's 
corps,  the  ground  flattens  out,  so  to  speak ;  the  ridge  is  lost  in 
the  undulations ;  whereas,  out  in  the  valley  proper,  out  beyond 
the  wheat-field,  and  fully  half  of  a  mile  from  Little  Round  Top, 
there  is  a  perceptible  ridge  along  which  runs  the  Emmetsburg 


LONGSTREET   ASSAULTS    LITTLE    ROUND    TOP.  605 

pike.  General  Sickles  takes  the  responsibility  of  pushing  out 
there  with  his  whole  corps,  placing  Humphreys'  division  on  the 
pike,  Graham's  brigade  on  its  left  as  far  as  the  peach  orchard, 
and  the  rest  of  Birney's  division  "  refused,"  as  the  expression  is, 
and  stretching  back  through  low,  scantily  wooded  ground 
toward  the  Round  Tops.  In  this  disposition  of  his  line  he 
thrusts  an  elbow,  so  to  speak,  squarely  in  the  face  of  Long- 
street's  position,  showing  two  lines,  either  of  which  can  be 
11  enfiladed,"  raked  or  swept  by  the  Southern  guns.  The  peach 
orchard  is  at  the  elbow,  and  not  more  than  half  a  mile  from  the 
ranks  of  gray-clad  infantry  lying  prone  among  the  trees  of 
Seminary  Ridge.  It  is  shortly  after  two  o'clock  when  Sickles 
moves  out  and  takes  this  position.  General  Meade,  busied  with 
his  staff-officers  at  headquarters  back  of  Hancock's  corps,  never 
hears  of  it,  or  discovers  it  until  four  o'clock,  when  he  himself 
rides  out  to  see  what  is  going  on  towards  the  left.  Just  what 
the  general's  sensations  are  it  is  impossible  to  assert ;  but  it  is 
too  late  to  remedy  the  error.  Even  as  he  urges  his  horse  out 
toward  the  point  where  fluttering  guidons  indicate  the  position 
of  General  Sickles,  with  one  simultaneous  crash  and  bellow 
Longstreet's  batteries  open  on  the  devoted  lines  of  Humphreys 
and  Birney.  Meade  can  only  send  back  to  the  plateau  in  all 
haste  for  his  old -pets,  the  Fifth  corps,  and  back  up  Sickles  in 
his  blunder. 

Then  comes  the  thrilling  moment  of  the  assault.  Not  in  front 
— not  facing  east  upon  Humphreys  and  Graham — but  issuing 
from  the  woods  to  the  south,  Hood's  whole  division  in  long  gray 
lines  comes  charging  with  its  half-savage  yell  upon  the  "  refused  " 
brigades  of  De  Trobriand  and  Ward.  On  they  come,  two  solid 
brigades  of  Georgians,  another  in  support;  while  way  off  to  the 
southeast,  lapping  far  around  the  left  of  Birney's  line,  never 
halting  to  fire,  never  uttering  a  sound,  strange  to  say;  pay- 
ing no  attention  to  anything  to  the  right  or  left,  but  in  eager 
column,  with  desperate  purpose,  arms  at  right-shoulder,  mounted 
officers  at  the  trot,  line  officers  and  the  sturdy  rank  and  file  at 
double-quick,  a  fourth  brigade  is  dashing  straight  at  Little  Round 
Top — at  Little  Round  Top,  the  key-point  of  the  whole  position, 


606  GETTYSBURG. 

the  spot  which  commands  every  inch  of  the  lines ;  the  bi^wark, 
that,  once  gained  and  held,  will  enable  Lee  to  driv;^  the  North- 
ern army  from,  its  stronghold ;  and  there  it  stands  Defenceless, 
while  Robertson  and  his  daring  Texans,  Hood's  "  chargers," 
and  Law  with  his  Alabama  men,  are  nearing  it  at  every 
jump. 

Great  Heaven !  is  there  no  one  to  see  it  ? — no  one  to  meet 
this  mortal  thrust  and  turn  it  back?  The  signal-men  are  already 
taking  alarm  and  preparing  to  leave.  Out  to  the  front  all  is 
now  uproar  and  excitement,  for  Longstreet  has  launched  in  his 
whole  command;  McLaws  is  hammering  at  Humphreys  and 
charging  Graham  at  the  peach  orchard.  Meade,  all  anxiety  for 
his  exposed  Third  corps,  can  see  nothing  but  what  is  going  on 
around  him.  The  Fifth  corps  is  pushing  hastily  out  to  the 
front.  Barnes'  division  is  hurrying  forward  down  the  slope. 
Every  man  seems  full  of  eagerness  to  go  and  help  Sickles.  No 
one  further  up  the  line  towards  Hancock  can  see  what  is  coming 
down  there  beyond  the  rocky  heights.  Five  minutes  more  and 
all  would  have  been  up  with  the  Northern  army  for  that  day  at 
least,  perhaps  for  good  and  all ;  all  might  have  been  lost  but  for 
one  man,  that  clear-headed,  sharp-eyed,  brilliant  engineer  War- 
ren. He  has  caught  sight  of  the  frantic  signals  of  the  flagmen 
on  the  height.  He  it  is  who  spurs  thither  in  eager  haste,  forces 
his  panting  horse  up  among  the  rocks  and  boulders,  reaches  the 
crest  and  sees,  scarce  five  hundred  yards  away,  those  densj 
columns  of  gray-clad  infantry  swarming  at  him  up  the  glen. 
God  of  battles!  what  a  sight!  Quick  as  a  flash — quick  almost 
as  his  own  thought,  he  wheels  his  horse,  tears  down  the  slope  to 
the  north,  and  dashes  at  the  flank  of  the  Fifth  corps,  rapidly 
filing  by.  "  This  way,  this  way,  Vincent,"  he  shouts  to  the 
brigade  commander  nearest  him.  "  Up  there  with  you  quick  as 
you  can — up  every  man  of  you !  "  and,  leading  the  way,  hur- 
riedly pointing  out  the  new  danger,  he  sends  the  brigade  scram- 
bling up  the  rocks.  They  have  not  even  time  to  load.  Then  he 
gallops  to  Hazlett's  battery,  and  shouts  to  the  leading  regiment 
of  Weed's  fine  brigade.  It  is  the  One  Hundred  and  Fortieth 
New  York,  "  Pat  O'Rorke's  boys."  "  Get  those  guns  up,  any- 


BOTH   SIDES   FIGHT    LIKE   DEMONS.  607 

how — anyhow !  Carry  them  on  your  shoulders  if  you  have  to, 
but  get  them  up  /  "  and  with  might  and  main  the  guns  are  lifted, 
shoved,  dragged,  by  straining  arms  and  panting  breasts.  ^  Four 
heroic  young  West  Pointers  are  urging  on  the  work — Warren, 
Weed,  O'Rorke  and  Hazlett;  and  just  in  the  nick  of  time  they 
gain  the  summit;  quick  the  gunners  spring  in  with  lanyard  and 
canister;  quick  the  black  muzzles  are  trained  on  the  surging 
masses  of  gray;  the  flash  and  roar  follow  instanter;  gun  after 
gun  barks  its  challenge,  but  Alabama  and  Texas  are  already  at 
our  gates,  and  in  hand-to-hand  conflict,  panting,  half-exhausted 
with  their  long  and  rapid  run,  they  are  clenched  with  Vincent's 
brigade.  Never  as  yet  during  the  war  has  there  been  such  a 
sight,  such  a  struggle.  Bayonets,  swords,  clubbed  muskets, 
rocks  and  stones,  even  fists,  are  brought  into  play.  Knowing 
the  importance  of  the  position,  both  sides  fight  like  demons,  and 
the  Texans,  never  before  checked,  keep  swarming  forward  as 
though  nothing  could  stop  them.  Even  as  the  foremost  ranks 
are  grappling  foot  to  foot,  the  rearmost  regiments,  finding  it  im- 
possible to  get  in  anywhere,  scale  the  sides  of  Round  Top 
across  the  Devil's  Den,  and  from  there,  open  a  rapid  fire  on  their 
opponents,  over  the  heads  of  their  friends.  Vincent  has  four 
regiments — the  Sixteenth  Michigan,  Forty-fourth  New  York 
(Ellsworth  avengers),  Eighty-third  Pennsylvania  and  Twentieth 
Maine.  Every  section  of  the  North  is  represented  in  the  defence 
of  the  vital  point.  All  are  hotly  engaged ;  fire-arms  are  speedily 
resumed,  and  some  attempt  is  made  at  forming  line.  Off  to  the 
right,  gallant  Pat  O'Rorke,  the  Buffalo  Irishman,  who  graduated 
head  of  his  class  at  "  the  Point,"  cheers  his  men  into  position, 
shouts  at  them  some  enthusiastic  words  that  few  can  hear,  and 
then  with  flashing  sword  leads  them  in  charge  down  the 
slope  upon  the  Texan  lines.  General  Weed,  so  loved  through- 
out the  army,  calls  up  the  rest  of  his  brigade,  and,  after  half  an 
hour's  desperate  and  bloody  work,  the  position  is  safe.  But  at 
what  a  cost ! 

[Vincent,  the  gallant  brigade  commander  who  first  sprang  to 
meet  the  Texan  rush,  lies  prone  in  death.  O'Rorke,  charging 
at  the  head  of  his  men,  is  instantly  killed.  Noble-hearted  Weed, 


308  GETTYSBURG. 

mortally  wounded,  is  breathing  his  last  messages  to  Hazlett, 
when  the  latter,  bending  over  his  loved  friend  and  chief,  is  him- 
self shot  dead;  and  everywhere,  right  and  left,  through  the  rocks 
and  boulders,  lie  the  blue-clad  forms  of  the  Northern  soldiery. 
Little  Round  Top,  the  key-point,,  is  saved;  but  the  blood  of 
heroes  pours  down  its  rocky  sides. 

Meantime  there  has  been  the  very  mischief  to  pay  out  in 
front  across  the  valley.  Directly  in  front  of  Little  Round  Top, 
separated  from  it  only  by  the  narrow  rivulet  of  Plum  Run  now 
curdling  red  through  this  veritable  Devil's  Den,  lies  another 
rocky  and  wooded  eminence.  From  this  vantage  point  out 
through  the  open  wheat-field,  thence  to  the  "peach  orchard," 
and  thence  northward  along  the  Emmetsburg  pike,  there  has 
been  going  on  one  terrific  and  incessant  struggle.  All  the 
lower  valley  is  now  so  obscured  with  smoke  that  but  little  of  the 
combatants  can  be  seen,  but  after  an  hour's  desperate  struggle  the 
eight  regiments  of  the  Third  corps  holding  the  peach  orchard,  the 
key-point  of  the  position  in  the  valley,  are  forced  back  by  the 
united  efforts  of  the  divisions  of  McLaws  and  Anderson ;  so  too 
are  the  Fifth  corps  brigades  of  Tilton  and  Sweitzer;  so  too  are 
McGilvray's  light  batteries  that  retire  firing  as  they  go.  Long- 
street  has  burst  through  the  very  centre  and  threatened  the 
divisions  of  Humphreys  on  the  left  flank  and  what  is  left  of 
Birney's  on  the  right.  General  Sickles  himself  is  severely 
wounded  and  borne  to  the  rear  for  the  amputation  of  his  leg. 
Humphreys  swings  back  from  the  pike  in  perfect  order — his  two 
regular  batteries,  Turnbull's  and  Seeley's,  and  Randolph's  Rhode 
Island  guns,  trotting  back  to  the  new  line  as  unconcernedly  as 
though  death  were  anywhere  but  at  their  heels.  General  Graham 
is  wounded  and  taken  prisoner.  Caldwell's  division  of  Han- 
cock's corps  comes  down  to  help  strengthen  the  new  centre. 
Cross,  Kelly,  Zook  and  Brooke  are  the  four  brigade  com- 
manders. Cross  and  Kelly  are  hurried  to  the  support  of  De 
Trobriand,  who  is  now  almost  exhausted  and  being  charged  by 
the  fresh  troops  of  Kershaw ;  and  gallant  Cross,  who  has  won 
such  distinction  on  many  a  field  as  to  be  a  noted  man  and  one 
marked  for  speedy  promotion,  is  shot  dead  while  cheering  on 


HANCOCK'S   COUNTERCHARGE.  609 

his  men.  Zook  meets  his  death-wound  but  a  few  moments 
later,  and  Brooke,  even  while  driving  the  enemy  before  him,  is 
shot  down,  severely  injured.  Caldwell's  division  is  used  up 
almost  as  quick  as  it  comes,  and  Ayres'  fine  brigade  of  regulars, 
attacked  in  front,  flank  and  rear  at  the  same  instant,  has  to 
fight  its  way  back  towards  Little  Round  Top.  Verily  on  the 
left  Hood  has  carried  all  before  him — except  that  height.  And 
on  the  right,  Hill  has  advanced ;  Humphreys  is  driven  back. 
Hancock  has  been  sent  down  by  Meade  to  take  command  of  the 
Third  corps  as  well  as  his  own,  the  Twelfth  corps  is  hurried 
to  the  spot  by  General  Meade  himself,  and  with  these  reinforce- 
ments a  determined  stand  is  at  last  made  close  under  the  ridge. 
The  last  daring  charge  of  Hill's  men  is  met  by  a  vigorous 
countercharge  under  Hancock.  Barksdale,  of  Mississippi,  is  left 
mortally  wounded  within  the  Union  lines  ;  and,  farther  to  the  left, 
the  Pennsylvanians  under  Crawford  having  made  a  vigorous 
sally,  the  wearied  troops  of  Longstreet  fall  back  across  the 
wheat-field  they  had  won,  and  darkness  closes  upon  the  scene. 

Ewell's  attack  on  Gulp's  and  Cemetery  Hill  has  been  suc- 
cessful in  so  far  that  he  gains  the  intrenchments  on  the  extreme 
right,  and  scares  half  to  death  the  previously  demoralized  portion 
of  the  Eleventh  corps  on  the  left.  But  in  front  of  Wadsworth 
and  Carroll  he  is  whipped  back  with  heavy  loss.  This  ends  the 
fighting  of  the  second  day;  and  once  again,  take  it  all  in  all,  the 
Southern  side  is  uppermost,  for  Meade's  losses  by  sunset  on  the 
2d  of  July  are  equal  to  those  of  the  first  day— another  10,000; 
making,  in  all,  20,000  men,  killed,  wounded  and  missing. 

It  is  a  black  night,  however,  for  both  sides.  Such  heavy  losses 
have  a  depressing  effect,  and  the  Southern  troops,  accustomed 
hitherto  to  carry  everything  before  them  at  first  onset,  are  a 
trifle  stunned  at  the  resistance  they  have  encountered  during 
the  day. 

Nevertheless,  with  Swell's  men  securely  lodged  in  the  Union 
intrenchments  way  around  by  Rock  Creek,  and  with  Sickles' 
corps  whipped  back  to  the  ridge,  General  Lee  is  hopeful  that 
on  the  morrow  he  can  complete  the  work,  and  crush  his 
enemy. 


610  GETTYSBURG. 

With  General  Meade  there  seems  to  have  been  deep  anxiety. 
At  one  time  during  the  afternoon  things  look  so  threatening 
that  he  has  sent  General  Pleasanton  to  gather  up  the  reserve 
artillery,  the  cavalry,  etc.,  and  look  after  the  lines  of  retreat. 
There  is  a  prospect  of  the  enemy's  sweeping  round  the  Union 
left,  and  cutting  off  communication  with  Washington.  That 
evening,  however,  he  summons  his  principal  generals  in  council 
and  propounds  three  questions  : 

- 1  st.  "  Under  existing  circumstances,  is  it  advisable  for  this  army 
to  remain  in  its  present  position,  or  to  retire  to  another  near  its 
base  of  supplies?  " 

2d.  "It  being  determined  to  remain  in  the  present  position, 
shall  the  army  attack,  or  wait  the  attack  of  the  enemy?  " 

3d.  "  If  we  wait  attack,  how  long  ?  " 

There  are  present  Generals  Slocum,  Sedgwick,  Hancock, 
Howard,  Newton,  Sykes,  Birney,  A.  S.  Williams  and  Gibbon. 
In  answering  the  questions  the  junior  officer,  Gibbon,  votes 
first.  One  and  all  are  of  the  same  opinion,  winding  up  with 
Slocum's  emphatic  "  Stay  and  fight  it  out,"  and  General  Meade, 
as  though  gratified  at  a  unanimity  so  much  in  accord  with  his 
own  wishes,  promptly  announces,  "That,  then,  gentlemen,  is  the 
decision." 

In  the  confident  expectation  that  Lee  will  again  attack  on  the 
coming  day,  all  preparations  are  made  to  meet  him.  Meantime 
all,  who  can,  lie  down  along  the  lines  and  sleep  until  the  ringing 
reveille  that  ushers  in  the  morning  of 

THE  THIRD  DAY. 

The  very  earliest  gray  of  morning  reveals  a  change  in  the 
dispositions  on  both  sides  over  on  the  right  at  Gulp's  Hill. 
Johnson's  men  of  Ewell's  corps  have  been  heavily  strengthened 
during  the  night,  and  Meade  has  been  far  from  idle.  Several 
light  batteries  have  been  moved  over  opposite  the  intrenchments 
tp  which  the  plucky  Virginians  are  clinging.  The  whole  Twelfth 
corps  is  sent  over  from  near  the  Round  Tops,  and  the  moment 
it  is  light  enough  to  see,  every  gun  opens,  and  shell  and  case- 
shot  go  whirring  and  banging  into  the  thick  underbrush,  and 


LEE   ATTACKS   THE    UNION   CENTRE.  611 

there  is  not  a  Southern  gun  there  to  reply.  For  some  time  this 
shelling  is  carried  on;  then  the  divisions  of  Williams  and  Geary 
make  a  spirited  assault,  and,  for  five  mortal  hours,  a  deadly  strug- 
gle goes  on  along  the  banks  of  Rock  Creek.  Shaler's  brigade 
of  the  Sixth  corps  takes  part,  and  the  Northern  army  is  able  to 
send  in  very  heavy  masses  of  troops  against  Johnson's  men, 
among  whom  is  the  old  Stonewall  brigade.  At  last,  between 
ten  and  eleven  o'clock,  the  slopes  are  cleared  of  Southern  sol- 
diers, the  position  is  retaken,  held  and  strengthened,  and  Meade 
turns  his  eyes  westward  to  see  what  Lee  will  do  next. 
(^Foiled  in  his  hopes  of  strengthening  Johnson  and  attacking 
from  the  north,  General  Lee  adopts  the  one  plan  he  considers 
left  to  him,  that  of  making  a  furious  assault  on  the  Union  centre, 
piercing  it,  and  hurling  the  army  apart.  It  is  a  tremendous 
undertaking,  but  he  feels  that  it  must  be  done,  and  is  moderately 
hopeful.  As  a  prelude,  and  in  order  to  sweep  the  opposite  crest 
as  much  as  possible,  General  Lee  causes  to  be  stationed  at 
every  available  point  along  Seminary  Ridge  his  most  powerful 
batteries,  until  by  noon  he  has  one  hundred  and  forty-five  guns 
in  position.  Most  of  these  are  Iplf  hidden  in  the  trees  at  the  foot 
of  the  ridge,  but  many  are  pushed  boldly  out  to  the  Emmets- 
burg  pike,  behind  which,  lying  down  in  the  broiling  sun,  are 
many  brigades  of  Southern  troops  "  waiting  for  orders."  Mean- 
time on  Cemetery  Ridge  General  Hunt  has  not  been  idle.  Two 
regular  batteries  now  crown  Little  Round  Top.  ,  Next,  farther 
north,  come  the  batteries  of  Major  McGilvray;  then  those  under 
command  of  Captain  Hazzard,  and  finally  the  batteries  of  the  First 
and  Eleventh  corps  farther  north — eighty  guns  in  all,  General 
Hunt  is  able  to  plant  in  front  of  the  infantry  or  between  the 
brigades  along  the  crest,  for  he  well  knows  that  a  desperate 
at,ttack  is  coming. 

Before  it  comes,  however,  a  brilliant  though  fruitless  struggle 
is  destined  to  take  place  way  down  to  the  south  of  the  Round 
Tops.  There  the  cavalry  of  General  Kilpatrick,  with  Graham's 
and  Elder's  horse-batteries,  find  themselves  confronting  a  few 
cavalry  skirmishers  and  some  infantry  regiments  of  Hood's 
corps.  The  woods  are  thick.  They  cannot  tell  just  what  is  in 


GETTYSBURG. 

front  of  them,  but  Merritt  has  his  regulars,  and  Farnsworth  two 
fine  regiments  of  volunteer  horse.  They  are  not  the  men  to 
stand  idly  by,  and,  seeing  what  they  suppose  to  be  a  good 
opportunity  to  dash  in  on  the  rear  of  Hood's  main  line,  they 
charge.  Farnsworth,  sabre  in  hand,  leaps  a  fence  in  front  of 
him,  and,  followed  by  his  two  regiments,  dashes  through  the 
fields  beyond,  sabring  the  skirmishers  whom  they  find  there, 
and  pressing  impetuously  onward  to  the  very  guns  of  the  South- 
ern batteries,  they  find  themselves  well-nigh  surrounded  by  in- 
fantry. Here  gallant  Farnsworth  and  many  of  his  men  are 
killed,  others  taken  prisoners ;  and  as  for  Merritt's  regular  brig- 
ade, they  speedily  find  the  woods  in  their  front  crammed  with 
riflemen,  and  utterly  inaccessible  for  cavalry,  despite  the  daring 
and  vigorous  attempts  made  to  carry  them. 

And  now  come  the  preparations  for  the  grand  closing  attack 
— the  final  effort.  In  many  of  its  features  one  is  reminded  of 
the  last  charge  of  Ney  and  the  Old  Guard  at  Waterloo. 

During  the  morning  there  has  arrived  in  rear  of  the  cen- 
tre of  the  Southern  line  the  superb  division  of  General  Pickett, 
comprising  the  brigades  of  Kemper,  Armistead  and  Garnett,  all 
Virginians;  and  this  devoted  command  is  designated  by  General 
Lee  to  lead  the  van.  In  compliance  with  his  orders,  Pickett 
moves  his  division  out  in  the  open,  midway  between  the  Emmets- 
burg  pike  and  the  Seminary  Ridge.  There,  with  Kemper  and 
Garnett  in  the  first  line,  and  Armistead  forming  the  second,  the 
men  are  to  lie  down  and  await  the  result  of  the  cannonade  soon 
to  begin.  To  support  Pickett  in  the  great  task  before  him 
General  Lee  draws  upon  Hill's  corps,  the  only  troops  that  have 
not  yet  been  heavily  engaged  in  the  battle  itself.  Wilcox's 
brigade  is  ordered  to  move  on  Pickett's  right,  and  six  brigades 
of  the  divisions  of  Anderson  and  Pender  are  designated  to 
attack  simultaneously  on  his  left,  Pettigrew  commanding  their 
leading  line.  General  Pickett  also  understands  that  two  or  three 
light  batteries  are  to  assist  upon  his  flanks,  moving  forward  with 
him.  The  troops  move  in  silence  to  their  assigned  positions, 
and  the  entire  command,  now  numbering  15,000  men,  is  placed, 
for  the  time  being,  under  the  orders  of  General  Longstreet ;  and 


SIXSCORE   CANNON   OPEN    FIRE. 

right  here  it  must  be  said  that  Longstreet  is  ominously  op- 
posed to  the  whole  plan,  j  He  cannot  bring  himself  to  act 
heartily  in  carrying  out  the  orders  of  his  chief.  He  has  every 
fear  that  the  attempt  will  prove  suicidal,  and  for  once  in  his  life 
at  least,  Lee's  staunch  lieutenant  must  be  said  to  have  "  hung 
fire."  At  one  o'clock  the  report  is  brought  to  him  that  all  is 
ready,  the  different  brigades  in  their  assigned  positions — Pickett 
and  Wilcox  out  towards  the  pike,  Pettigrew  and  Anderson  farther 
back  among  the  trees  of  the  ridge.  The  point  designated  by 
General  Lee  on  which  to  direct  the  attack  is  a  jutting  knob  of 
Cemetery  Ridge  occupied  by  Hancock's  corps,  immediately 
behind  which  are  Meade's  headquarters.  At  one  o'clock,  down 
to  the  right  of  the  lines  of  Lee,  there  boom  forth  at  one  minute's 
interval  two  guns  from  the  Washington  artillery  of  New 
Orleans.  It  is  the  signal  to  begin,  and  in  one  terrific  burst  of 
thunder,  the  sixscore  cannon  open  fire  on  Cemetery  Ridge, 
and  a  flight  of  death-dealing  shells  whirls  shrieking  across  the 
valley.  Thus  begins  the  most  stunning,  deafening  cannonade 
ever  heard  on  this  continent.  Fast  as  they  can  load  and  aim 
the  Southern  gunners  ply  their  work,  and  the  eager  eyes  of 
their  leaders  follow  the  effect  of  the  fire.  But  on  the  Union 
side  all  is  still :  crouching  behind  their  breastworks,  lying  flat  on 
the  ground,  the  Northern  infantry  seek  shelter  from  the  terrible 
storm ;  the  battery  men  lie  prone  around  their  guns  impatiently 
waiting  for  the  word,  the  horses  are  run  ofT  far  to  the  rear ; 
all  eyes  are  on  General  Hunt,  who,  cool  and  imperturbable 
amid  the  flying  fragments  of  the  shells,  stands  scanning  the 
positions  of  the  Southern  guns.  Full  fifteen  minutes  he  waits, 
then  comes  a  quick  signal  to  Hazzard ;  the  bugles  ring  out, 
"commence  firing;"  up  jump  the  cannoneers,  and  in  one 
grand  roar  the  whole  line  from  Round  Top  to  the  right  bursts 
into  flame.  The  cannonade  is  indescribable;  men  are  so  deafened 
and  stunned  by  it  that  many  are  semi-paralyzed,  and  hundreds 
can  hear  no  word  of  command  for  days  afterwards.  More  than 
two  hundred  guns  are  banging  away  all  at  once,  and  if  anything, 
the  Southerners  are  having  the  best  of  it.  Flying  over  the  crest, 
their  shells  plunge  back  on  the  plateau  among  the  reserve  bat- 


614  GETTYSBURG. 

teries,  the  wagons,  the  various  headquarters,  and  play  havoc 
everywhere  except  on  the  crest  itself,  where  the  infantry  is  lying 
down.  Then,  too,  a  light  wind  from  the  northeast  blows  all  the 
smoke  down  into  the  valley,  and  completely  hides  it  from 
the  Northern  gunners,  who  are  thus  compelled  to  fire  very 
much  at  random,  while  the  Southern  gunners  simply  keep  the 
range  they  had  learned  early  in  the  cannonade.  But  they  make 
one  great  mistake.  Instead  of  concentrating  their  fire  on  Han- 
cock, where  the  great  attack  is  to  be  made,  they  scatter  it  along 
the  whole  line.  At  last  the  fire  slowly  slackens.  The  word  is 
passed  that  the  Union  batteries  are  silenced  or  out  of  ammuni- 
tion. It  does  not  seem  to  occur  to  Colonel  Alexander  that  the 
wily  Hunt  may  only  be  suppressing  his  batteries  in  order  to  draw 
on  the  attack  he  is  so  ready  and  eager  to  meet.  "  Now  is  your 
time,  Pickett,"  is  the  purport  of  the  message  that  reaches  that 
gallant  general,  and  he,  galloping  to  Longstreet,  asks  if  he  shall 
now  advance;  but  Longstreet,  torn  by  conflicting  emotions,  his 
.duty  to  Lee  and  his  own  conviction  that  nothing  but  disaster 
can  result,  will  not  give  the  word  that  is  to  launch  his  magnifi- 
cent division  to  destruction;  but  Pickett  knows  the  orders  of  the 
general-in-chief.  He  waits  one  moment:  then,  saluting,  says, 
"  General,  I  am  about  to  lead  my  division  to  the  attack,"  and 
Longstreet  in  silent  agony  of  mind  simply  bows  his  head.  It  is 
the  order.  It  must  be  done. 

And  now,  under  a  blazing  July  sun  that  has  already  stricken 
down  many  unwounded  men,  Pickett  gallops  to  the  front,  and 
the  ringing  word  of  command  resounds  and  is  taken  up  along  the 
lines.  Virginia  springs  to  her  feet ;  the  ranks  are  dressed ;  the 
battle-flags  are  advanced.  Forward  is  the  word,  and  in  disci- 
plined silence,  in  beautiful  order,  the  Virginia  division  moves  to 
the  front.  At  the  same  instant  the  brigades  of  Hill  to  the  left 
spring  to  arms,  and  move  forward  from  the  sheltering  woo.ds. 
To  attain  the  point  indicated  by  General  Lee,  Pickett  has  to 
move  full  half  a  mile  to  his  left,  up  the  valley  towards  Gettys- 
burg, and  nothing  can  exceed  the  calm  steadiness  in  which  the 
manoeuvre  is  executed.  Friend  and  foe  alike  burst  into  shouts 
of  admiration.  The  instant  the  lines  reach  the  Emmetsburg  pike 


DAUNTLESS    BEARING  OF   PICKETT'S    MEN.  $15 

the  Northern  guns  reopen  and  hurl  case-shot  and  canister  upon 
the  gray-clad  ranks,  but  with  no  more  effect  in  stopping  them 
than  if  they  were  firing  blank  cartridges.  At  last  they  reach  the 
point  directly  in  front  of  Hancock,  Armistead  presses  forward 
and  aligns  his  brigade  between  those  of  Kernper  and  Garnett; 
and  now,  gentlemen  of  Virginia,  forward  it  is  in  earnest.  Off  to 
the  left,  animated  by  the  dauntless  bearing  of  Pickett's  men,  the 
troops  of  Pettigrew  and  Anderson  are  coming  gallantly  forward ; 
but  Wilcox  is  unaccountably  slow.  He  is  too  far  back  on  the 
right,  and  Kemper  is  "  uncovered "  towards  the  south.  The 
guns  along  Cemetery  Ridge  blaze  in  perfect  fury ;  fresh  bat- 
teries are  run  up ;  canister  is  fairly  rained  upon  the  matchless 
advance ;  but,  closing  in  their  gaps,  dressing  on  the  centre,  ever 
directing  their  march  upon  that  jutting  knoll  of  Hancock's, 
calmly,  with  solid  tramp,  tramp,  even  sloiver  than  quick  time, 
those  glorious  soldiers  come  on.  They  are  within  five  hundred 
yards.  Pettigrew  on  their  left  is  urging  his  North  Carolinians  up 
on  line  with  their  leading  rank.  Armistead,  afoot  now,  with  his 
hat  on  the  point  of  his  sword,  is  waving  on  his  men ;  for  at  this 
instant  Stannard's  Vermont  regiments,  thrown  forward  in  a  little 
clump  of  trees  south  of  the  point  of  attack,  open  a- rapid  mus- 
ketry fire  on  the  right  flank  of  Kemper's  lines,  and  they  cannot 
help  edging  a  little  to  the  left.  McGilvray's  batteries  too  are 
hurling  canister  obliquely  across  the  slope,  and  the  gray  uni- 
forms are  dropping  by  scores;  but  still  the  battle-flags  wave'in 
front,  and  the  steady  advance  continues.  The  batteries  before 
them  have  fired  away  nearly  all  their  canister  and  never  checked 
them ;  and  now  the  men  of  Gibbon's  and  Hay's  divisions  grasp 
tighter  their  muskets  for  the  coming  volley.  "  Remember 
Fredericksburg,"  some  men  pass  the  word  along  the  line. 
Nearer  and  nearer  come  the  Virginians,  and  still  not  a  musket- 
shot  is  heard  on  the  crest.  At  last,  as  they  get  within  three  hun- 
dred yards,  one  simultaneous  volley  bursts  from  the  rifles  of  the 
Second  corps,  one  terrific,  sweeping  volley  before  which  hun- 
dreds go  down  like  ten-pins.  It  is  more  than  the  North  Caro- 
linians can  stand;  they  waver,  break  and  run,  leaving  many  bat- 
tle-flags, and  hundreds  of  prisoners  in  Hancock's  hands.  Not 


616 


GETTYSBURG. 


so  Virginia.  With  one  triumphant  yell  they  burst  from  the 
serried  ranks,  and,  still  shouting  like  demons,  the  brigades  of 
Kemper,  Armistead  and  Garnett,  all  alone  and  unsupported  at 
the  moment,  dash  at  the  crest  and  come  tearing  up  the  slope  in 
a  vast  gray  surging  wave.  In  vain -the  blue  lines  blaze  with  fire. 
Nothing  will  stop  them.  Three  Pennsylvania  regiments  man 
the  low  wall  right  in  front  of  Armistead,  and  such  is  the  impetus 
of  Pickett's  grand  up-hill  rush  that  the  Pennsylvanians  are  rolled 
over  and  driven  back,  and  Armistead  leading,  leaps  in  among  the 
guns  of  Cushing's  battery — gallant  little  Gushing,  mortally 
wounded  already,  yet  demanding  the  right  to  die  among  the 
guns  he  has  fought  so  well ;  and  die  he  does,  another  bullet 
striking  him  just  as  Armistead  reaches  his  side,  and  is  himself 
prostrated  in  death  beside  the  young  commander  whom  he  was 
about  to  order,  surrender.  With  frantic  yells  of  triumph  the 
Southerners  swarm  through  the  battery  and  the  Rhode  Island 
guns  on  its  left,  while  Kemper's  men  and  Garnett's,  pushing  for- 
ward, hurl  themselves  on  the  second  line.  But  watchful  Han- 
cock and  his  energetic  Gibbon  have  rushed  up  additional  troops; 
brave  "Andy"  Webb  has  rallied  the  Pennsylvanians.  Whole 
brigades  and  regiments  come  running  to  the  scene;  a  perfect 
death-storm  breaks  on  the  devoted  Virginians  now  hemmed  in 
on  three  sides ;  Garnett  is  killed ;  Armistead  dying;  Kemper  is 
borne  to  the  rear  severely  wounded ;  the  battle-flags  are  shot  to 
earth  quicker  than  men  can  pick  them  up,  and  still  these  heroic 
Virginians  hold  the  ground.  Then  the  surrounding  regiments 
advance  their  stars  and  stripes;  four-deep  the  blue  ranks  crowd 
about  their  hapless  foes ;  the  wall  of  fire  is  broader  and  deeper, 
and  at  last  the  bleeding  remnant  throws  itself  upon  the  ground, 
the  battle-flags  are  all  humbled  in  the  dust,  ^JPickett,  making 
his  unhappy  way  back  through  the  friendly  smoke  across  the 
valley,  finds  that  he  has  left  to  him,  of  the  twenty-two  officers  of 
rank,  and  five  thousand  men,  who  went  in  with  him  as  his  own 
division,  just  one  lieutenant-colonel  and  perhaps  five  hundred  sol- 
diers. Ney,  Cambronne  and  the  Old  Guard  at  Waterloo  were  not 
more  superb  ;  but,  as  Longstreethad  feared,  the  glorious  division 
of  Virginia  is  annihilated.  On  its  left,  Pettigrew  has  come  up  with 


HANCOCK  .MASTER   OF  THE   SITUATION.  617 

his  partially  rallied  troops,  and  the  brigades  of  Scales  and  Archer, 
only  to  meet  a  fate  almost  as  bad.  Fortunately  for  him  and  his, 
they  do  not  break  the  first  line  and  so  get  into  a  trap ;  but  they 
are  desperately  whipped.  Hancock  has  taken  forty-five  hun- 
dred prisoners  and  twenty-seven  battle-flags.  A  few  broken  and 
dispirited  regiments  drift  back  through  the  smoke,  and  are 
rallied  by  sad-hearted  Lee  and  Longstreet  on  Seminary  Ridge. 
Wilcox  comes  up  and  makes  an  abortive  assault  in  front  of  the 
batteries  of  McGilvray ;  but  those  active  Vermonters  of  Stannard 
take  him  too  in  flank  and  he  is  hurled  back  with  loss  of  several 
hundred  men.  The  battle  of  Gettysburg  is  over. 

Even  in  that  last  charge  of  Pickett's,  his  Virginians  in  their 
heroic  fight  have  done  much  damage.  Many  officers  and  men 
are  killed  and  wounded  while  battling  with  them  for  the  -crest. 
Among  the  wounded  are  Hancock  and  Gibbon,  who  have  been 
so  energetic ;  but  nothing  can  compensate  the  Southern  army 
for  the  terrible  losses  it  has  sustained.  It  has  fought  with  superb 
and  devoted  bravery.  It  has  been  unable  to  drive  the  Army  of 
the  Potomac  from  its  strong  position.  Its  best  and  bravest  have 
gone  down  in  the  desperate  attempt ;  but  all  the  same  it  is  still 
so  disciplined,  so  united  that  General  Meade  wisely  decides  to 
let  well  alone  and  "  push  things  "  no  farther  that  day.  He  has 
been  blamed  for  not  making  a  general  assault,  at  once,  on  Lee's 
position  on  Seminary  Ridge ;  but  the  issue  would  have  been 
very  doubtful.  Ten  years  ago,  General  Longstreet  told  the 
writer  that  Hood  and  McLaws,  and  the  whole  Southern  artillery, 
were  in  readiness  to  give  him  the  warmest  kind  of  reception  in 
case  Meade  made  the  attempt ;  so  that  night  of  the  3d  of  July 
was  spent  as  though  a  truce  had  been  sounded.  The  next  day 
the  rain-storm  that  inevitably  follows  a  great  battle  came  up. 
General  Lee  moved  his  trains,  his  guns  and  his  wounded  slowly 
and  deliberately  back  to  Cumberland  valley,  and  thence  towards 
Williamsport  on  the  Potomac.  He  followed  with  his  army  in  a 
day,  slowly  and  with  impressive  dignity ;  but  his  cavalry  leaped 
forward,  seized  the  bridges  and  the  ground  commanding  them. 
Floods  prevented  his  crossing.  He  fortified  his  position,  and, 
when  Meade  came  up  in  pursuit,  the  very  generals,  who  had 


618  GETTYSBURG. 

counselled  fight  at  Gettysburg,  shook  their  heads  at  the  defiant 
front  presented  by  that  unconquerable  Army  of  Virginia.  It 
was  then  that  General  Halleck,  eager  to  have  the  work  finished, 
telegraphed  that  "councils  of  war  never  fight;"  and  the  Presi- 
dent expressed  his  deep  regret  that  "Lee  was  allowed  to  get  away. 
But  get  away  he  did,  and  safely  too.  On  the  I5th  of  July  the 
army  of  the  South  was  all  back  again  on  the  "sacred  soil" — all 
but  what  was  left  at  Gettysburg. 

Of  the  losses  in  this  "  battle  of  the  giants,"  an  exact  estimate  can 
be  given  only  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  which  suffered  :  2,834 
killed,  13,733  wounded,  6,643  missing — an  aggregate  of  23,190. 
The  army  of  General  Lee  lost  14,000  prisoners,  and  probably 
15,000  killed  and  wounded  at  lowest  estimate. 

On  the  4th  of  July,  the  day  after  the  battle,  the  Army  of  the  Po- 
tomac and  that  of  the  West  exchanged  hearty  congratulations,  for 
Vicksburg  fell  before  General  Grant,  and  the  combined  victories 
served  to  give  to  all  loyal  hearts  in  the  North  a  thrill  of  hope,  a 
fervent  glow  of  gratitude,  such  as  had  not  been  known  since  the 
beginning  of  the  long  and  cruel  war.  The  tide  at  last  had 
turned,  but  not  until  Virginia  had  ridden  on  the  topmost  wave 
and  been  dashed  on  the  rocks  of  Gettysburg. 


NASHVILLE. 


1864. 

HE  year  1863  had  been  full  of  disaster  for  the 
South,  or  rather  for  the  cause  of  its  leaders. 
The  trivial  successes  gained  in  Virginia  were 
more  than  neutralized  by  the  great  blow  of 
Gettysburg,  while  the  fall  of  Vicksburg  had  re- 
manded to  the  control  of  the  North  the  whole 
course  of  the  Mississippi  river.  Then  there 
were  two  proclamations  by  the  President  of  the 
United  States  that  had  all  the  moral  effect  of 
additional  victories  for  the  national  arms — the  emancipation  of 
the  slaves,  and  the  amnesty  offered  to  all  armed  insurgents  under 
certain  of  the  highest  grades.  The  year  1 864  began  with  every 
prospect  of  a  speedy  ending  of  the  war  of  the  rebellion,  but  the 
South  seemed  as  hopeful,  resolute  and  energetic  as  ever.  Abroad, 
her  statesmen  were  enjoined  to  represent  her  as  rapidly  nearing 
her  final  triumph,  and  so  material  aid  kept  coming  in  from 
England  and  from  France.  At  home,  her  government  cheered 
the  people  by  promises  of  speedy  satisfaction  for  the  heavy  losses 
of  '63,  and  more  rigorously  enforced  its  conscription  of  able- 
bodied  citizens  to  ensure  it. 

In  the  North  all  was  high  hope  and  confidence.  Three  great 
generals,  who  had  risen  to  prominence  and  won  resounding 
applause  on  western  battle-fields,  had  been  placed  at  the  head 
of  the  armies  of  the  Union,  and  of  these  men  great  things  were 
expected.  First  was  General  U.  S.  Grant,  whose  dogged  reso- 
lution, persistence,  and  keen  knowledge  of  soldiers  and  soldier- 
ing had  enabled  him  to  win  battle  after  battle,  and  finally  to 
gain  the  crowning  triumphs  of  Vicksburg  and  Chattanooga,  and 

(619) 


620  NASHVILLE. 

who  now  appeared  in  the  east  as  lieutenant-general  command- 
ing the  armies  of  the  United  States,  supplanting  Halleck,  who 
remained  at  the  capital  as  chief  of  staff.  Second  was  Major- 
General  W.  T.  Sherman,  whose  tireless  energy  and  brilliant  at- 
tainments had  made  him  Grant's'  right  hand  man  and  most 
trusted  lieutenant.  To  him  was  now  intrusted  the  chief  command 
of  the  armies  in  the  west.  Third  was  General  Philip  H.  Sheri- 
dan, who  had  won  universal  praise  and  admiration  for  the  dash 
and  vigor  with  which  he  handled  an  infantry  division;  and  when 
General  Grant,  reaching  Washington,  had  his  first  interview  with 
the  President,  the  secretary  of  war,  and  General  Halleek,  and 
announced  to  them  that  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  must  have  a 
general  to  reorganize  and  command  its  entire  cavalry,  General 
Halleck  asked,  "  How  woulcl  Sheridan  do  ?  "  "  The  very  man," 
said  General  Grant,  and  Sheridan  forthwith,  and  very  much  to 
his  disgust  at  first,  was  transferred  from  the  Army  of  the  Cum- 
berland to  the  Army  of  the  Potomac.  With  Grant,  Meade  and 
Sheridan  in  Virginia,  it  was  believed  that  the  gallant  army  of 
General  Lee  would  soon  be  penned  within  the  walls  of  Rich- 
mond ;  and  with  Sherman,  Thomas,  McPherson  and  Schofield 
in  the  west,  it  was  believed  that  there  the  confederacy  would  be 
cut  in  two. 

In  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  there  had  been  much  discord  and 
jealousy,  as  we  have  seen.  In  the  armies  of  the  west  there  was 
unanimity,  and  high  spirit  of  cordiality  towards  the  present 
commanders.  Of  course  there  had  been  the  same  experiments 
with  various  generals  in  high  commands,  which  had  been  so 
marked  a  feature  of  the  first  two  years  of  the  war  in  the  east. 
Generals  Don  Carlos  Buell,  Rosecrans  and  Halleck  had  all 
commanded  in  the  field  south  of  Kentucky,  and  had  failed  to 
satisfy  the  demands  of  the  public  or  the  government,  but  the 
leaders  and  the  men  had  pulled  together  with  a  will,  and  now, 
early  in  '64,  it  was  the  intention  of  General  Grant  that  the 
armies  east  and  west  should  act  in  concert,  and  no  longer  be 
"  like  a  balky  team,"  as  he  characteristically  expressed  it.  Early 
in  the  spring,  he  and  Sherman  moved  simultaneously — Grant 
on  Richmond,  Sherman  on  Atlanta.  General  Lee  successfully 


SHERMAN  "MARCHING   TO   THE    SEA."  621 

defended  the  approaches  to  his  capital,  and  forced  Grant  to  halt 
before  the  walls  of  Petersburg ;  but  nothing  could  stop  Sherman, 
who,  on  the  2d  of  September,  had  taken  Atlanta. 

Things  looked  desperate  for  the  South,  but  the  people  were 
as  brave,  the  leaders  as  daring  as  ever.  Jefferson  Davis  hurried 
westward  to  revive  the  spirit  and  hopes  of  the  people ;  pointed 
out  to  them  that,  though  Sherman  had  succeeded  in  reaching 
and  seizing  Atlanta,  he  was  in  a  very  critical  position.  His  sole 
line  of  supplies  was  a  long  single-track  railway  that  was  liable 
to  be  cut  in  a  thousand  places.  It  had  to  be  heavily  guarded, 
and,  running  through  hostile  territory  for  300  miles,  it  could 
not  be  relied  upon.  Mr.  Davis  urged  all  absent  or  skulking 
soldiers  to  return  to  their  colors,  promised  that  Sherman  should 
be  driven  back  in  a  retreat  as  disastrous  as  Napoleon's  from 
Moscow,  and  that  the  armies  of  the  South  should  march  jubi- 
lantly to  the  Ohio.  He  had  most  injudiciously  removed  General 
Joseph  E.  Johnston  from  the  command  of  the  army  in  Georgia, 
and  assigned  in  his  place  a  daring  and  brilliant  soldier,  General 
John  B.  Hood ;  and,  giving  the  latter  instructions  to  cut  Sher- 
man's communications  everywhere  and  prepare  to  march  north- 
ward, and  promising  him  that  strong  forces  should  join  him 
from  west  of  the  Mississippi,  Mr.  Davis  went  back  to  Richmond, 
leaving  General  Hood  to  carry  out  his  orders. 

Hood  was  active  and  energetic.  He  aimed  blow  after  blow 
at  the  railway,  and  sent  his  cavalry  raiding  all  along  the  lines, 
giving  General  Sherman  much  uneasiness,  but  never  for  once 
breaking  his  hold  on  Atlanta.  No,  General  Sherman  had  re- 
solved on  a  glorious  move.  All  he  needed  was  a  reliable  man 
to  hold  the  States  of  Tennessee  and  Kentucky  against  any  north- 
ward march  of  the  Southern  army  in  his  absence,  and  he  chose 
the  right  man  when  he  named  for  this  important  trust  Major- 
General  George  H.  Thomas. 

Taking  the  very  best  of  the  combined  armies  of  the  Tennessee, 
the  Ohio. and  the  Cumberland,  with  him,  General  Sherman  swung 
loose  from  Atlanta  late  in  the  fall  on  his  never-to-be-forgotten 
march  to  the  sea,  leaving  General  Thomas  with  a  very  mixed 
command  to  defend  the  line  of  the  Tennessee  against  the  south. 


622  NASHVILLE. 

"  I  will  send  back  into  Tennessee  the  Fourth  corps,"  wrote 
General  Sherman;  "all  dismounted  cavalry;  all  sick  and  wounded 
and  all  incumbrances  whatever,"  and  on  the  26th  of  October  he 
issued  formal  orders  placing  General  Thomas  in  command  of 
the  Military  Division  of  the  Mississippi  during  his  absence, 
headquarters  to  be  at  Nashville. 

On  October  3ist  General  Stanley,  with  the  Fourth  corps, 
was  ordered  to  concentrate  at  Pulaski  in  southern  Tennessee, 
and  General  Schofield  with  his  command  was  ordered  to  move 
from  Resaca,  Georgia,  towards  Columbia,  Tennessee,  a  little 
town  on  the  Nashville  and  Decatur  railway,  about  thirty  miles 
north  of  Pulaski,  for  it  was  now  apparent  that  General  Hood 
with  a  powerful  army  intended  crossing  the  Tennessee  and  ad- 
vancing by  this  line  upon  Nashville. 

It  was  late  in  the  autumn;  the  rivers  were  low;  the  gunboats 
could  not  reach  the  threatened  crossings  of  the  Tennessee. 
General  Forrest,  a  born  cavalry  leader,  with  some  6,000  troopers, 
was  raiding  along  the  railway  and  the  river,  and  General  Thomas 
had  no  horsemen  to  send  against  him.  In  order  that  his  own 
cavalry  might  be  well  mounted  for  the  march  to  the  sea,  Gen- 
eral Sherman  had  taken  most  of  the  serviceable  horses  of  the 
western  armies  and  sent  back  to  Thomas  only  cavalrymen  in 
name.  They  arrived  at  Nashville  by  brigades  and  regiments, 
afoot,  and  had  to  be  remounted  before  becoming  available  for 
field  service. 

— in  plain  words,  the  task  allotted  to  General  Thomas  was  to 
improvise  an  army  with  which  to  repel  a  bold  invasion  that 
would  carry  ruin  and  desolation  with  it  if  not  checked.  General 
Hood's  army  was  strong,  compact  and  admirably  led.  It  con- 
sisted of  three  divisions  of  infantry  under  Cheatham,  S.  D.  Lee 
and  Stewart,  at  least  40,000  strong,  and  of  some  10,000  cavalry 
under  their  renowned  leader,  Forrest.  Hood  himself  we  have 
seen  before  in  command  of  the  Texans  at  Manassas  and  Gettys- 
burg; a  braver  man  probably  never  lived,  and  as  a  division  com- 
mander he  had  no  superior  in  the  South.  As  a  general  com- 
manding an  army  he  had  been  but  a  short  time  before  the 
people,  and  having  been  designated  to  supersede  a  favorite  officer, 


HOOD'S   NAPOLEONIC   IDEA.  623 

J.  E.  Johnston,  he  could  not  at  once  command  the  entire  sym- 
pathy of  the  army.  But  he  was  admired  and  respected.  His 
fighting  qualities  none  could  question.  Gettysburg  had  ruined 
an  arm  for  him ;  Chickamauga  had  robbed  him  of  a  leg;  never- 
theless he  was  ready  to  take  his  part  in  the  great  campaigns  of 
'64,  and  now  was  determined  to  lead  his  army  to  the  doors  of 
Louisville.  He  and  his  antagonist  were  well  known  to  each 
other.  They  had  served  together  as  officers  in  the  same 
regiment  of  cavalry  in  the  old  regular  army  before  the  war. 

Against  Hood's  force  General  Thomas  had  in  front  of  Nash- 
ville some  25,000  infantry  and  4,500  cavalry.  These  troops 
were  effectives  in  the  field.  He  had  additional  garrisons  in 
Chattanooga,  Decatur,  Murfreesboro',  Nashville  and  other  im- 
portant towns,  and  in  block-houses  along  the  railways,  but  these 
garrisons  were  needed  just  where  they  were  posted.  The  troops 
with  which  he  could  expect  to  confront  Hood's  army  were  the 
Fourth  corps  under  Major-General  Stanley,  a  famous  fighter, 
and  the  remains  of  the  Army  of  the  Ohio,  under  Major-General 
Schofield,  a  very  able  and  distinguished  officer.  Reinforcements 
.  were  to  be  sent  to  Nashville  from  Missouri  and  the  north,  and 
horses  for  the  cavalry,  but  before  they  came  Hood  had  leaped 
the  Tennessee  and  rushed  forward  to  beat  the  concentrating 
troops  in  detail.  The  idea  was  Napoleonic.  He  hoped  to  cut 
off  Schofield  on  his  march  for  Columbia,  but  although  Cheatham 
was  in  readiness  to  assault  Schofield's  flank  as  the  Union  column 
hurried  along,  he  failed  to  attack,  and  was  severely  rebuked  by 
Hood  for  the  neglect. 

General  Thomas  at  Nashville  was  now  in  a  position  to  try  the 
nerve  of  any  man.  He  had  thrust  upon  him,  so  to  speak,  a  vast 
array  of  ineffectives  and  non-combatants.  Nashville  was  crowded 
with  men  to  feed,  but  wofully  short  of  men  to  fight.  His  cavalry 
was  still  unhorsed ;  thousands  of  convalescents  had  gone  home 
to  vote  and  had  remained  to  hear  the  result  of  the  election.  He 
had  not  a  division  of  organized  and  veteran  troops  in  his  lines. 
He  could  only  make  provisional  brigades  of  what  were  there, 
telegraph  for  the  instant  return  of  all  soldiers  belonging  to  his 
army,  urge  the  sending  of  horses,  and  form  for  defence  as  best 


(524  NASHVILLE. 

he  might.;  meantime  he  sent  word  to  Schofield  to  fall  back  fight- 
ing ;  to  assume  command  towards  the  front  and  delay  Hood  as 
long  as  possible;  then  with  superhuman  energy  he  devoted  him- 
self to  the  task  of  preparation.  He  was  a  man  of  uncommon 
mould — calm,  firm,  full  of  high  purpose,  of  the  loftiest  patriot- 
ism, of  tjie  most  unblemished  honor.  He  had  risen  to  promi- 
nence at  Mill  Spring,  where  he  routed  Zollicoffer's  army.  He 
had  fought  superbly  at  Perryville  and  at  Stone  River.  He  had 
immortalized  his  name  at  Chickamauga,  where  his  inflexible 
courage  and  firmness  saved  the  Union  army  from  utter  ruin. 
He  had  won  high  distinction  in  the  advance  on  Atlanta.  He 
was  the  most  perfect  defensive  fighter  in  the  western  army ;  but 
— said  some  superiors  and  many  inferiors — he  was  slow.  "  He 
could  not  fight  an  aggressive  battle."  "Old  Slow  Trot,"  the 
soldiers  used  to  call  him.  "  Old  Safety  "  was  a  name  he  won 
early  in  the  war ;  "  Old  Pap  Thomas  "  his  men  lovingly  called 
him  before  it  was  over.  He  had  stood  like  a  rock  against  the 
Southern  host  at  Chickamauga ;  he  was  now  to  be  subjected  to 
an  ordeal  an  hundred  times  more  trying — that  of  standing  like 
a  rock  against  the  ignorant  demands  of  the  press  and  the  public, 
and  against  the 'ill-considered  orders  and  impatient  criticism  of 
superiors  hundreds  of  miles  from  the  scene  of  action. 

Obedient  to  his  orders,  Schofield  faced  about  at  Franklin  on 
the  Harpeth  river,  twenty  miles  south  of  Nashville.  He  had 
fallen  back  slowly,  keeping  a  bold  face  to  the  foe,  while  his  great 
superior  was  straining  every  nerve  strengthening  the  fortifica- 
tions and  organizing  his  forces  at  the  capital.  With  a  much 
inferior  command  in  point  of  numbers,  Schofield  had  at  Franklin 
an  intrenched  position,  which  Stanley  thoroughly  knew  how  to 
defend.  Hood  attacked  here  at  4  p.  M.  on  November  3Oth  and 
was  repulsed  with  great  loss.  Again  and  again  the  daring 
leader  ordered  his  men  to  repeat  the  assault.  It  was  useless. 
It  was  even  foolhardy.  In  proportion  to  numbers  engaged, 
Franklin  was  the  bloodiest  battle  of  the  war.  .  Cleburne  and 
five  other  Southern  generals  and  seventeen  hundred  and  fifty 
Confederate  soldiers  were  killed  that  day,  and  the  loss  to  Hood's 
army  was  over  6,000  combatants.  A  terrible  blow,  indeed. 


A   GLANCE   AT   THE   BATTLE-FIELD.  ($25 

Schofield's  loss  was  only  one-third  as  much,  but  included  his 
right-bower,  Stanley,  among  the  severely  wounded,  and,  having 
thus  crippled  his  rash  antagonist,  Schofield  withdrew  to  the  lines 
of  Thomas,  who  now  felt  better  prepared  to  receive  Hood  when 
he  should  appear  before  Nashville. 

Let  us  glance  at  the  ground  on  which  the  decisive  battle  is  to 
take  place.  Nashville  stands  on  the  south  or  left  bank  of  the 
Cumberland  river,  in  the  heart  of  a  boldly  undulating  limestone 
country.  The  city  itself  is  compact  and  handsome ;  the  capitol 
a  fine  building,  with  a  commanding  view  towards  the  height's  to 
the  south.  The  city  lies  in  a  large  amphitheatre,  as  it  were,  for 
it  is  encircled  by  ranges  of  knobs  and  ridges  that  are  almost 
concentric.  Southeast  of  the  city,  grazing  it  in  fact,  the  first 
circle  begins  and  the  hills  are  steep  and  high.  South  they  open 
out  a  little  farther  from  town  and  sweep  around  to  the  Cumber- 
land again  on  the  west.  On  this  range  was  built  the  inner  line 
of  strong  redoubts  and  earthworks  that  defended  the  city.  Fort 
Negley,  at  the  base  of  which  runs  the  railways  to  Murfreesboro' 
and  Franklin,  was  the  highest  and  most  important.  From  here 
another  line  was  thrown  out  on  a  second  range  of  knobs  and 
ridges  that  swept  around  like  the  first,  to  the  Cumberland,  a  mile 
outside.  This  was  the  outer  line  of  works,  averaging  an  hun- 
dred feet  greater  height  than  the  first,  and  between  this  second 
or  outer  line  and  a  series  of  bluffs  spanning  the  southern  horizon 
was  a  fertile  valley  cut  up  into  numerous  little  ridges  and 
"swales"  of  its  own.  Back  of  these  bluffs,  directly  south  of  the 
city  and  about  five  miles  from  the  capitol,  are  the  Overton 
hills,  the  highest  of  all. 

From  Nashville  three  railways  ran  out  south  of  the  Cumber- 
land— one  to  Chattanooga  southeast  by  way  of  Murfreesboro ; 
one  to  Decatur  south  by  way  of  Franklin,  and  one  to  Johnson- 
ville  on  the  Tennessee,  nearly  due  west.  Besides  these  there 
were  no  less  than  ten  broad  high  roads  or  "  pikes  "  radiating  out 
in  every  direction,  east,  west  and  south.  Three  of  them  ran 
nearly  south.  Passing  right  under  Fort  Negley  and  the  Over- 
ton  hills  is  the  Franklin  pike.  Next  to  the  west  of  it  is  the 
"  Granny  White "  pike,  and  west  still  farther  is  the  Hillsboro 
40 


(526  NASHVILLE. 

pike.  The  three  leave  Nashville  almost  at  the  same  point,  but 
gradually  spread  apart  until,  crossing  the  line  of  the  Overton 
hills,  there  is  a  good  long  three  miles  between  the  outermost;- 
,and  it  was  mainly  between  the  Franklin  and  Hillsboro  roads  that 
the  great  battle  of  Nashville  was  fought. 

On  December  3d  General  Hood,  with  his  whole  army,  smart- 
ing and  raging  after  his  severe  punishment  at  Franklin,  appeared 
before  the  lines  of  works.  They  were  too  strong  for  him  to 
assault.  He  therefore  threw  up  rifle-pits  and  earthworks,  ex- 
tending from  the  Chattanooga  railway  on  the  east,  circling  around 
the  Union  lines,  and  ending  at  the  Hillsboro  pike  on  the  west. 
From  there,  around  to  the  Cumberland  his  cavalry  kept  actively 
scouting.  Between  the  Hillsboro  pike  and  Granny  White  road 
the  lines  approached  each  other  to  within  half  a  mile  at  one 
point,  then  stretched  apart.  East  of  the  Franklin  pike  they  were 
separated  by  a  distance  of  two  miles.  Hood  placed  his  guns  in 
formidable  and  commanding  positions,  and  apparently  dared  the 
Northern  army  to  come  out  and  fight  him  ;  but  Thomas  was  not 
ready.  He  was  making  all  haste,  however ;  and  his  batteries 
opened  a  lively  fire  at  the  Confederate  works. 

Now  the  mere  presence  of  this  Southern  army  in  front  of 
Nashville  was  something  the  Northern  press  could  not  tolerate. 
The  same  "  on  to  Richmond  "  spirit  that  had  plunged  a  raw  and 
unprepared  command  into  the  fire  of  the  first  Bull  Run,  began  to 
clamor  at  Thomas.  He  was  implored,  urged,  then  ordered  to 
attack  at  once.  There  never  is  a  time  when  a  newspaper  editor 
•does  not  think  he  knows  more  about  handling  an  army  than 
the  man  who  happens  to  be  at  the  head  of  it.  Then  came 
columns  of  threats  and  abuse  at  Thomas  because  he  would 
not  attack.  Feeling  sure  that  every  day  added  to  his  own 
strength  and  his  opponent's  weakness,  Thomas  desired  to  wait 
until  he  had  mounted  his  cavalry.  He  had  promised  Sherman 
that  if  Hood  came  north  of  the  Tennessee  he  would  ruin  his 
army,  and  he  meant  to  do  it ;  but  to  "  ruin  it "  he  must  not  only 
beat  it,  he  must  pursue  and  grind  it  to  pieces.  This  he  could 
not  do  without  cavalry. 

Then  the  cabinet  and  the  war  department  began  to  wony 


IMPATIENCE   AT  WASHINGTON.  627 

General  Thomas.  Knowing  full  well  that  his  cavalry  was  still 
afoot,  and  that  most  of  his  men  were  the  "  discards  "  of  com- 
mands that  had  gone  with  Sherman,  it  was  considered  necessary 
to  prod  and  push  him  into  action.  "  He  should  have  fallen  on 
Hood  right  after  Franklin,"  said  the  wiseacres  at  Washington. 
"  He  should  have  pounded  him  with  his  fresh  troops." 

Mr.  Stanton,  early  in  December,  telegraphed  to  General  Grant 
that  Thomas'  conduct  looked  "  too  much  like  the  McClellan  and 
Rosecrans*  strategy  of  do  nothing."  General  Grant  began 
sending  urgent  telegrams  from  City.  Point  near  Petersburg  to 
Thomas  at  Nashville,  setting  forth  the  theory  that  Hood  should 
be  attacked  at  once ;  but  not,  most  fortunately,  giving  positive 
orders.  On  December  5th,  frowever,  fre  wired :  "  Time  strengthens 
him,  in  all  probability,  as  much  as  it  does  you."  On  December 
6th,  4  P.  M.,  he  sent  these  peremptory  orders:  "Attack  Hood  at 
once,  and  wait  no  longer  for  a  remount  for  your  cavalry." 

This  was  hard.  General  Thomas  had  but  one  brigade  in  the 
saddle.  Forrest  was  whirling  all  around  Hood's  flanks  with  over 
ten  thousand  horsemen,  but  orders  were  orders.  Thomas  re- 
plied that  he  would  make  immediate  dispositions  and  attack  as 
ordered,  but  thought  it  would  be  hazardous.  Nevertheless  his 
troops  were  not  yet  concentrated,  and  not  until  the  pth  was  he 
in  readiness  to  strike.  All  the  intervening  hours  he  had  been 
compelled  to  read  or  hear  of  all  manner  of  criticism,  injustice 
and  abuse  from  the  press  or  the  authorities.  It  was  enough  to  - 
drive  most  men  to  desperation,  but  General  Thomas  remained 
calm  and  determined.  On  the  gth  he  issued  his  orders  for  attack, 
and  that  very  day  orders  were  telegraphed  to  Washington 
relieving  him  from  the  command,  and  placing  General  Schofield 
in  his  stead.  A  terrible  storm  of  rain,  freezing  as  it  fell,  began 
at  daybreak  on  the  Qth  and  nobody  could  attack,  and  this  gave 
General  Grant  time  to  think  better  of  his  order  relieving  General 
Thomas.  It  was  suspended.  The  storm  lasted  for  three  days. 
The  whole  country  was  covered  with  sleet  and  ice.  Men  could 
not  march  or  move  at  all.  Horses  slipped  and  fell  and  seriously 
injured  their  riders;  but  the  whole  nation  was  clamoring  now, 
and  on  the  afternoon  of  the  I  ith  General  Grant  again  telegraphed  ' 


£28  NASHVILLE. 

from  City  Point  to  delay  no  longer  for  weather  or  reinforce- 
ments. Thomas  replied  on  the  I2th  that  he  would  attack  the 
moment  the  sleet  melted;  and  on  the  I4th  General  Grant  him- 
self started  for  Nashville  via  Washington,  under  the  mistaken 
impression  that  he  could  get  there  before  that  long-deferred 
attack  would  be  made.  At  Washington  on  the  night  of  the  I5th 
the  strained  anxiety  of  all  the  cabinet  was  allayed  by  the  brief 
despatch  which  there  met  General  Grant : 

"Attacked  enemy's  left  this  morning ;  drove  it  from  the  river, 
below  the  city,  very  nearly  to  Franklin  pike,  distance  about  eight 
miles." 

In  these  modest,  soldierly  words  General  Thomas  reported 
the  result  of  as  scientific,  masterly  and  gallant  a  battle  as  ever 
was  fought  on  our  continent,  and  the  outcry  against  him  gave 
place  to  a  burst  of  admiration  and  enthusiastic  applause. 

Noon  of  the  I4th  of  December  came,  before  the  south  winds 
had  thawed  away  the  armor  of  ice  and  sleet  that  had  made,  for 
nearly  a  week,  all  movement  on  either  side  an  impossibility. 
Then  that  afternoon  the  calm  and  patient  leader  called  together 
his  principal  generals,  explained  to  them  in  quiet  words  his  plan 
of  attack,  and  gave  his  orders.  There  were  assembled  Schofield, 
the  victor  of  Franklin ;  A.  J.  Smith,  of  the  Army  of  the  Tennes- 
see; T.  J.  Wood,  now  at  the  head  of  the  gallant  Fourth  corps,  in 
place  of  that  fierce  fighter  Stanley,  who  had  been  painfully 
wounded  at  the  Harpeth ;  Steedman,  in  whose  command  were 
many  regiments  of  colored  troops  destined  to  make  their  maiden 
battle ;  Donaldson,  who  recruited  his  brigade  from  the  army  of 
quartermasters'  employes;  and  Miller,  who  commanded  the 
little  garrison  of  the  city  proper.  These  were  the  leaders  of  the 
line ;  but  with  them  stood  the  energetic  head  of  the  cavalry  corps 
of  the  Western  army,  Major-General  Wilson,  who  among  his 
division  commanders  had  some  admirable  and  experienced 
cavalrymen ;  and  now  and  not  until  now  was  Wilson  able  to 
report  his  corps  ready  for  work.  Only  three-fourths  of  their 
number  were  mounted,  to  be  sure,  and  only  one-half  well 
mounted ;  but  the  others  could  and  would  fight  as  infantry,  and 
there  were  6,000  at  least  who  were  in  splendid  trim.  On  the 


THOMAS'    MASTERLY   STRATEGY.  629 

1 2th,  leading  their  horses,  these  fellows  slid  and  stumbled  across 
the  river  from  Edgefield,  where  they  had  been  encamped,  and 
went  into  bivouac  under  the  guns. 

The  meeting  at  General  Thomas'  headquarters  was  long. 
Every  point  was  thoroughly  explained,  and  when  it  broke  up 
and  the  generals  scattered  to  rejoin  their  commands,  every  man 
knew  to  the  last  detail  the  duty  expected  of  him.  That  night 
there  was  an  unaccustomed  stir  in  the  camps  around  Nashville. 
Hours  before  the  dawn  the  men  were  summoned  to  arms,  and, 
sleepily  rousing  from  their  pallets,  the  soldiers  buckled  on  their 
accoutrements,  turned  the  overcoat  collars  well  up  about  their 
ears,  and  silently  took  their  places  in  the  ranks. 

Just  as  at  Leuthen,  at  Austerlitz,  at  Jena,  a  dense  fog  hung 
over  the  earth,  obscuring  all  movements,  and  deadening  the 
sound  of  tramping  hoof  or  rumbling  caisson.  Just  as  at  Leuthen 
the  heavy  columns  moving  forward  into  the  mist  turned  to  the 
right  when  within  cannon-range  of  the  enemy,  and  in  compact 
order  marched  away  parallel  to  the  Southern  lines  until  they 
reached  the  Hillsboro  and  Hardin  pikes.  Out  these  they 
tramped  in  solemn  silence,  while  Miller  and  Donaldson  with 
their  brigades  quitted  the  muddy  suburbs  of  the  capital  and  occu- 
pied the  redoubts  and  earthworks  vacated  by  the  men  of  the 
Fourth,  Sixteenth  and  Twenty-third  corps.  Just  as  at  Leuthen 
the  plan  was  to  hurl  a  powerful  force  on  the  enemy's  left,  deceiv- 
ing him  meanwhile  by  a  feint  at  assault  on  the  other  end  of  his 
line,  and,  by  "turning"  and  driving  him  in  from  the  Hillsboro 
road,  to  double  up  the  line,  force  it  back  on  the  centre,  and  then, 
in  grand  assault  from  the  west,  sweep  it  across  the  Granny  White 
road,  and,  if  possible,  cut  off  the  retreat  towards  Franklin.  Once 
driven  in  and  "  turned  "  on  his  left,  Hood  would  be  compelled  to 
abandon  his  hold  on  the  heights  near  the  river  on  the  east,  and 
fall  back  from  the  line  of  intrenchments  he  had  thrown  up,  then 
accept  battle  in  the  open  country,  man  to  man  and  gun  to  gun  ; 
and  of  the  issue  of  that  combat  Thomas  had  no  doubt  whatever. 
All  that  was  necessary  was  secrecy,  and  prompt  and  cordial 
co-operation  on  the  part  of  his  officers. 

To  Steedman,  with  Cruft's,  Miller's  and  Donaldson's  troops, 


630  NASHVILLE. 

was  left  the  care  of  the  defensive  works  and  the  duty  of  making 
a  formidable  assault  on  the  rifle-pits  and  earthworks  of  Hood's 
right  flank,  while  the  main  army  essayed  the  difficult  feat  of 
working  around  the  other  flank  in  the  face  of  their  active  cav- 
alry. 

Steedman  early  designated  the  troops  for  his  trying  duty. 
It  is  far  harder  to  get  cut  up  with  killed  and  wounded  in  a  pre- 
tended assault,  than  in  one  which  holds  forth  the  glorious  possi- 
bility of  carrying  the  coveted  position.  Steedman's  men  were 
to  make  believe  desire  and  attempt  to  carry  a  position  far  too 
strong  to  invite  actual  attack  in  front,  and,  in  order  to  success- 
fully deceive  the  enemy,  it  was  necessary  that  they  should  ad- 
vance with  every  appearance  of  determination.  Three  columns 
under  Colonels  Morgan,  Thompson  and  Grosvenor,  composed 
mainly  of  troops  from  Ohio  and  Indiana,  with  several  finely 
drilled  regiments  of  hopeful  colored  troops,  were  in  readiness, 
and  two  light  batteries  were  posted  on  their  flanks  to  aid  in  the 
movement. 

In  the  earliest  gray  of  the  misty  dawn,  the  troops  of  the  Union 
army  poured  forth  from  their  earthworks  to  the  southwest  of 
Nashville,  and  pushed  boldly  out  over  the  rolling,  open  country. 
On  the  extreme  right,  in  widely  dispersed  order,  so  as  to  cover 
a  large  tract  of  the  neighborhood,  marched  the  horsemen  of 
Wilson's  cavalry  corps.  One  small  division  under  General  R. 
W.  Johnson,  following  the  river  road,  moved  westward  in  search 
of  any  of  Forrest's  people  who  might  lie  in  that  direction — a 
wise  precaution  that  rendered  the  thoughtful  commander-in- 
chief  secure  of  his  right  flank,  for  long  before  the  roar  of  the 
guns  from  the  distant  eastern  front  of  the  city  told  Johnson  that 
Steedman  had  begun  his  attack,  he  himself  found  his  advance 
confronted  by  a  brigade  of  Forrest's  men  under  General  Chal- 
mers. 

A  mile  to  the  south  of  Johnson's  division,  Croxton's  cavalry 
were  feeling  their  way  out  across  the  open  ground  between 
the  Charlotte  pike  and  the  Johnsonville  railway :  Knipe's  brig- 
ade cautiously  advanced  along  the  Hardin  pike,  while  the  fine 
division  of  General  Edward  Hatch  covered  the  ground  between 


THE  GREAT  BATTLE  BEGINS.  631 

him  and  the  right  of  the  infantry  lines.  The  entire  front  thus 
covered  and  patrolled  by  the  cavalry  was  something  like  four 
miles  in  extent,  but  it  was  not  here  that  the  enemy  was  expected 
in  any  force. 

Marching  out  southwestward  along  the  Hardin  pike  came 
the  corps  of  A.  J.  Smith,  its  leading  division  commanded  by 
General  Kenner  Garrard,  and  an  odd  circumstance  occurs  to  us 
at  this  moment  as  connected  with  the  battle  of  Nashville.  Four 
of  the  principal  participants,  Generals  Thomas,  Hood,  Garrard 
and  R.  W.  Johnson,  at  the  outbreak  of  the  war  were  brother 
officers  in  the  same  regiment,  the  old  Second  cavalry  of  the 
regular  army,  and  little  did  Thomas  and  Hood  then  suppose 
that  the  winter  of  '64  would  see  them  commanders  of  two  hos- 
tile armies  grappling  in  a  deadly  struggle  for  the  control  of  the 
western  border  States. 

Following  in  the  track  of  the  cavalry  a  mile  beyond  the  works, 
Garrard's  division  then  turned  to  the  left  and  moved  out  through 
the  fields  towards  the  Hillsboro  road,  and  here  Smith's  three 
divisions  were  ordered  to  form  their  line ;  McArthur's  division, 
groping  out  between  the  Hardin  and  Charlotte  pikes,  had  a  harder 
and  longer  road  to  travel,  and  before  he  was  a  mile  outside  the 
works,  the  skirmishers,  well  to  the  front,  stirred  up  the  outlying 
pickets  of  the  Southern  cavalry.  It  was  barely  daylight.  Hardly 
an  object  could  be  distinguished  at  ten  yards'  distance  through 
the  fog,  but  even  as  the  sudden  crack  of  carbine  and  "  Spring- 
field" burst  on  the  startled  ear,  down  among  the  rough  slopes 
and  hummocks  to  the  southwest,  there  came  from  east  of  Nash- 
ville a  thundering  roar  that  woke  the  valley  into  vehement  life. 
Covered  by  the  huge  Dahlgrens  and  rifles  of  the  gunboats  on 
the  river,  masked  by  the  fire  of  the  entire  line  of  eastern  works, 
Steedman's  devoted  column  had  marched  out  from  the  shelter 
of  the  heights  along  Brown's  creek,  crossed  that  narrow  stream, 
deployed  along  the  Murfreesboro  pike,  and  now,  facing  south, 
was  advancing  upon  the  Southern  right  flank,  whirling  in  their 
skirmishers  before  the  long  blue  lines.  The  great  battle  had 
begun. 

At  eight  o'clock  on  this  dismal  wintry  morning,  through  fog 


632  NASHVILLE. 

and  drizzle,  through  yielding  and  muddy  by-roads,  through 
rough,  untrodden  fields,  the  army  of  General  Thomas  had  pushed 
its  way  into  the  assigned  positions,  and  three  strong  and  enthusi- 
astic corps  were  massed  in  front  of  the  left  of  Hood's  lines, 
waiting  only  for  the  word  "  forward,"  while  that  buoyant  com- 
mander himself,  deceived  by  the  roar  of  battle  to  the  east  into 
the  belief  that  the  main  attack  would  come  from  that  point,  was 
hurrying  troops  thither  from  his  centre.  Thomas'  plan  was 
working  to  a  charm. 

Sending  his 'chief  of  staff,  Colonel  Whipple,  whose  well-won 
pet-name  of  "Old  Faithful"  fully  describes  the  man,  to  order 
Steedman  to  press  the  assault  with  all  apparent  energy,  Thomas 
now  rode  forward  to  direct  the  grand  turning  movement  in 
person.  At  this  moment  all  three  corps  commanders,  Smith, 
Schofield  and  Wood,  were  west  of  the  Hillsboro  pike,  and  the 
Union  line,  covering  a  general  front  of  about  two  miles  out  in 
the  fields,  was  facing  a  little  east  of  south.  On  the  left  stood 
Beatty's  division  of  the  Fourth  corps;  next  on  his  right  was 
Kimball's  and  then  Elliott's,  all  formed  in  double  battle-lines 
with  strong  veils  of  skirmishers.  Beyond  the  Fourth  corps  and 
farther  advanced,  in  readiness  to  wheel  to  the  left,  were  the  three 
divisions  of  General  A.  J.  Smith;  McArthur's  being  on  the  right, 
Garrard  in  the  centre  and  left,  while  Moore's  division  was 
formed  in  reserve. 

In  rear  of  the  centre  of  the  line  thus  formed  by  Wood  and 
Smith  stood  Schofield  with  the  Twenty-third  corps — Cox  and 
Couch  being  his  division  commanders ;  while  on  the  extreme 
right,  aligned  with  McArthur's  men,  yet  ever  eagerly,  impa- 
tiently edging  forward  as  though  bound  to  get  an  advantage  at 
the  start,  were  the  troopers  of  Hatch's  division.  Dismounted, 
and  with  their  horses  led  well  to  the  rear,  these  extemporized 
footmen  were  bent  on  showing  their  more  experienced  infantry 
comrades  that  they  could  head  a  charge  even  if  they  had  to 
crawl  to  do  it.  Croxton  and  Knipe,  finding  the  country  clear 
for  miles  out  to  the  southwest,  had  wheeled  to  the  left  and  come 
up  in  rear  of  Hatch.  Johnson,  way  down  the  river  towards  the 
Davidson  house,  was  just  beginning  to  exchange  compliments 
with  Chalmers'  guns. 


"  OLD   SLOW   TROT  "  OUTGENERALS   HOOD.  633 

Beyond  all  question,  Hood  had  not  looked  for  this  advance 
on  his  open  left.  Perhaps  he  too  was  thinking  of  the  old  regi- 
mental name  by  which  the  troopers  had  been  wont  to  call  their 
grave,  earnest  major  in  the  days  gone  by.  He  did  not  give 
"  Old  Slow  Trot "  credit  for  a  brilliant  move ;  he  had  forgotten 
the  fable  of  the  tortoise  and  the  hare.  But  here  at  half-past  eight 
A.  M.  stood  his  former  battalion  commander  ready  to  double  him 
up,  the  moment  the  fog  lifted,  and,  except  for  some  heavy  skir- 
mishing with  McArthur's  men  as  they  swung  around  across  the 
fields,  he  had  no  idea  of  his  coming. 

Nine  o'clock.  Off  to  the  east,  gunboat  and  battery,  Rodman, 
Parrott  and  Dahlgren  are  thundering  on  the  heavy  air  with  re- 
doubled fury  ;  the  housetops  of  the  distant  city  are  thronged 
with  awe-stricken  spectators;  the  brown  parapets  on  the  slopes 
are  alive  with  eager  blue-coats  peering  through  the  thinning 
mists  for  the  first  signs  of  the  opening  battle.  Steedman  has 
received  his  orders,  and  now  the  long  blue  lines,  heavily  backed 
by  supporting  battalions,  sweep  forward  in  grim  earnest ;  stern, 
set,  white  faces  march  side  by  side  with  the  nervous  and  excit- 
able black,  but  there  is  no  falter — no  craven  in  either.  In  front 
lies  the  railway;  across  it  the  Southern  guns;  and  now  as  the 
skirmishers  draw  aside  and  the  solid  battle-lines  come  on  at  the 
sharp  double-quick,  the  barred  battle-flags  of  the  Confederacy 
leap  to  the  crests ;  the  gunners  spring  to  their  deadly  work ; 
the  long  kneeling  lines  of  gray-clad  infantry  train  their  rifles  on 
the  still  mist-crowned  ranks  and  wait  for  the  word  "  fire."  It 
comes  soon  and  sudden,  and  a  denser  fog,  the  thick,  stifling 
cloud  of  battle,  hangs  like  a  pall  over  the  lightning  flashes  on 
the  field.  A  ringing  cheer,  a  roaring  volley  answer  the  crash 
of  the  Southern  guns,  and  on  go  the  blue-clad  ranks;  down  into 
the  shallow  trench  of  the  railway  leap  the  lines ;  up  the  steep 
slope  of  the  cut  they  climb,  and  Steedman's  feint  becomes  de- 
spite him  an  -attack  in  dead  earnest.  Ohio,  Indiana  and  Ethiopia 
have  bearded  the  lion  in  his  den;  the  stars  and  stripes  are  actually 
in  among  the 'cross-bars,  and  a  hand-to-hand  fight  rages  over  the 
rifle-pits  along  the  railway. 

This  is  unlocked  for,  but  is  none  the  less  effective.     Hood 


634  NASHVILLE. 

sends  whole  brigades  in  rapid  run  to  strengthen  his  right.  The 
furious  thunder  of  the  guns,  firing  at  random  through  the  fog, 
makes  him  believe  the  assault  five  times  as  serious  as  it  is.  He 
concentrates  a  heavy  force  against  Steedman's  bravely  fighting 
column ;  batteries  are  run  up  to  sweep  that  long  chasm  of  the 
railway  cut  with  their  fire,  and  presently,  taken  in  flank,  stormed 
by  grape  and  canister  along  the  whole  length  of  their  line, 
Morgan  and  Grosvenor  find  their  position  no  longer  tenable. 
Their  duty  is  most  faithfully,  gallantly  done ;  the  whole  object 
of  the  attack  is  accomplished — more  than  was  expected  of  them 
those  stubborn  brigades  have  finished,  and  now  Steedman  issues 
the  order  to  fall  back  still  threatening  the  works.  The  defenders 
pause  for  breath  and  mutual  congratulations  over  the  repulse 
of  the  Yankee  lines,  and  even  as  they  are  wondering  what  will 
come  next,  the  answer  is  heard  booming  over  from  the  far  west. 
Covered  by  his  brilliant  feint  on  Hood's  right,  Thomas  has  turned 
the  unguarded  left  and  is  storming  down  upon  the  astonished 
centre. 

It  is  high  noon.  The  fog  has  gone  and  Hood's  eyes  are  at 
last  opened.  For  hours  the  men  of  the  Fourth  and  Sixteenth 
corps  and  Hatch's  impatient  dragoons  have  been  waiting  for  the 
signal  to  push  ahead,  and  at  last  it  comes.  Leaping  from  ridge 
to  ridge  the  dismounted  troopers  have  rushed  upon  a  small 
brigade  of  Confederate  infantry  posted  in  the  woods  and  sent  it 
scurrying  beyond  the  Hardin  house  out  by  the  pike,  then  wheel- 
ing around  to  the  left,  where  the  rolling  volleys  of  McArthur's 
men  seem  to  call  them  to  support,  they  find  their  infantry  friends 
halted  before  a  couple  of  stout  little  forts  perched  on  knobs  a 
few  hundred  feet  apart  and  bristling  with  field-guns.  Never 
stopping  to  dress  their  ranks,  the  cavalry  no  sooner  catch  sight 
of  these  works  than  they  go  at  them  with  a  ringing  cheer,  and 
McArthur's  brigades,  not  to  be  outdone,  throw  their  muskets 
over  the  shoulder  and  join  in  the  rush.  The  very  impetus  of 
the  onset  is  too  much  for  the  defenders.  In  ten  minutes  the 
brown  parapets  are  covered  by  madly  cheering  men  in  blue — 
cavalry  guidons  waving  over  the  redoubt  on  the  right ;  infantry 
banners  over  that  on  the  left,  and  so  far  "  honors  are  easy  "  with 


THE  CONFEDERATE   LEFT  FLANK   TURNED.  535 

Hatch  and  McArthur.  Each  has  taken  four  guns  and  a  fort. 
The  light  batteries  have  done  their  share  in  glorious  style,  for 
they  drove  the  gunners  from  their  pieces  before  the  rush  was 
made,  and  Coon's  brigade  of  troopers  with  their  Spencer  carbines 
— those  terrible  shooters  the  Southern  soldiers  used  to  say  we 
"  loaded  in  the  morning  and  kept  shooting  all  day  " — swarmed 
over  the  infantry  supports  with  such  a  hell  of  fire  that  there  was 
no  withstanding  them. 

Meantime  the  Fourth  corps  had  been  doing  capital  work. 
Squarely  in  front  of  Wood's  left  stood  the  steep  and  rugged 
height  known  as  Montgomery  hill,  east  of  the  Hillsboro'  pike. 
Here  the  Southern  lines  and  earthworks  jutted  forward  in  a 
strong  salient,  for  the  trees  had  been  cut  away,  branches  falling 
toward  the  Union  lines  forming  an  "  abatis  "  of  most  approved 
construction ;  the  slopes  were  everywhere  commanded  by  field- 
guns  in  position,  and,  properly  garrisoned  and  defended,  those 
works  along  the  Brentwood  ridge  were  capable  of  resisting  most 
formidable  assault  in  front ;  but  Hood,  as  we  have  seen,  had  been 
drawing  upon  his  left  and  centre  to  resist  the  supposed  attack 
in  force  over  on  his  extreme  right.  No  real  attempt  was  looked 
for  here,  and  when  all  was  ready  and  Wood's  light  batteries 
dashed  forward  to  open  on  the  frowning  guns  on  the  heights, 
the  Confederate  officers  were  astounded  at  the  supposed  audacity 
of  the  move,  and  still  more  astounded  when,  in  long  blue  lines 
supporting  a  heavy  charging  column,  the  Fourth  corps  swept 
out  across  the  Hillsboro'  pike,  and,  Post's  gallant  brigade  lead- 
ing the  rush,  charged  cheering  upon  the  works.  Then  for  a  few 
moments  the  roar  of  cannon  was  appalling,  but  despite  shell  and 
canister,  abatis  and  wire-and-stake-entanglements,  with  which 
the  Southerners  had  covered  the  slopes,  the  Union  troops 
swarmed  over  the  works,  driving  the  gunners  before  them,  and 
even  before  Smith  and  Hatch  had  carried  the  redoubts  out  to 
the  southwest,  the  banners  of  the  Fourth  corps  were  waving  over 
Montgomery  hill,  the  highest  point  on  the  advanced  line,  and 
Hood  saw  with  dismay  that  old  Major  "  Slow  Trot  "  had  pulled 
the  wool  over  his  eyes  and  dealt  him  a  disastrous  blow.  Now, 
with  all  speed,  he  orders  back  his  divisions  to  the  west,  and 


636  NASHVILLE. 

with  eager  zeal  they  come — but  too  late.  The  left  is  turned ; 
the  works  are  gone,  and  Hood's  advanced  line  is  no  longer 
tenable. 

At  two  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  the  Southern  lines  that  at 
daybreak  were  defiantly  facing  northward  towards  the  dome  of 
the  State  capitol,  were  now  sullenly  facing  this  unlooked-for 
assault  from  the  west.  The  Twenty-third  corps  under  Schofield, 
quitting  its  position  in  reserve,  was  pushed  out  southward  be- 
yond Smith's  divisions,  and  there,  facing  eastward,  formed  line, 
still  further  encircling  the  Southern  left;  and  while  this  was  being 
done  Hatch,  Croxton  and  Knipe,  with  their  plucky  dragoons, 
whirled  up  all  the  picket  and  skirmish  lines  they  could  find  in 
the  woods  to  the  south,  and  then  lapped  around  to  the  left  again, 
prolonging  Schofield's  line,  thus  working  to  the  rear  of  Hood's 
army.  It  was  all  part  of  the  preconcerted  plan,  except  perhaps 
that  originally  it  was  intended  that  Schofield  should  come  up 
into  line  between  Smith  and  Wood ;  but  once  out  in  the  fight  it 
was  found  far  easier  to  move  him  over  to  the  south  while  masked 
by  the  lines  of  Garrard's  and  McArthur's  divisions. 

And  now  once  more  the  general  advance  begins.  The  cavalry 
and  the  divisions  of  Schofield  find  nothing  in  front  of  them  but 
open  fields,  patches  of  woods  and  little  country  roads  over  which 
their  steady  advance  in  line  sends  reeling  back  the  few  scattered 
commands  that  oppose  them.  Smith's  three  divisions,  all  up  in 
one  general  alignment  by  this  time,  have  harder  work,  for 
they  have  to  drive  strong  bodies  of  Southern  infantry  and  well- 
served  batteries  from  height  to  height,  and  across  the  Hillsboro 
pike,  where,  behind  the  heavy  stone  walls,  the  gray-clad  lines 
make  stubborn  and  bloody  fight.  McArthur's  men,  who  have 
led  all  the  morning  and  are  wild  with  enthusiasm  over  their  suc- 
cess, hang  on  to  their  advantage  with  reckless  daring.  Hill's 
little  brigade  dashes  forward  upon  a  battery  near  the  pike,  cap- 
tures two  guns,  the  fort  and  many  prisoners,  but  loses  its  own 
gallant  chief  and  an  hundred  men. 

Still  farther  to  the  Union  left  is  still  harder  fighting.  Here 
ridge  after  ridge,  height  after  height  bristles  with  field-artillery, 
and  bids  defiance  with  well-planned  works  to  assault  from  the 


HOOD   BAFFLED,  BEATEN   AND  BEWILDERED.  £37 

northern  front ;  but  Wood's  Fourth  corps  men,  having  carried 
Montgomery  hill,  train  scores  of  guns  upon  the  heights  beyond ; 
battery  after  battery  is  run  to  the  front,  unlimbered  and  set  to 
work,  and,  under  cover  of  the  fierce  storm  of  shot  and  shell,  the 
infantry  creep  forward  into  position  close  under  the  Southern  guns. 
For  an  hour  the  thunder  of  cannon  goes  on  uninterruptedly ; 
then  there  is  a  sudden  lull ;  the  blue-clad  ranks  spring  to 
their  feet,  and,  with  Kimball's  whole  division  leading,  the  Fourth 
corps  dashes  at  the  second  line  of  works.  At  four  o'clock 
Beatty,  Elliott  and  Kimball  have  carried  everything  in  their 
front,  and  now,  facing  eastward,  the  Fourth  corps  rolls  up  the 
Confederate  line  as  it  pushes  forward  in  stern  determination. 
It  is  growing  dark.  The  short  wintry  day  is  almost  over,  and 
from  the  heights  close  in  front  of  Nashville  far  out  to  the  south- 
west the  whole  country  is  lighted  up  with  the  flashing  glare  of 
battle,  and  covered  with  the  low-lying  cloud  of  smoke.  Baffled, 
beaten  and  bewildered,  but  still  fighting  savagely,  Hood  has 
loosed  his  hold  on  the  entire  line  of  works  and  is  drifting  back 
towards  the  Overton  hills,  crowded  in  thither  by  the  resistless 
pressure  of  the  Union  army.  Kimball  has  captured  half  a  dozen 
guns  and  the  battle-flags  of  some  over-confident  battalions  that 
too  long  clung  to  their  works.  Garrard's  men,  aligned  with  the 
right  of  the  Fourth  corps,  have  leaped  upon  another  battery  in 
time  to  dispute  its  ownership  with  Wood,  Hatch,  way  out  on 
the  right,  has  run  down  and  captured  a  third  battery  as  it  desper- 
ately strove  to  get  back  under  cover,  and  everywhere  there  is 
triumph  and  success.  One  thing  only  can  and  does  stop  the 
matchless  advance — darkness. 

Oh,  for  three  hours  more  of  daylight!  Wood  has  actually 
swept  away  one-half  of  the  Southern  line  and  has  crossed  the 
Granny  White  road  ;  Smith  has  driven  division  after  division 
back  from  ridge  to  ridge ;  Schofield,  seizing  the  heights  over- 
looking the  Granny  White  road  two  miles  south  of  where  Wood 
has  crossed  it,  is  now  fiercely  battling  with  Lee  and  Cheatham's 
old  men  for  the  road  itself;  and,  far  out  to  the  south,  Wilson's 
restless  troopers  are  forcing  their  way  through  wood,  ravine  and 
cross-road  in  the  effort  to  reach  the  Franklin  pike.  Three  hours 


(338  NASHVILLE. 

more  of  light,  and  even  retreat  would  have  been  impossible  to 
Hood ;  but  the  sun  goes  down  upon  the  scene  of  his  great  dis- 
aster, and  there  is  respite  until  the  morrow. 

Seventeen  guns,  twelve  hundred  prisoners  and  several  lines 
of  works  are  the  trophies  of  the  day  for  Thomas,  and  his  losses 
in  killed  and  wounded  have  been  surprisingly  small.  Skill, 
science  and  indomitable  firmness  have  won  for  him,  and  for  the  ' 
nation  he  so  loyally  has  served,  a  triumph  far  greater  than  any 
that  could  have  resulted  from  an  earlier  attempt,  and  at  an 
infinitely  smaller  cost  in  precious  lives.  It  may  be  true  that 
the  beloved  old  hero  in  his  care  and  thought  for  his  men 
was  sometimes  slow ;  but,  how  fortunately,  how  utterly  was  he 
sure! 

All  that  night  the  despatches  came  flashing  in  from  Washing- 
ton. The  President,  the  war  office,  the  general  of  the  army,  the 
cabinet,  all  joined  in  enthusiastic  tribute  to  the  calm,  self-poised 
soldier  whose  strategy  and  science  had  astonished  them  as  much 
as  it  had  Hood. 

General  Grant,  who  had  left  the  Armies  of  the  Potomac  and 
the  James  to  shift  for  themselves,  and  started  for  Nashville  to 
fight  the  battle  according  to  his  own  ideas,  concluded  that  night 
at  Washington  that  he  could  trust  it  to  Thomas  after  all.  Logan, 
who  had  been  ordered  to  hasten  to  Nashville  with  the  probable 
intent  of  supplanting  Thomas,  was  stopped  by  telegraphic  order 
at  Louisville,  and  the  editorial  wit  and  wisdom  of  the  North,  that 
for  a  fortnight  had  been  levelled  in  all  manner  of  abuse  at  the 
devoted  head  of  General  Thomas,  was  bottled  for  future  use. 
The  sole  reply — the  only  satisfaction  for  all  the  prodding,  criti- 
cism, abuse  and  vituperation  that  the  sturdy  soldier  permitted 
himself,  was  contained  in  the  brief  words  of  that  most  charac- 
teristic and  modest  despatch  :  "Attacked  enemy's  left  this  morn- 
ing ;  drove  it  from  the  river,  below  city,  very  nearly  to  Franklin 
pike,  distance  about  eight  miles." 

So  ended  the  first  day. 

All  that  night  Hood's  wearied  people  were  worked  to  get  in 
readiness  for  a  fiercer  battle  with  the  coming  morrow.  Falling 
back  to  Overton  Heights,  five  miles  from  the  city,  Hood  there 


HOOD'S   NEW  POSITION   CAREFULLY  STUDIED.  639 

planted  the  right  of  his  new  line,  while  his  left  extended  out 
westward  across  the  Granny  White  pike.  The  position  was  far 
stronger  naturally,  and  'much  more  contracted  than  the  one 
occupied  on  the  previous  day.  The  infantry  lines,  behind  their 
hastily  constructed  rifle-pits,  extended  along  the  base  of  a  rocky 
ridge  on  which  were  posted  a  score  of  batteries  commanding 
every  approach.  Following  the  trend  of  the  hills  the  right  and 
left  of  the  line  were  thrown  back  at  right  angles  to  the  front, 
securing  it  against  flank  attack,  and,  though  greatly  reduced  in 
force  after  the  sharp  fighting  of  the  I5th,  Hood  had  now  only 
some  two  and  a  half  miles  of  front  to  defend  instead  of  six  or 
eight,  as  he  had  before.  He  was  still  in  trim  to  make  a  splendid 
struggle,  and  there  was  no  doubting  Hood's  courage. 

Early  on  the  morning  of  the  1 6th  the  Union  army  was  again 
in  ranks  and  eager  for  the  fray.  There  had  been  cavalry  skir- 
mishing since  dawn.  Johnson  had  come  up  from  the  river  re- 
porting th> ;  enemy  disappeared  below,  and  from  Schofield's  right 
far  around  to  the  southward  and  actually  along  the  Granny 
White  road,  a  continuous  line  of  cavalry  skirmishers  now  ex- 
tended. In  front  of  the  city  Steedman's  divisions  on  the  extreme 
left  moved  cautiously  forward  across  the  open  fields,  while  the 
Fourth  corps,  seizing  the  Franklin  pike,  faced  southward,  de- 
ployed its  lines  and  pushed  out  over  the  abandoned  position  of 
the  day  before,  in  search  of  the  new  line  of  the  enemy.  Not 
until  noon  were  the  troops  halted  in  front  of  the  Southern  works 
and  reformed  for  the  coming  assault.  It  was  soon  seen  that  some 
hard  fighting  was  to  be  done,  but  the  men  were  in  the  mood 
for  it. 

Riding  along  his  entire  front  from  Wood's  left  to  where  Scho- 
field  threatened  the  western  flank  of  the  enemy's  lines,  General 
Thomas  carefully  studied  the  position  before  giving  his  final 
orders.  Well  knowing  the  spirit  and  temper  of  his  army  by  this 
time,  he  had  no  doubt  of  his  ability  to  whip  Hood  out  of  the 
new  works ;  but  the  problem  was  how  to  do  it  with  the  least 
loss  of  life  to  his  devoted  men.  Overton  hill  with  its  earthworks 
and  abatis  was  undoubtedly  the  strongest  part  of  the  line,  and 
Steedman's  columns  and  Wood's  left  division  were  confronted 


640  NASHVILLE. 

by  batteries  in  position,  and  by  finished  fortifications  as  they  had 
been  on  the  previous  day.  These  had  to  be  carried  by  assault, 
and  once  more  Wood  called  upon  Colonel  Post  with  his  brigade 
to  take  the  lead.  A  furious  cannonade  of  an  hour's  duration  was 
the  prelude  to  the  attack  ;  then,  with  Post  in  the  van  of  the  Fourth 
corps,  and  Thompson  and  Grosvenor  with  their  enthusiastic 
darkies  on  the  left,  the  grand  assault  began.  It  was  three  o'clock 
in  the  afternoon,  and  General  Thomas  was  at  the  moment  farther 
over  to  the  west  in  rear  of  McArthur's  division  of  the  Sixteenth 
corps.  Wood  and  Steedman  had  ordered  their  charging  columns 
to  march  steadily  forward  with  ranks  aligned  until  they  reached 
the  abatis  immediately  in  front  of  the  parapets ;  then  to  make  a 
rush  for  the  guns.  It  was  a  stirring  sight  as  those  solid  bat- 
talions moved  calmly  out  upon  the  low  ground  at  the  base  of 
the  heights,  and  in  disciplined  order  began  the  advance  upon 
the  slopes.  For  a  few  moments  the  Union  batteries  hurled  their 
shells  far  over  the  heads  of  the  columns  to  keep  down  as  much 
as  possible  the  opposing  fire;  but,  regardless  of  this,  the  South- 
ern gunners  depressed  their  muzzles,  dropped  solid  shot  and 
shell  for  case  and  canister,  and  opened  on  Post  and  Grosvenor, 
dealing  havoc  in  the  ranks.  But  out  sprang  the  officers,  some 
seizing  their  colors  and  waving  them  way  in  front  of  the  advanc- 
ing lines ;  and  so,  despite  the  cruel  gaps  and  rents  torn  through 
the  battalions,  they  pushed  sturdily  ahead,  black  and  white  vying 
in  the  onset,  crashed  through  the  stiff-branching  abatis,  down 
into  the  muddy  ditches,  and  then,  officers  leading,  up  they  clam- 
bered to  the  parapets.  Another  moment  and  all  along  the  lines 
the  Stars  and  Stripes  were  waving  on  the  works,  and  with  flash- 
ing  swords  and  mad  cheering  the  officers  were  urging  on  their 
men. 

Then  up  rose  the  reserves,  and  from  thousands  of  levelled 
rifles  the  Southern  infantry  poured  in  deadly  volleys,  sweeping 
the  parapets  and  hurling  the  assailants  back  into  the  ditch. 
Once  more  the  gunners  sprang  to  their  work,  and — it  was  no  use 
trying — the  blue  overcoats  went  reeling  back  down  the  slopes, 
leaving  hundreds  of  upturned  faces,  black  and  white,  writhing 
in  the  death-agony  upon  the  bloody  slopes  of  Overton  hill. 


A   SCENE   OF   WILD   ENTHUSIASM.  641 

Down  at  the  base  their  leaders  rallied  and  reformed  them  for 
another  charge.  Once  again  brave  Colonel  Post  was  called  for, 
to  command,  but  there  was  no  answer  from  his  cheery  lips.  He 
lay  among  the  dead  and  wounded,  crippled  but  still  living ;  and 
for  the  moment  Wood  and  Steedman  held  off  their  men  while 
waiting  for  news  from  the  right. 

Here  things  were  going  gloriously.  Too  impatient  to  wait  for 
the  flank  attack  expected  of  the  Twenty-third  corps,  General 
McArthur  begged  permission  to  lead  his  division  to  the  assault 
of  the  position  in  his  front ;  and  Thomas,  hastening  off  to  the 
right  to  push  matters  in  that  direction,  gave  what  McArthur 
was  eager  enough  to  regard  as  sufficient  assent,  and  so  desig- 
nated McMillen's  brigade  to  lead.  Square  in  his  front  was  a 
wooded  height  on  which  rested  the  left  of  the  Confederate  line, 
a  strong  and  threatening  position ;  but  McArthur  felt  that  his 
men  were  capable  of  anything  by  this  time.  Five  regiments 
sprang  forward  at  McMillen's  call — Illinois,  Indiana  and  Minne- 
sota in  the  first  line ;  Indiana  and  Ohio  in  the  second.  "As  soon 
as  you  are  half  way  up  the  height,"  said  McArthur,  "  Hubbard 
and  Hill's  brigade  will  advance ;  "  and,  ordering  his  men  not  to 
fire  a  shot  until  squarely  in  among  the  rifle-pits,  McMillen  led 
them  forward.  They  went  springing  up  the  western  slope  of  the 
heights ;  gun  after  gun  whirled  around  and  opened  on  them ;  the 
rifle-pits  blazed  with  the  sputtering  fire  of  the  infantry  de- 
fenders ;  but  on  they  scrambled,  and,  long  before  they  were  half 
way  up,  Hubbard,  finding  it  impossible  to  hold  back  his  men, 
who,  like  hounds  in  the  leash,  were  struggling  to  get  free,  struck 
spurs  to  his  horse,  and  with  half-laughing  "Come  on,  then !" 
dashed  out  to  the  front,  and  with  one  wild  cheer  the  brigade 
sprang  after  its  young  leader.  Then  Hill's  men  took  up  the 
rush ;  Garrard's  whole  division  swept  to  the  front  in  deter- 
mined support;  and  so  it  happened  that,  before  the  Twenty-third 
corps  could  attack  the  left  flank,  the  Sixteenth  was  tumbling 
over  it.  Then  came  a  scene  of  wild  enthusiasm,  of  the  thrilling 
delight  of  battle-triumph.  Confident  in  their  ability  to  repel  the 
assault,  the  Southern  commander  held  his  men  to  their  work, 
and  two  plucky  divisions  and  half  a  dozen  batteries  deluged  the 
41 


642  NASHVILLE. 

blue  lines  with  death-dealing  fire ;  but,  somehow  or  other,  they 
would  not  stop.  Without  a  halt,  without  a  waver,  on  they  came ; 
and,  before  they  could  fully  realize  their  peril,  the  defenders  of 
the  Southern  left  were  caught  between  two  sweeping  lines  of 
fire — McArthur  and  Garrard  all  along  their  front,  McMillen  on 
their  left  and  rear.  They  could  not  stand;  they  could  not  repel ; 
they  could  not  get  away.  To  rise  and  attempt  to  fall  back  was 
certain  death.  There  was  no  help  for  it.  Up  went  the  empty 
hands ;  down  went  the  guns ;  to  earth  sank  the  barred  battle- 
flags;  and,  riding  in  among  the  prostrate  grays  as  the  signal 
"  cease  firing "  rang  along  the  lines,  and  mad  cheers  went  up 
from  thousands  of  loyal  throats,  McArthur  found  three  generals, 
twenty-seven  cannon,  a  dozen  battle-flags  and  a  whole  division 
of  infantry,  the  prizes  of  his  gallant  assault. 

The  thunder  of  the  guns  only  seemed  to  give  emphasis  to  the 
storm  of  cheering  which  swept  along  the  Union  lines  at  this 
moment.  Right  and  left  the  grand  volume  of  sound  was  taken 
up  and  prolonged  to  the  distant  flanks.  It  could  have  but  one 
meaning — victory — and  in  wild  emulation  the  entire  army  sprang 
forward  to  the  attack  or  pursuit  of  anything  that  might  appear 
in  its  front.  Off  to  the  south,  their  horses  far  behind  them  in 
the  woods,  Wilson's  dismounted  troopers  plunged  through  brush 
and  brake,  driving  the  cavalry  skirmishers  before  them,  Coon's 
brigade  working  its  way  in  front  of  the  lines  of  the  Twenty- 
third  corps.  Cox's  division  came  up  in  time  to  seize  some  of 
the  hastily  constructed  works  on  the  southern  left,  and,  with  them, 
eight  guns  and  a  number  of  prisoners.  Wood  and  Steedman 
once  more  led  forward  their  divisions  to  the  assault  of  Overton's 
hill,  and  this  time,  reanimated  by  the  wild  cheering  from  the 
west,  there  was  no  stopping  them.  Kimball,  Beatty  and  Elliott 
swept  over  the  works  in  their  front ;  nine  more  cannon,  hundreds 
of  prisoners  and  small  arms  and  two  stands  of  colors,  were  their 
share  of  the  trophies ;  and  now,  with  night  fast  closing  in  upon 
the  scene,  and  with  the  Union  lines  almost  as  fast  closing  in 
upon  the  fleeing  remnants  of  his  beaten  army,  Hood  in  despair 
turned  southward  his  horse's  head.  All  was  now  rout  and  dis- 
order ;  all  were  in  wild  retreat  for  Franklin. 


DEMORALIZATION   ATTENDING   HOOD'S   RETREAT.       £43 

Fast  as  the  horses  could  be  brought  up  from  the  rear,  Wilson's 
troopers  were  remounted  and  hurried  eastward  to  cut  the  line 
of  retreat  on  the  Franklin  pike  ;  but  the  horses  came  too  late ; 
the  darkness  came  too  soon.  Hatch,  Croxton  and  Knipe,  after 
a  long  day's  fighting,  went  into  bivouac  far  in  advance  on  the 
Granny  White  road ;  and  the  Fourth  corps,  pushing  along  the 
Franklin  pike  in  hot  pursuit,  only  stopped  when  they  could  no 
longer  see  their  way,  and  then  threw  themselves  by  the  road- 
side for  such  sleep  as  they  could  snatch. 

Dawn  of  the  i/th  revealed  the  fact  that  the  utmost  demorali- 
zation attended  Hood's  retreat.  Arms,  accoutrements  and  "  im- 
pedimenta" of  every  kind  strewed  the  road,  The  only  real 
army  that  maintained  the  cause  of  the  Confederacy  in  the  west 
was  utterly  routed;  and,  true  to  his  promise,  Thomas  had 
"  ruined  "  Hood.  From  the  "  initial  feint  to  the  final  charge," 
as  Van  Home  justly  says  of  it,  "  this  battle  moved  on  glo- 
riously." It  was  skillful,  scientific  and  complete  from  begin- 
ning to  end.  Every  contingency  was  provided  for;  every  detail 
planned  ;  every  movement  studied.  Its  immediate  fruits  were  the 
capture  of  fifty-three  field-guns,  twenty-five  battle-flags,  thousands 
of  small  arms,  four  thousand  five  hundred  prisoners,  including 
four  general  officers,  and  the  complete  clearance  of  Tennessee 
from  the  presence  of  any  organized  enemy. 

In  the  pursuit  that  followed,  many  more  prisoners  and  battle- 
flags  were  captured.  Storm  and  sleet,  and  swollen  rivers  pre- 
vented full  and  vigorous  action  here,  and  many  a  command  was 
enabled  to  get  back  across  the  Tennessee  that,  under  other  cir- 
cumstances of  weather,  would  have  been  captured  entire;  but 
the  rout  was  complete.  The  army  never  rallied,  and  in  all  the 
annals  of  the  great  war  no  one  battle  had  proved  more  crushing 
and  decisive  in  its  results  than  the  great  victory  of  Nashville. 
Here  at  least  the  defeated  army  was  so  utterly  whipped  as  never 
again  to  be  driven  into  the  field. 

Early  in  the  spring  of  1866,  describing  by  the  aid  of  large 
maps  the  battle  of  Nashville  to  his  classes  at  the  Military 
Academy  at  West  Point,  Professor  Mahan,  the  venerable  head 
of  the  department  of  military  engineering,  strategy  and  grand 


£44  NASHVILLE. 

tactics,  turned  impressively  to  his  audience  at  the  close  of  his 
lecture :  "  Gentlemen,"  said  he,  "  it  deserves  to  be  ranked  with 
Leuthen  and  with  Austerlitz.  It  was  science  itself." 

On  the  29th  of  December,  addressing  his  army,  old  "  Major 
Slow-Trot "  quietly  summed  up  -the  results  of  the  campaign. 
He  was  never  known  to  exaggerate,  and  this  was  what  he 
wrote : 

"  You  have  diminished  the  forces  of  the  rebel  army  since  it 
crossed  the  Tennessee  river  to  invade  the  State,  at  the  least  esti- 
mate, fifteen  thousand  men,  among  whom  were  killed,  wounded 
or  captured  eighteen  general  officers.  Your  captures  from  the 
enemy,  as  far  as  reported,  amount  to  sixty-eight  pieces  of 
artillery,  ten  thousand  prisoners,  as  many  stand  of  small  arms, 
and  between  thirty  and  forty  flags." 

In  closing  the  story  of  Nashville,  the  writer  cannot  forego 
the  pleasure  of  quoting  from  Captain  Price's  history  of  the  Fifth 
Cavalry  of  the  regular  army,  so  many  of  whose  officers  had  been 
prominent  in  this  great  battle.  No  words  can  too  fervently  tell  the 
love  and  reverence  in  which  the  memory  of  George  H.  Thomas 
is  held  by  those  who  knew  him,  and  no  tribute  more  just,  more 
feeling  has  ever  been  written  than  that  with  which  Captain  Price 
closes  the  record  of  that  honored  life : 

"  General  Thomas  was  prominent  in  four  campaigns,  two  of 
which  he  commanded  in  person,  while  he  was  second  in  com- 
mand in  the  others.  His  enduring  fame  rests  upon  five  battles, 
and  in  these  he  made  no  mistakes.  He  was  grand  and  far-seeing 
at  Mill  Springs  ;  magnificent  in  fortitude  and  judgment  at  Stone 
River;  sublime  in  tenacity  at  Chickamauga ;  impetuous  in  attack- 
ing the  enemy's  centre  at  Missionary  Ridge ;  and  terrible  in  ex- 
ecution at  Nashville,  the  only  battle  of  the  war,  except  the 
minor  one  at' Mill  Springs,  which  resulted  in  the  annihilation  of 
the  opposing  army." 

General  Thomas  "  did  not  believe  that  victories  should  be 
won  by  an  immense  sacrifice  of  life.  He  always  aimed  to  ac- 
complish the  best  results  with  the  least  possible  loss ;  hence  he 
\vas  always  economical  of  life  and  suffering."  We  have  seen 
that  at  Nashville,  where,  with  the  minimum  of  loss,  he  accom- 


TRIBUTE   TO  GENERAL   THOMAS. 


645 


plished  a  maximum  in  results.  "  He  moved  slowly,  but  with 
resistless  power,  being  a  ponderous  hitter  and  as  unyielding  as  a 
rock."  It  was  this  latter  quality  that  enabled  him  to  save  from 
destruction  the  Union  army  at  Stone  River,  and  later  that  won 
him  the  proud  name  of  "  The  Rock  of  Chickamauga."  "  His 
loyalty  to  the  country,  devotion  to  duty  and  invincible  courage 
made  him  one  of  the  noblest  figures  in  American  history,  and 
won  him  a  position  among  the  first  soldiers  of  the  world." 

But  not  as  a  general  alone  was  Thomas  distinguished.  His 
private  life,  his  personal  character  were  stainless,  were  beautiful 
in  simplicity,  strength  and  unblemished  honor. 

"  He  never  knew  what  envy  was,  nor  hate; 
His  soul  was  filled  with  worth  and  honesty.  .  .  . 
He  neither  wealth  nor  places  sought ; 
For  others,  not  himself,  he  fought.  .  .  . 
So,  blessed  of  all,  he  died ;  but  far  more  blessed  were  we 
If  we  were  sure  to  live  till  we  again  could  see 
A  man  as  great  in  war,  as  just  in  peace,  as  he." 


FIVE  FORKS 

AND 

LEE'S   SURRENDER. 
1865. 

ETURNING  again  to  the  Army  of  the  Potomac 
we  find  it  in  winter-quarters  and  intrenched 
before  Petersburg,  at  whose  walls  it  has  been 
vainly  battering  ever  since  the  early  summer 
of  "64.  A  terrible  experience  has  it  encoun- 
tered since  we  saw  it  last  at  Gettysburg.  The 
winter  was  passed  in  the  bleak  Virginia  woods 
watching  the  fords  of  the  Rapidan  and  waiting 
for  a  chance,  that  seemed  never  destined  to 
come,  of  striking  the  enemy  at  an  unguarded  moment.  Meade 
had  made  a  well-planned  move  on  the  Southern  lines  at  Mine 
Run.  The  corps  of  Lee's  army  were  widely  separated.  Prompt 
action  on  the  part  of  the  Union  commanders  would  have  enabled 
Meade  to  cut  the  lines  in  two,  but  a  corps  commander  who  had 
failed  him  before  failed  him  again.  Twelve  hours  of  valuable 

o 

time  were  lost,  and  when  morning  dawned  on  the  day  after  the 
appointed  day  of  battle  Warren,  who  was  designated  to  attack 
the  Southern  right  with  the  gallant  Second  corps,  of  which  he 
was  now  the  chief,  found  in  his  front,  instead  of  feeble  and  open 
lines,  height  after  height  seamed  with  intrenchments,  bristling 
with  abatis  and  frowning  with  a  score  of  batteries.  The  Union 
lines  were  to  advance  at  the  signal  of  Warren's  guns  from  the 
'distant  left,  and  in  grim  expectancy  the  veterans  stood  in  line. 
An  hour  passed  and  still  no  sound.  "  What's  the  trouble  ? " 
queried  a  knot  of  officers  near  the  centre  of  an  aide-de-camp 
(646) 


IV.    PORTRAITS   OF   RENOWNED   AMERICAN   GENERALS. 
(Famous  and  Decisive  Battles.) 


WARREN   UNJUSTLY   CENSURED.  647 

who  went  galloping  by.  "  Oh,  it's  Warren's  benefit  and  he  won't 
play ! "  was  the  impatient  answer,  and,  for  the  time  being,  an  im- 
pression went  abroad  that  Warren,  who  had  done  so  much  to 
save  the  day  at  Gettysburg,  was  turning  timid  when  intrusted 
with  a  great  command.  But  Warren  was  wise ;  and  Meade  him- 
self, riding  over  to  inquire  the  reason  of  his  subordinate's  ap- 
parent failure,  justified  the  hesitation.  It  was  no  fault  of  Warren 
or  the  Second  corps.  They  had  done  their  part  and  were  ready 
for  more,  but  the  failure  of  others  had  permitted  the  concentra- 
tion of  the  Southern  lines  in  his  front,  and,  when  the  veterans 
of  a  score  of  battles  gazed  at  dawn  upon  the  position  they  were 
expected  to  attack,  those  Second  corps  soldiers  said  not  a  word, 
but  each  man  quietly  scribbled  his  name,  company,  regiment 
and  home  address  on  a  scrap  of  paper,  pinned  it  conspicuously 
on  his  breast,  then  picked  up  his  musket  ready  to  attack  if  need 
be,  but  well  knowing  that  now  it  was  too  late  for  possibility  of 
success.  There  was  something  sublime  in  the  calm  courage  of 
that  scejie,  but  a  still  higher  order  of  courage  was  demanded  of 
their  young  chief.  Knowing  well  that  the  whole  situation  in  his 
front  had  changed  since  his  orders  to  "  attack  at  dawn  "  were 
written,  and  that  against  such  an  array  of  batteries  and  field- 
works  direct  attack  would  now  be  worse  than  useless — could 
only  result  in  fruitless  slaughter — Warren  dared  to  withhold  his 
men  and  to  send  word  to  his  commander  that  attack  would  only 
be  disaster.  He  braved  the  censure  of  his  chief;  the  sneers  of 
the  army;  but  he  was  right,  and  Meade,  a  just  and  honorable 
gentleman,  sustained  him.  Yet  from  that  time  there  was  talk 
of  Warren's  being  "  sluggish,"  and  that  led  on  to  further  com- 
plications, as  we  shall  see.  A  board  of  three  officers  of  the 
highest  rank,  all  accomplished  soldiers,  have  lately  overruled 
by  their  opinion,  the  verdict  of  a  court-martial  composed  of  three 
times  their  number  of  officers  of  equal  grade ;  the  question  at 
issue  was  the  conduct  of  a  distinguished  predecessor  of  General 
Warren  in  command  of  the  Fifth  corps ;  and  the  board  declares 
that  in  failing  to  obey  his  peremptory  orders  to  attack  the  flank 
of  an  unintrenched,  and  by  no  means  numerically  superior,  enemy 
in  his  front,  that  predecessor  was  right,  because  the  commanding 


648  FIVE    FORKS. 

officer  of  the  army  could  not  have  known  that  certain  troops  had 
arrived  as  reinforcement  to  the  enemy.  The  board  declares 
such  conduct  "  soldierly  and  subordinate."  It  follows  therefore 
that  Warren's  refusal  to  lead  his  men  to  assault  the  front  instead 
of  the  flank  of  an  intrenched  and  expectant,  instead  of  an  unpro- 
tected and  half-formed  enemy,  must  have  been  worthy  of  praise 
beyond  all  power  of  words,  and,  even  in  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac,  his  name  should  be  revered. 

However,  Mine  Run  was  a  bitter  disappointment.  t  Nothing 
was  accomplished.  It  seemed  as  though  nothing  could  be  ac- 
complished in  that  army  against  those  active,  skillful  veterans  of 
Lee.  The  North  was  sore  at  heart;  "  Hope  deferred  "  too  often 
had  broken  down  many  a  high  spirit,  and  then  it  was  that  the 
nation  called  Grant  and  Sheridan  from  the  western  armies,  placed 
the  former  at  the  head  of  affairs  military,  and  virtually  told  him: 
*'  Here — we  have  been  trying  to  teach  general  after  general  how 
to  fight.  We  are  tired  of  it.  Perhaps  our  ideas  are  wrong, 
after  all.  You  take  the  reins  and  we  will  stand  aside.  Now  do 
the  best  you  can." 

The  whole  world  knows  the  story  from  this  on.  Heretofore 
the  Army  of  the  Potomac  after  each  battle  seemed  to  have  to 
stop  a  while  and  think.  If  the  South  had  had  the  worst  of  the 
battle  it  took  this  opportunity  of  recuperating,  and  by  the  time 
the  North  swooped  forward  again,  Lee  was  ready,  and  smote 
her  "  hip  and  thigh."  There  were  hundreds  of  eager  officers, 
thousands  of  gallant  men  who  felt  that  this  was  no  way  to 
achieve  success,  and  when  Grant  came  with  his  reputation  for 
stubborn,  persistent,  bull-dog  fighting,  it  was  a  positive  relief. 
He  seemed  to  know  that  in  those  Virginia  fastnesses,  against 
those  skilled  fencers  of  Lee,  manoeuvring  was  more  than  apt  to 
lead  to  being  out-manoeuvred,  and  hard,  ceaseless,  unrelenting 
hammering  was  the  order  from  this  on.  From  May,  1864,  until 
they  halted  breathless  before  Petersburg,  it  was  one  record  of 
bloody,  persistent  pounding  on  the  part  of  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac  at  Lee's  superbly  handled  command  of  sixty  thousand 
veterans,  and  when  at  last,  after  the  Wilderness,  Spottsylvania, 
North  Anna,  and  the  frightful  sacrifice  of  Cold  Harbor,  Grant's 


MORTALITY   AMONG    NOTED   OFFICERS.  649 

army  reached  the  James,  with  Lee  still  between  him  and  Rich- 
mond, it  was  found  that  the  gallant  Army  of  Northern  Virginia 
had  actually  whipped  its  weight  in  numbers  ouUof  the  ranks  of 
the  Union  army — that  no  less  than  6o,OOO  men,  killed,  wounded 
and  missing,  had  been  stricken  from  the  rolls  of  present  for  duty; 
and  still,  with  his  vast  resources  at  his  back,  that  inflexible 
leader,  Grant,  was  as  strong  as  ever.  Terrible  had  been  the 
losses  on  both  sides,  and  in  the  armies  that  confronted  each 
other  at  Petersburg  many  a  familiar  face  and  distinguished 
name  had  disappeared.  Noble  John  Sedgwick  of  the  Sixth 
corps  and  gray-haired  Wadsworth  had  fought  their  last  battle 
in  the  Wilderness.  Longstreet,  Lee's  old  war-dog,  had  been 
crippled  for  life,  and  "Jeb"  Stuart,  the  cavalier  leader  of  the 
Southern  horse,  had  fallen  before  Sheridan's  troopers  at  Yellow 
Tavern.  These  among  the  most  prominent;  yet  of  generals  of 
brigades  there  were  dozens,  and  of  field-officers  hundreds  who 
would  never  draw  sword  again. 

The  North  held  its  breath  in  awe  at  'the  tidings  of  fearful 
slaughter,  and  marvelled  at  the  grim  determination  of  the  silent 
man  who  wrote  from  Spottsylvania :  "  I  propose  to  fight  it  out 
on  this  line  if  it  takes  all  summer ;  "  but  all  had  hope  that  Grant 
would  be  able  to  "  pulverize  "  the  army  of  Lee.  Once  across 
the  James  it  was  expected  that  something  brilliant  would  be 
accomplished  in  front  of  Petersburg.  Then  came  the  fiasco 
of  the  mine.  Admirably  as  the  whole  attack  had  bren  planned 
by  General  Meade,  disastrous  failure  was  the  result.  Luck 
still  seemed  to  side  with  the  Confederacy;  but  there  was 
small  wonder  that  this  attack  should  prove  a  failure  when  two 
of  its  chosen  leaders,  Ledlie  and  Ferrero,  were  found  to  have 
been  skulking  in  a  bomb-proof  far  at  the  rear,  while  their  divi- 
sions were  fighting  their  way  to  the  front.  Then,  winter  of  '64 
and  '65  found  the  army  intrenched,  as  has  been  said,  in  front  of 
Petersburg,  with  no  apparent  prospect  of  getting  out.  Very 
much  had  been  lost,  very  little  had  been  accomplished,  so  it 
seemed  to  the  impatient  and  bleeding  hearts  at  the  North,  and 
when  December  came,  all  was  deep  despond.  "  The  war  is  a 
failure,"  was  the  cry  among  the  Peace  party  all  that  fall.  Gold 


650 


FIVE    FORKS. 


had  soared  up  to  the  nearest  figure  to  300;  and,  though  the 
South  was  living  on  parched  corn,  and  shivering  in  tatters, 
though  its  own  cabinet  had  pronounced  it  impossible  to  subsist 
the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia  through  the  winter,  it  was  still 
undaunted,  still  brave,  hopeful  and  determined. 

Then  the  tide  turned.  Hood's  army  was  shattered  to  frag- 
ments at  Nashville.  Sherman  exploded  the  shell  of  the  Confed- 
eracy, and  handed  over  Savannah  as  his  Christmas  present  to 
the  nation,  and  '65  was  rung  in  with  joy-bells  all  over  the  North, 
for  now  at  last  there  was  light  ahead  and  no  mistake.  Sherman 
came  pushing  up  through  the  Carolinas.  Johnston  could  not 
hold  him  back.  Nearer  and  nearer  he  strode,  and  now  at  last — 
at  last  Lee  began  to  look  wistfully,  nervously,  anxiously  to  his 
flanks  and  rear.  His  men  were  starving,  shivering  to  death  ;  he 
was  surrounded  on  every  side ;  he  had  fought  superbly,  scientifi- 
cally, grandly ;  but — little  by  little  the  ground  was  crumbling 
away  beneath  his  feet.  Then  Sheridan — that  new,  meteoric, 
dashing  leader  who  had  at  last  waked  up  Virginia  to  a  realizing 
sense  of  what  Yankee  cavalry  could  do  when  properly  led — 
whipped  his  way  through  the  Shenandoah,  came  trotting  down 
the  valley  of  the  James,  tearing  canals,  roads  and  railways  into 
ruin  as  he  rode,  joined  his  great  leader  now  reaching  around 
the  southern  limits  of  the  threatened  lines,  and  then,  one  finger 
at  a  time,  the  failing  grasp  of  Lee  on  his  last  position  began 
to  let  go;  and  on  the  1st  of  April  Sheridan  once  more  had 
shot  around  the  now  quivering  flank,  fought  and  won  the  bril- 
liant'battle  of  Five  Forks,  the  real  wind-up  of  the  war,  and 
leaped  like  a  blood-hound  at  the  throat  of  the  fleeing  quarry. 
One  short,  breathless  week  of  unavailing  struggle  and  all  was 
over  with  Lee. 

It  was  a  wonderful  week.  So  accustomed  had  the  North  be- 
come to  hearing  that  their  armies  had  been  repulsed  before  the 
strong  works  of  the  enemy,  that  for  quite  a  while  people  con- 
tinued to  shake  their  heads  and  say,  "  Wait  a  day  longer  and  we 
will  hear  the  old  story;  "  but  this  time  the  old  story  was  buried. 
It  had  been  told  far  too  often.  To  understand  the  closing  strug- 
gle of  the  war  we  need  a  glance  at  the  map,  and  a  brief  reference 
to  the  country  in  which  that  struggle  was  fought. 


SHERIDAN   TO   THE    FRONT.  (J51 

Petersburg  lies  some  twenty  miles  south  of  Richmond,  and  on 
the  south  bank  of  the  Appomattox,  the  largest  tributary  of  the 
James.  One  railway  connects  it  with  the  capital,  and  then,  east, 
south  and  west,  three  others  branched  out  from  Petersburg,  con- 
necting it  with  Norfolk,  Wilmington,  and  with  Lynchburg  and 
Danville.  The  roads  to  Norfolk  and  Wilmington  had  already 
been  seized  and  held  by  General  Grant,  though  the  capture  of 
the  latter,  known  as  the  Weldon  railroad,  had  cost  him  much 
hard  fighting  and  many  lives ;  but  the  most  important  line  of 
all,  the  South  Side  railway,  connecting  Petersburg  with  Dan- 
ville, Lynchburg,  and,  through  them,  with  the  entire  Confed- 
eracy, was  still  covered  and  held  by  General  Lee.  It  was  of 
vital  importance  to  him,  for  it  was  almost  the  only  line  by  which 
he  could  receive  the  supplies  slowly  and  painfully  gathered 'and 
forwarded  by  his  agents.  Petersburg  was  not  provisioned  for  a 
siege,  and,  if  it  had  been,  its  supplies  would  have  been  gone  long 
ago.  Grant  could  only  "  invest "  it  from  the  south  and  east,  for 
Richmond  and  Petersburg  were  connected  by  strong  defensive 
works  against  which  all  efforts  had  been  fruitless.  Grant  had 
made  several  attempts  to  break  through  from  the  James  river 
side,  always  without  success ;  and  at  last  he  began  to  see  that 
the  only  way  to  make  Lee  let  go  of  Petersburg  would  be  to 
reach  around  behind  him  and  seize  that  South  Side  railway ; 
and  to  do  this  he  needed  Sheridan.  It  was  on  the  2/th  of  March 
when  that  now  renowned  leader  of  cavalry  reported  with  his 
command  after  his  long  ride  from  the  Shenandoah  down  the 
James,  and,  barely  giving  him  twenty-four  hours  rest,  Grant 
pushed  his  daring  lieutenant  out  upon  this  new  enterprise. 

The  Appomattox  river  runs  a  general  course  from  west  to 
east,  except  for  one  deep  bend — a  circular  sweep  northward 
about  midway  between  the  Court-House  where  it  rises  and  the 
city  near  which  it  joins  the  James.  Cutting  across  this  bend 
like  the  chord  of  an  arc,  the  railway  runs  otherwise  nearly 
parallel  with  the  Appomattox  from  Lynchburg  to  Petersburg. 
Midway  it  is  crossed  by  the  Richmond  railway,  running  south- 
west to  Danville;  and  beside  this  South  Side  railway  there  led 
westward  and  southwestward  from  Petersburg  several  tolerably 


652  FIVE   FORKS. 

well-graded  and  passable  thoroughfares.  Two  are  nearly  parallel 
to  the  railway — the  river  and  the  Cox  roads,  one  on  each  side 
of  it  generally,  though  the  Cox  road  occasionally  crosses  it. 
Then  running  out  southwestward  is  the  Boydton  plank  road ; 
east  of  that,  and  nearly  parallel  with  it,  the  Vaughan  road.  Just 
where  the  Boydton  crosses  a  little  stream  known  as  Hatcher's 
Run  a  branch  leaves  it  in  a  westerly  direction,  the  White  Oak 
road ;  and  the  whole  country  hereabouts  is  a  net-work  of  little 
wood-roads  and  streamlets  criss-crossing  one  another  in  every 
possible  direction.  The  forests  are  dense,  sometimes  nearly 
impenetrable;  the  ground  low  and  swampy.  There  were  no 
slopes,  no  heights  to  speak  of;  the  country  from  the  Weldon 
railway  out  towards  Dinwiddie  Court-House  on  the  Boydton 
plank,  and  Five  Forks  on  the  White  Oak  dirt-road,  was  just  one 
thickly  timbered  flat,  ready  to  be  overflowed  far  and  near  should 
a  heavy  rain  come;  and  just  such  a  heavy  rain  did  come  at  the 
very  moment  when  Grant  pushed  out  his  columns  in  their 
attempt  to  feel  their  way  around  the  right  of  Lee's  lines  and  get 
that  railroad. 

At  this  moment  the  Southern  forces  were  holding  a  line  of 
intrenchments  and  field-works  that  virtually  reached  from 
Hatcher's  Run,  seven  miles  southwest  of  Petersburg,  around 
that  city  to  the  Appomattox,  thence  to  the  James,  across  the 
James  and  completely  encircling  Richmond.  The  main  army 
was  posted  south  of  the  Appomattox — General  A.  P.  Hill,  with 
his  old  corps,  commanding  from  Hatcher's  Run  to  Fort  Gregg 
(which  lay  about  two  miles  southwest  of  town),  and  having  the 
Boydton  plank  road  running  behind  him  parallel  with  his  line. 
On  Hill's  left  and  extending  around  to  the  Appomattox,  holding 
all  the  forts,  were  Generals  Gordon  and  Anderson,  with  their 
strong  divisions  of  war-tried  veterans ;  while  in  chief  command 
of  all  the  lines  north  of  the  Appomattox,  Longstreet,  disabled, 
suffering,  even  crippled  with  his  wounds,  reappeared  in  the  field. 
The  length  of  the  line  thus  held  from  White  Oak  Swamp  on  the 
north  to  Hatcher's  Run  on  the  south  is  given  by  General 
Humphreys  as  thirty-seven  miles,  and  this  carries  the  line  out  to 
the  Claiborne  crossing  of  Hatcher's  Run,  fully  ten  miles  from 


THE   BEGINNING   OF   THE   END.  653 

the  city  of  Petersburg.  The  earthworks  were  heavy  and  were 
strengthened  everywhere  by  thick  slashing  and  abatis.  To 
defend  this  long,  encircling  line,  General  Lee  had,  all  told,  some 
57,000  men,  but  they  were  admirably  commanded,  were  fighting 
on  the  defensive,  and  the  nature  of  the  thick  and  tangled 
country,  the  scientific  planning  of  their  earthworks,  gave  them 
advantages  that  were  worth  more  than  mere  numbers. 

Against  them  there  were  mustered  on  the  effective  lists  of  the 
combined  armies  of  the  Potomac,  the  James,  and  Sheridan's 
cavalry,  very  nearly  125,000  men;  and  when  General  Grant 
began  his  favorite  movement  of  swinging  round  the  right  flank 
of  the  enemy,  he  left  Generals  Parke  and  Ord  with  some  of  the 
Army  of  the  James  to  hold  the  works  in  front  of  Petersburg, 
and  the  military  line  of  railway  to  City  Point  on  the  James ; 
General  Weitzel,  with  two  divisions  well  up  near  Richmond  at 
Bermuda  Hundred;  and  on  the  2pth  of  March,  with  Sheridan 
leading,  and  our  old  friends  of  the  Second  and  Fifth  corps  close 
behind,  he  pushed  out  boldly  through  the  unknown  country  to 
the  west.  It  was  the  beginning  of  the  end,  and  we  want  to  look 
well  at  the  men  who  are  with  him  in  this,  the  closing  scene  of 
the  great  war.  There  is  no  need  to  speak  of  the  general-in-chief 
in  these  pages.  His  is  now  a  national  history  and  a  world-wide 
reputation ;  but  of  his  great  lieutenant,  that  eager,  restless, 
daring  trooper  who  is  foremost  in  the  final  campaign,  whole 
volumes  might  yet  be  written.  By  this  time  the  cavalry  of  the 
army  has  learned  to  follow  and  to  fight  for  Phil  Sheridan  as  it 
never  did  for  mortal  man  before — even  the  lamented  Buford. 
And  the  Sixth,  Eighth  and  Nineteenth  corps  have  learned  to 
know  him  well :  they  fought  under  him  at  Winchester,  at  Cedar 
Creek  and  Fisher's  Hill ;  and  the  Sixth  corps  had  come  back 
from  the  Shenandoah  full  of  stories  of  the  way  Sheridan  sent 
Early  whirling  up  that  valley.  They  would  be  glad  to  back  him 
up  again  to-day ;  but  as  luck  would  have  it,  the  Fifth  corps  is 
farthest  out  of  all  the  infantry,  and,  should  he  need  infantry- 
backing  as  he  doubtless  will,  these  are  the  men  on  whom  he 
must  rely.  Sheridan  has  some  13,000  admirable  troopers  as  his 
own  command,  and  with  Merritt  at  the  head  of  this  cavalry 


654  FIVE  FORKS. 

corps,  and  Custer,  Devin  and  Crook  as  division  leaders,  his  is 
the  most  complete  and  independent  organization  in  the  army. 
Perhaps  there  is  some  little  jealousy  in  the  ranks  of  the  hard- 
used  Army  of  the  Potomac ;  for,  while  they  have  been  slowly 
groping  and  struggling  or  freezing  about  the  lines  of  Petersburg 
all  winter,  these  gaudy  yellow-trimmed  horsemen  have  been 
gayly  riding  all  over  Virginia,  winning  big  names  for  themselves 
(and  deserving  more  than  they  got  at  Winchester,  for  that  mat- 
ter), and  now  here  they  are  again,  far  in  the  lead  as  usual,  say 
the  plodding  infantrymen  with  the  growl  that  all  old  soldiers 
must  have:  "  Way  out  until  they  strike  something:  then  they 
come  back  and  let  us  tackle  it."  Perhaps  that  was  the  reputa- 
tion of  the  cavalry  up  to  the  time  Sheridan  took  command, 
despite  John  Buford's  superb  stand  that  first  day  at  Gettysburg 
and  "  Grimes "  Davis'  brilliant  charge  and  soldierly  death  at 
Beverly  Ford ;  but  there  is  no  "  come  back  "  where  Sheridan 
leads,  and  all  preconceived  notions  on  the  subject  are  going  to 
have  a  sudden  shock  in  the  Army  of  the  Potomac.  Men  of  the 
Fifth  and  Second  corps  were  seen  curiously  watching  the  long 
column  of  Sheridan's  troopers  as  they  trotted  easily  around 
from  the  James  to  the  extreme  left  over  by  the  Vaughan  road, 
and  there  was  a  good  deal  of  the  "  chaff"  and  "  billingsgate  "  in 
which  our  soldiers  will  indulge  at  such  times — a  constant  inter- 
change of  wordy  compliments  between  horse  and  foot  through 
the  lowering  March  day,  and  though  the  Sixth  corps  cheered 
their  comrades  of  the  valley  campaign,  it  is  probable  that  not  a 
few  of  Sheridan's  men  were  ruffled  by  this  sort  of  reception. 
However,  there  was  no  time  to  squabble  over  it  now.  They 
might  have  to  show  the  very  "  chaffers  "  how  to  fight.  Who 
could  tell  what  a  day  might  bring  forth  ? 

Grant's  infantry  and  artillery  had  been  reorganized  for  the 
new  move  through  this  timbered  and  swampy  country.  The 
batteries  had  been  cut  down  to  four  guns  each ;  Hancock  had 
been  called  to  Washington  some  time  since  to  organize  the  new 
First  corps,  and  his  old  corps,  the  Second,  is  now  led  by  Major- 
General  Humphreys,  who  fought  so  hard  the  second  day  at 
Gettysburg.  Miles,  William  Hays  and  Mott  are  the  division 


"LET   US   END   THIS   BUSINESS   HERE."  $55 

commanders.  Alexander  Hays  was  killed  before  Spottsylvania. 
The  Fifth  corps  is  led  by  General  Gouverneur  K.  Warren,  he 
who  showed  such  brain  and  bravery  at  Little  Round  Top,  such 
brain  and  prudence  at  Mine  Run,  and  who  has  become  con- 
spicuous throughout  the  army  because  he  will  wear  his  broad 
yellow  sash  in  the  hottest  action,  where  it  has  become  the 
fashion  to  drop  all  such  ornament.  The  -Fifth  is  still  the 
"dandy"  corps  of  the  army,  and  Griffin,  Ayres  and  Crawford 
command  its  divisions.  Major-General  Wright  heads  the  Sixth 
corps,  with  Wheaton,  Getty  and  Seymour  as  division  com- 
manders. General  John  G.  Parke  has  the  Ninth  corps,  a  com- 
paratively new  command,  and  for  that  reason,  probably,  selected 
to  remain  behind  and  man  the  works  in  front  of  Petersburg. 

Besides  these  old  troops  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  there 
came,  to  swell  the  ranks  of  the  moving  columns,  Turner's  and 
Foster's  divisions  of  the  Twenty-fourth  corps,  now  commanded 
by  John  Gibbon,  whom  we  have  seen  rise  from  the  head  of  the 
Iron  Brigade  at  Second  Bull  Run  to  his  present  high  rank,  and 
a  little  division  of  cavalry  from  Butler's  old  army,  not  2,000 
strong,  but  led  by  a  brilliant  and  brave  young  soldier — General 
Ranald  MacKenzie :  and  this  was  the  force  with  which  General 
Grant  essayed  to  pin  the  Southern  leader  to  the  wall. 

On  March  28th,  when  all  was  ready,  Grant  had  summoned 
Sheridan  to  headquarters  and  there  read  to  him  his  instructions, 
winding  up  by  saying  to  him  in  his  blunt  way :  "  I  mean  to  end 
this  business  here;"  and  Sheridan's  face  beamed  with  enthu- 
siasm and  delight.  "  That's  what  I  like  to  hear  you  say,"  he 
answered.  "  Let  us  end  this  business  here."  A  very  few  hours 
afterwards,  he  with  the  cavalry  was  crossing  Rowanty  Creek 
way  down  to  the  south,  and  striking  out  'cross  country  for 
Dinwiddie  Court-House;  while  Warren  and  Humphreys  were 
pushing  across  the  stream  or  rather  its  upper  fork,  Hatcher's 
Run,  miles  to  the  north  of  him.  Sheridan  was  to  make  a  wide 
sweep,  and  the  whole  idea  of  the  movement  was  to  induce  Lee 
to  come  out  from  behind  his  works  and  fight  in  the  open. 

The  President  himself  had  come  down  to  City  Point  to  see 
Grant  and  his  officers  before  the  final  start,  and  to  wish  them 


656  FIVE    FORKS. 

God-speed.  None  of  the  party — and  his  own  son,  then  Captain 
Lincoln  of  the  general's  staff,  was  one — can  ever  forget  that 
parting.  It  was  the  noble-hearted  Lincoln's  last  look  at  his 
fighting  soldiers — two  weeks  more  and  cowardly  assassination 
had  laid  him  low.  He  stood  on.  the  rude  platform  of  the  rail- 
way station  as  the  train  bore  the  general  and  his  staff  away, 
gazing  hopefully,  yet  wistfully,  after  them.  God  alone  knows 
the  weight  of  care,  anxiety,  agony,  that  patient  and  loyal  soul 
had  undergone  during  the  four  long  years  of  the  war — a  suffering 
from  which  the  martyrdom  of  his  death  would  have  been  re- 
lease had  it  come  before,  but  it  came,  a  ten-fold  martyrdom,  to 
rob  him  of  all  earthly  fruition  of  his  dreams  of  ultimate  success, 
yet  in  robbing  him  of  this  earthly  triumph,  to  replace  it  by  an 
eternity  of  reward  a  thousand  times  more  glorious.  "  God  bless 
you  all,"  he  had  said,  and  with  this  parting  benediction  they  had 
hastened  forth  to  their  appointed  task.  Another  hour  and  they 
were  in  saddle  at  the  left. 

That  night  Sheridan  was  bivouacking  around  Dinwiddie, 
Warren  and  Humphreys  among  the  thickets  across  Hatcher's 
Run,  and  then  it  was  that  it  came  on  to  rain  in  soaking  torrents. 
Morning  of  the  3Oth  found  the  whole  country  one  vast  quag- 
mire, and  a  general  feeling  of  depression  seemed  to  have  settled 
down  on  the  army  struggling  through  the  mud  along  Gravelly 
Run.  Horses  floundered  up  to  their  girths,  wheels  sank  to  their 
hubs  in  the  quicksands  in  front  of  the  tents  where  the  general 
himself  had  stopped  for  the  night.  The  3<Dth  was  a  gloomy 
day.  Even  among  his  own  staff-officers,  it  is  said  that  there 
were  some  who  urged  the  silent  commander  to  give  it  up  and 
go  back  ;  and,  in  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  if  Badeau  can  be 
cited  as  authority,  "  Meade  was  not  sanguine  and  said  little ;  but 
others  strongly  urged  a  retrograde  movement."  Evidently  there 
was  little  heart  in  the  move  in  such  vile  weather,  but  Grant  was 
inflexible.  If  he  could  not  burst  through  an  enemy's  line,  he  at 
least  had  found  means  to  get  around.  Go  back  was  the  one  thing 
he  never  yet  had  done,  and  even  his  own  army  could  not  force 
him  to  go  back  now.  Yet  he  would  have  given  much,  or  have 
been  less  than  man,  for  some  cheery,  hopeful,  buoyant  spirit  to 


SHERIDAN'S    MAGNETIC   SPIRIT.  657 

stand  by  him  in  this  atmosphere  of  general  gloom ;  and  it  came 
— came  like  a  burst  of  sunshine  when  Sheridan,  "  all  mud  and 
pluck,"  rode  into  the  midst  of  the  dripping  group  around  the 
camp-fire  at  headquarters  to  report  progress  at  Dinwiddie,  and 
to  almost  beg  for  orders  to  push  ahead.  With  Sheridan  in  such 
a  mood,  there  was  an  end  to  all  hint  of  failure,  and  in  half  an  hour 
the  vehement,  sturdy  little  trooper  was  spurring  back  through 
mud  and  rain  with  the  coveted  instructions  to  strike  northward  for 
Five  Forks.  Could  he  gain  it  in  time,  before  Lee  could  seize, 
intrench  and  hold  it  ?  It  lay  so  near  the  South  Side  railway — 
not  more  than  three  miles — that  if  lost  to  Lee  the  road  would 
go — and  with  it,  his  last  hold  on  Petersburg. 

As  early  as  the  28th,  General  Lee  had  learned  that  Sheridan's 
cavalry  was  being  transferred  way  around  Petersburg  to  the 
extreme  left  of  Grant's  lines.  He  knew  at  once  what  that  must 
mean — a  blow  at  the  South  Side  road  from  that  quarter.  The 
first  undefended  trick  along  which  the  blow  might  come  was 
the  Ford  road  fion:  i'ive  Forks.  Anderson's  men  were  already 
moving  over  to  the  vvest  to 'man  the  works  across  the  Claiborne 
road  to  Sutherland  Station,  but  some  one  must  make  a  leap  for 
Five  Forks,  and  the  choice  fell  on  Fitz  Hugh  Lee,  who  had 
been  far  over  towards  the  Chickahominy  swamps.  He  and  his 
cavalry  division  rode  like  mad  all  day  of  the  29th,  reached 
Sutherlands  that  night,  sprang  upon  Five  Forks  the  next  morn- 
ing, and,  that  afternoon,  March  3Oth,  he  and  Merritt  had  grap- 
pled along  ill'"  Dinwiddie  road,  and  Sheridan's  impetuous  ad- 
vance was  stemmed.  At  this  moment  there  were  at  least  five 
miles  of  mud  and  quicksand  between  Warren's  left  and  the  near- 
est flank  of  Sheridan's  adventurous  horsemen.  Guns  and  wagons 
were  stalled  and  could  not  budge  an  inch  until  the  roads  were 
corduroyed.  What  if  Lee  should  push  still  farther,  thrust  other 
cavalry  through  that  five  mile  gap,  cross  infantry  by  the  White 
Oak  road  to  Five  Forks,  and  hem  Sheridan  in  at  Dinwiddie  ? 
It  was  practicable.  It  could  be  done,  and  then  the  vaunted  hero 
of  the  Shenandoah  would  be  at  their  mercy,  and  Grant's  eyes, 
yes,  and  his  right  arm,  gone.  Full  information  had  reached  the 
Southern  general  of  the  situation  by  this  time,  and  he  strained 
42 


658  FIVE   FORKS. 

every  nerve  to  meet  the  emergency.  By  sunset  on  the  3Oth, 
Rosser  and  W.  H.  F.  Lee  had  reinforced  Fitz  Lee's  division 
south  of  Five  Forks,  and  Pickett,  he  of  the  heroic  assault  at 
'Gettysburg,  with  five  brigades  of  veteran  infantry,  was  pitching 
up  earthworks  along  the  White  Oak  road  from  Five  Forks  east- 
ward. Eighteen  thousand  men  had  been  launched  out  to 
"gobble,"  as  the  saying  went  in  those  days,  Sheridan  and  his 
13,000. 

Late  on  the  night  of  the  3Oth,  Grant  determined,  on  learning 
how  Lee  had  weakened  his  lines  at  Petersburg,  that  the  time 
had  come  to  assault  the  works  around  the  town,  and  far  to  the 
south  of  it.  At  this  moment  Parke,  with  the  Ninth  corps,  cov- 
ered the  front  to  the  east ;  Wright,  with  the  Sixth  corps,  from 
Parke's  left,  well  out  to  the  southwest ;  then  came  Ord's  men, 
from  the  Army  of  the  James,  confronting  the  lines  five  and  six 
miles  southwest  of  the  town;  then  Humphrey's  Second  corps, 
stretching  across  country  near  Hatcher's  Run  and  almost  to  the 
Boydton  plank  road ;  while  close  on  his  left  was  the  Fifth  corps 
under  Warren,  covering  the  plank  road  and  picketing  the  coun- 
try to  the  crossing  of  the  Claiborne  and  White  Oak  roads.  Then 
came  that  five  mile  gap  to  Sheridan,  off  southwestward  in  the 
woods  above  Dinwiddie,  and  both  Sheridan's  right  and  War- 
ren's left  flanks  were  in  jeopardy. 

That  night  too,  Grant  from  his  headquarters  near  Gravelly 
Run  wrote  to  Sheridan  that  he  would  detach  the  whole  Fifth 
corps  and  send  it  to  him  on  the  following  day  if  he  thought 
that  by  aid  of  it,  and  acting  independently  of  the  rest  of  the 
.army,  he  could  swing  round  the  right  flank  of  Lee's  army  and 
so  hem  them  in ;  and  Sheridan's  reply  came  on  the  morning  of 
the  3 ist.  He  was  willing — eager  to  try  it,  with  the  Sixth  corps. 
They  knew  him  and  he  them,  but,  he  shook  his  head  at  men- 
tion of  the  Fifth  corps.  They  could  and  would  'fight  superbly 
for  men  they  knew  and  liked,  but  somehow  or  other  that  Fifth 
corps  seemed  to  want  to  know  too  much  about  what  some  other 
corps  was  to  do  while  they  were  doing  this  and  that,  and  Sheri- 
dan had  possibly  heard  that  Fifth  corps  commanders  had  before 
now  been  singularly  liberal  in  their  interpretation  of  orders 


DISTRUST  OF  WARREN.  659 

coming  from  superiors  who  had  learned  obedience  in  the  west. 
He  had  never  led  the  Fifth  corps.  He  only  knew  Warren  from 
what  had  been  said  of  him,  and  some  vague  talk  around  the 
camp-fire,  and  as  bad  luck  would  have  it,  he  had  been  preju- 
diced against  as  brave  and  cool  and  scientific  a  fighter  as  the 
army  possessed,  far  too  cool  and  deliberate  as  a  mate,  to  pull 
with  fiery,  magnetic,  all-daring  Sheridan. 

But  his  old  standby,  the  Sixth  corps,  was  far  over  to  the  right 
in  front  of  Petersburg.  Warren  alone  was  available ;  and  War- 
ren it  was  who  finally  received  the  orders  to  support  Sheridan  at 
Dinwiddie,  and  act  under  his  orders ;  but  meantime  grave 
changes  came.  Early  on  the  3 1st  Lee's  men  rushed  into  the 
gap ;  doubled  Warren  up  like  a  pocket-rule ;  sent  Ayres  and 
Crawford  reeling  back  on  Griffin,  and  if  Miles,  of  the  Second 
corps,  had  not  come  to  the  rescue  when  he  did,  might  have  driven 
him  still  farther.  The  subsequent  rally  and  advance  was  fine, 
but  the  3 1st  of  March  cost  the  Fifth  corps  nearly  1,500  men, 
and  its  chief  a  vast  amount  of  severe  criticism,  which  added  to 
the  impression  at  three  headquarters — Grant's,  Meade's  and  Sheri- 
dan's— that,  with  all  his  acknowledged  ability  and  personal 
courage,  Warren  was  not  the  man  for  this  place.  All  day  long 
in  mud  and  mist  his  men  were  fighting,  marching  and  meeting 
or  making  charges,  and  night  found  them  worn  out,  and  their 
leader  somewhat  dejected.  This  was  their  condition  when,  at 
eleven  o'clock  at  night,  Warren  received  his  orders  to  march 
Griffin  down  the  Boydton  road,  and  move  with  his  whole  corps 
to  strike  in  rear  the  enemy  then  enveloping  Sheridan.  "  Urge 
him  not  to  stop  for  anything,"  said  Grant  to  Meade,  for  all  day 
long  Sheridan  had  been  fighting  like  a  tiger  between  Five  Forks 
and  Dinwiddie.  Merritt  and  Custer,  Devin  and  Crook  had  been 
furiously  attacked  by  Lee,  Rosser  and  Pickett's  advanced  in- 
fantry, and  step  by  step  they  had  been  driven  back  toward  the 
old  Virginia  country  court-house.  Merritt  at  one  time  had  been 
well-nigh  cut  off,  but  had  most  skillfully  withdrawn  his  men  to 
the  Boydton  road,  drawing  the  yelling  Southerners  in  a  sweeping 
left  wheel  after  him,  and  got  back  safely  to  Sheridan,  while  that 
indomitable  leader  launched  in  the  brigades  of  Gibbes  and  Gregg 


FIVE   FORKS. 

on  the  flank  presented  by  the  pursuing  enemy,  brought  them  to 
bay,  and  caused  them  to  turn  once  more  on  him  at  Dinwiddie, 
while  Merritt  trotted  back  by  way  of  the  Boydton  plank,  and 
once  more  deployed  on  the  general  line.  All  day  long  Sheri- 
dan's generalship  had  been  brilliant,  his  fighting  most  gallant. 
Dinwiddie  was  held;  and  now  as  night  came  down  and  the 
cavalry — Northern  and  Southern — bivouacked  in  the  woods  not 
a  hundred  yards  apart,  the  question  was  :  "  How  soon  can  War- 
ren come  down  and  pitch  into  the  enemy's  rear  ?  "  for  at  night- 
fall the  lines  of  Lee  lay  between  Sheridan  and  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac. 

Counting  on  his  coming,  believing  that  by  three  A.  M.  at  the 
latest  Warren  would  be  there  in  force  behind  the  enemy,  Sheri- 
dan felt  confident  that  at  early  dawn  he  could  fall  upon  and  de- 
stroy the  Southern  force.  "Attack  at  day-break"  were  his 
orders,  and  the  men  crammed  their  pouches  and  pockets  with 
fresh  cartridges,  and  eagerly  awaited  the  coming  day.  Notified 
by  General  Grant  of  Warren's  instructions  to  join  him  at  once, 
he  listened  with  impatient  ear  for  the  rattle  of  his  musketry  as 
the  1st  of  April  dawned  damp  and  chill ;  but  he  listened  in  vain. 
Warren  was  still  at  the  other  end  of  that  five  mile  gap.  He  had 
roused  Ayres  and  his  men,  it  is  true,  sent  them  instead  of  Griffin 
down  the  Boydton  road;  but  the  bridge  was  gone  at  Gravelly 
Run,  and  not  until  two  A.  M.  could  it  be  replaced ;  his  men  were 
greatly  fatigued ;  he  feared  that  his  withdrawal  in  the  darkness 
would  bring  the  vigilant  lines  of  the  enemy  in  rapid  pursuit,  and 
he  hung  on  where  he  was  until  five  in  the  morning.  Not  until 
eleven  A.  M.  did  he  report  in  person  to  Sheridan,  now  fuming 
with  exasperation  and  disappointment,  for  it  was  too  late.  Warned 
of  Warren's  tardy  coming  the  Southern  leaders  had  promptly 
slipped  out  of  the  trap,  passed  westward  across  Sheridan's  front, 
and  as  the  latter  sprang  forward  to  the  attack,  faced  him  and 
fell  back,  skillfully  fighting  towards  the  intrenchments  at  Five 
Forks,  closely  followed  by  Merritt  and  his  charging  squadrons. 
The  chance  was  gone.  Noon  came,  and  Pickett's  men  were 
in  strong  position  behind  their  earthworks  along  the  White  Oak 
road. 


PICKETT   BEHIND   HIS   INTRENCHMENTS. 

But  Sheridan  would  not  give  it  up.  One  chance  was  gone 
to  be  sure,  but  there  was  still  time  to  fight  and  win  a  battle. 
New  dispositions,  new  plans  had  to  be  made  at  once ;  but  gal- 
loping hither  and  thither  over  the  field,  the  very  epitome  of 
soldierly  dash  and  daring,  he  quickly  discovered  that  Pickett's 
earthworks  came  to  an  abrupt  end  a  mile  east  of  Five  Forks  and 
turned  back  at  a  right-angle  to  the  north.  From  this  angle  or 
salient  eastward  along  the  White  Oak  road  there  was  a  stretch 
of  four  miles  of  undefended  ground.  Calling  up  MacKenzie  and 
his  eighteen  hundred  troopers,  he  hurried  him  out  eastward  at  a 
rapid  trot ;  told  him  to  hold  that  road  against  all  comers  until 
he  could  bring  up  the  Fifth  corps,  and  having  thus  headed  off 
any  reinforcements  that  might  be  coming  from  Lee  to  Pickett, 
he  set  to  work  to  entrap  the  latter  in  his  stronghold  at  the 
Forks. 

Facing  southward,  Pickett  held  about  two  miles  of  newly- 
built  earthworks,  with  Five  Forks  in  the  middle.  Ordering 
Merritt  to  deploy  all  his  cavalry  along  this  front,  and  to  make  a 
vigorous  feint  as  though  striving  to  turn  the  right  or  western 
flank  of  Pickett's  line,  Sheridan  hastened  to  his  own  •  right  and 
ordered  Warren  to  bring  up  the  Fifth  corps  with  all  possible 
speed.  He  meant  to  repeat  the  old  Winchester  move,  assault 
along  the  front,  but  to  hurl  Warren's  whole  corps  against  that 
salient — the  eastern  angle  of  Pickett's  line — and  by  a  gradual 
wheel  to  the  left  of  the  three  infantry  divisions,  to  double  up  the 
Southern  line  and  literally  smash  it.  If  Pickett  escaped  at  all 
from  between  the  enveloping  corps  of  Warren  and  Merritt,  it 
could  only  be  to  the  westward,  away  from  Lee,  away  from  help 
or  support  of  any  kind.  But  time  was  everything.  The  short 
spring  day  would  soon  be  over,  and  that  chance  too  would  then 
be  gone  forever.  Splendidly  the  cavalry  carried  out  their  part 
of  the  game.  MacKenzie,  far  over  to  the  east,  gave  a  sound 
drubbing  to  the  advance  guard  of  the  reinforcements  coming 
from  Lee.  Merritt,  dismounting  his  troopers  in  front  of  the 
works,  formed  his  long  lines  in  readiness  for  attack,  while  the 
led  horses,  the  fluttering  guidons  and  the  reserves  stood  well 
back  among  the  trees,  but  ready  to  leap  forward  after  their  regi- 


662  FIVE  FORKS. 

ments.  Far  over  to  the  west,  yellow-haired  Custer  with 
brigades  in  the  saddle,  and  Pennington's  men  afoot,  made  the 
dashing  charge  which  was  to  be  the  feint  upon  Pickett's  right; 
but  here,  W.  H.  F.  Lee  met  him  with  horsemen  as  enthusiastic  as 
his  own,  and  these  two  had  a  rattling  cavalry  fight  all  to  them- 
selves, while  other  and  graver  matters  were  going  on  at  the  right. 
Oddly  enough  Pickett  and  Fitz  Hugh  Lee  were  .far  behind  their 
lines  at  the  time,  holding  some  consultation  in  the  thick  woods 
north  of  Hatcher's  Run.  Accustomed  only  to  the  kind  of  fight- 
ing they  had  seen  in  Virginia  for  three  years  past,  they  probably 
imagined  that,  as  usual,  the  Yanks  would  stop  when  they  came 
to  those  earthworks ;  but  they  did  not  know  Sheridan.  At  two 
o'clock  he  and  Warren  were  talking  over  the  plan  of  attack  to- 
gether, and  that  interview  has  become  historic. 

The  Fifth  corps  was  only  some  two  miles  and  a  half  away  at 
the  time  Warren  was  ordered  to  hurry  it  to  the  front.  It  was 
then  just  one  o'clock.  The  roads  were  heavy  with  mud,  the 
men  so  tired  that  at  eveiy  halt  some  of  their  number  would 
throw  themselves  by  the  roadside,  be  sound  asleep  in  an  instant 
and  almost  dead  to  any  summons  to  be  up  and  moving.  Still, 
in  his  eager  enthusiasm,  Sheridan  counted  on  their  coming  in 
an  hour,  or  an  hour  and  a  half  at  the  utmost.  Every  now  and 
then,  as  he  strode  nervously  up  and  down  untler  the  trees, 
where  he  and  his  staff  had  dismounted,  his  fiery  eyes  would 
glance  toward  the  western  skies  where,  through  the  low  hang- 
ing clouds,  the  sun  was  fast  sinking  towards  the  horizon.  Then 
he  would  halt  short  and  address  some  words  to  Warren.  The 
latter  had  made  a  rough  sketch  of  the  proposed  attack,  showing 
the  position  of  the  Southern  force  along  the  White  Oak  road ; 
the  lines  of  Merritt  and  Custer  and  Devin ;  the  very  fields  into 
which  his  own  divisions  were  to  be  turned  on  coming  to  the 
spot.  He  was  carefully  studying  the  situation,  calm,  placid, 
methodical ;  a  calm  that,  to  Sheridan's  restless  impatience,  sav- 
ored of  apathy,  a  method  that  seemed  to  be  a  critical  analysis 
of  his  superior's  orders  under  his  superior's  very  eyes.  Still  no 
signs  came  of  the  longed-for  infantry.  Again  and  again  Sheri- 
dan glared  down  the  Dinwiddie  road  in  search  of  the  sloping 


SHERIDAN   AND    WARREN   CONTRASTE  663 

rifle-barrels,  and  the  more  impatient  he  grew,  the  more  imper- 
turbably  placid  seemed  Warren.  Just  or  unjust,  Sheridan  could 
only  estimate  such  conduct  from  one  standpoint.  He  had,  from 
the  very  start,  been  accustomed  to  handling  men  whose  natures 
seemed  to  leap  into  instant  and  eager  life  at  the  kindling  con- 
tact of  his  own.  His  old  Michigan  cavalry  regiment;  his  little 
brigade  in  the  Army  of  the  Cumberland ;  his  fighting  divisions 
at  Stone  River  and  Chattanooga ;  then  his  brilliant  cavalry  corps 
in  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  and  the  sedate  infantry  of  the  Sixth 
and  Nineteenth  corps,  all,  all  had  seemed  to  become  imbued 
with  his  vehement  dash  and  daring.  Men  who  had  fought  and 
marched  with  Sheridan  had  learned  to  jump  when  he  spoke  ; 
he  loved  to  see  snap,  life,  vim  in  officer  or  man;  he  could  not 
tolerate  a  laggard.  Never  yet  had  he  met  a  subordinate  whom 
he  could  not  inspire ;  but  now  here  was  Warren — Warren,  whom 
he  had  been  taught  to  look  upon  as  slow  ;  Warren,  who  repre- 
sented the  manoeuvring  engineer  element  among  our  generals, 
as  opposed  to  the  hard-hitting,  practical  fighters  of  the  line; 
Warren,  whose  men  had  been  fattening  and  getting  "  soft,"  per- 
haps timid,  behind  bomb-proofs  and  earthworks  all  winter,  while 
his  cavalry-men  were  doing  rough,  lusty  work  in  the  saddle  and 
the  open  field.  Sheridan  simply  could  not  understand  Warren. 
What  the  latter's  warmest  friends  considered  evidences  of  "  in- 
tense concentration,"  looked,  it  must  be  confessed,  vastly  like 
apathy  to  soldiers  such  as  Sheridan,  who  had  never  seen  him 
light  up  under  fire.  Three  o'clock  came,  still  the  Fifth  corps 
was  not  up,  and  then  it  was  that  in  his  fuming  impatience  Sheri- 
dan gave  .way  to  the  impression — a  most  natural  and  justifiable 
impression  after  all  the  disappointments  of  the  day — "  that  he 
(Warren)  wished  the  sun  to  go  down  before  dispositions  for  at- 
tack could  be  completed."  When  at  last  the  Fifth  corps  was 
placed  in  position,  facing  northwest  toward  that  gloomy  salient 
on  the  White  Oak  road,  four  o'clock  had  come,  and  Warren 
rode  into  the  attack  heavily  handicapped  with  his  superior's 
strongly-rooted  distrust. 

But  of  this  he  knew  little  or  nothing.     Intent  in  his  own  way 
on  carrying  out  his  orders,  and  recognizing  with  a  soldier's  eye 


664  FIVE  FORKS. 

the  brilliancy  of  Sheridan's  battle-plan,  he  hastened  to  the  right 
of  the  road  on  which  lay  the  Gravelly  Run  Church,  where  Craw- 
ford's division  in  two  lines,  with  a  brigade  in  reserve,  had  taken 
its  post,  moved  Griffin's  splendid  division  in  support  of  Craw- 
ford, and  awaited  the  signal  to  advance.  Ayres'  division,  the 
last  to  arrive,  and  the  smallest  of  the  three,  took  post  between 
the  Gravelly  Run  Church  road  and  that  leading  from  Five 
Forks  to  Dinwiddie,  nearly  joining  hands  with  Devin's  cavalry- 
men on  the  left,  and  facing  northwest  like  the  rest  of  the  corps. 
Then,  at  last,  all  was  ready  and  advance  was  the  word.  Leav- 
ing the  cavalry  to  take  care  of  themselves,  Sheridan  galloped 
out  in  front  of  Ayres'  division,  he  and  his  staff  riding  rapidly 
along  between  the  skirmish  and  the  main  lines.  That  red  and 
white  swallow-tail  flag  was  a  new  sight  to  those  Fifth  corps  fel- 
lows, and  they  looked  upon  Sheridan's  standard-bearer  with 
live  curiosity.  "  I  will  ride  with  you,"  said  Sheridan  to  Ayres  ; 
and  with  that,  under  the  sputtering  skirmish-fire  to  the  front,  the 
division  burst  forward,  while  Warren  and  the  greater  portion  of 
his  corps  pushed  ahead  through  the  tangled  woods,  expecting 
every  instant  to  be  met  by  the  volleys  from  the  Southern  lines. 
In  ten  minutes  the  skirmishers  were  leaping  across  the  White 
Oak  road  under  the  vigorous  peppering  of  the  opposing  light 
troops,  who  fell  back  slowly  before  the  coming  host  until  close 
under  the  muzzles  of  the  main  lines,  when,  with  sudden  rally 
and  rush,  they  disappeared  entirely  from  Ayres'  front.  The 
next  instant,  as  the  long  blue  ranks  with  waving  colors  and 
steady  fronts  swept  forward  across  the  open  road,  there  came 
from  the  left  and  left  front,  a  sudden  flash  and  thunder-clap,  fol- 
lowed by  the  rattle  and  ring  of  a  thousand  muskets.  In  one 
moment  the  sparse  woods  leaped  with  flame  and  the  leaves  came 
fluttering  down  from  overhead  swept  by  the  storm  of  hissing 
bullets.  It  was  a  savage  reception ;  many  a  gallant  fellow  was 
laid  low  by  the  sudden  storm ;  but  Ayres  was  a  staunch  fighter, 
and,  instantly  divining  that  he  had  found  the  point  where  the 
earthworks  turned  back  to  the  north,  and  that  the  fire  came 
from  that  face,  he  ordered  his  two  brigades  to  wheel  at  once  to 
the  left,  and  sent  word  to  his  supporting  line.,  under  gallant  Fred 


AYRES   CAPTURES   A   WHOLE   BRIGADE.  665 

Winthrop,  to  come  forward  into  line  on  his  left  at  double-quick. 
It  was  promptly,  splendidly  done;  but  the  Third  brigade 
(Gwyn's),  on  the  extreme  right,  had  to  fight  its  way  through 
some  thick  undergrowth  to  the  open  plain  beyond.  They 
plunged  through  in  some  disorder,  but  kept  going  until  reach- 
ing the  edge  of  the  thicket  and  the  skirt  of  the  woods;  here, 
greeted  by  a  sharp  and  sudden  volley,  and  being  much  broken 
by  their  "  bushwhacking,"  the  whole  brigade  reeled  and  stag- 
gered. It  was  a  critical  moment.  It  would  never  do  to  let  them 
go  back ;  Warren,  with  Crawford  and  Griffin,  was  still  shoving 
ahead  through  the  woods,  somewhere  off  to  the  right,  but  out 
of  sight  now,  and  a  great  gap  was  forming  between  Ayres'  right 
and  Crawford's  left.  Not  an  instant  could  be  lost.  Staff-offi- 
cers struck  spurs  to  their  horses  and  dashed  off  into  the  woods 
to  turn  Crawford  to  the  left.  Gwyn  needed  their  support;  but 
as  Gwyn's  men  still  clung  timidly  to  their  cover  and  huddled  to- 
gether among  the  trees,  Sheridan  could  stand  it  no  longer. 
Seizing  the  battle-flag  he  leaped  out  to  the  front,  shouting  to  the 
amazed  infantrymen  to  "  Come  on."  Somewhere  back  of  the 
line  a  Yankee  band  struck  up  a  rollicking  Irish  air ;  others 
chimed  in  with  the  first  tune  that  happened  to  strike  the  leader's 
fancy ;  Ayres  and  his  staff  rushed  forward  to  aid  Sheridan  as 
that  fiery  little  rider  rode  storming,  and  swearing,  and  cheering 
along  the  lines,  heedless  of  the  hissing  lead  that  tore  through  the 
silk  of  his  precious  standard,  or  struck  down  officers  of  his  eager 
staff. 

The  example  was  all  they  needed.  Up  sprang  Ayres'  men, 
now  all  delight  with  this  new  and  magnetic  leader,  and  with 
mighty  rush  and  cheer  they  swarmed  at,  and  over  the  fire-flash- 
ing parapet,  grappling  with  the  gunners,  seizing  battle-flags  and 
guns,  and  capturing  an  entire  brigade.  It  was  barely  five 
o'clock  when  they  struck  the  salient,  and  in  twenty  minutes 
Ayres  had  carried  all  before  him,  had  faced  westward,  and, 
hastily  securing  his  prisoners,  was  preparing  to  roll  up  Pickett's 
line  along  the  White  Oak  road.  But  already  the  losses  had 
been  severe ;  and  of  these,  none  so  lamentable  as  that  of  the  bril- 
liant young  general  who  led  his  brigade  to  the  support  of  the  left 


6(56  FIVE   FORKS. 

of  the  staggered  line — brave  Fred  Winthrop !  It  was  said  of  him 
that  only  the  night  before  he  wrote  a  prophetic  farewell  to  the 
woman  he  loved  and  who  was  so  soon  to  have  been  his  bride ; 
and  yet,  believing  firmly  that  he  was  not  to  survive  that  fight, 
he  rode  into  action  all  spirit,  energy,  enthusiasm,  "  the  best- 
dressed  man  on  the  field,"  says  Colonel  Newhall,  and  fell  dead 
at  the  head  of  his  charging,  cheering  brigade  at  the  very  instant 
of  glorious  victory. 

Edging  off  to  the  right,  as  though  to  escape  that  fire  from  the 
earthworks,  Crawford  had  contrived  to  get  too  far  away  to  be 
available  at  this  juncture,  and  Griffin,  moving  as  his  support, 
followed  his  tracks  until  the  rage  of  battle  on  his  left,  the  vehe- 
ment cheers  of  Ayres'  men,  the  wolf-like  yell  of  the  defiant 
Southerners,  and  the  crash  of  volleys  told  him  that  it  was  there 
he  was  most  needed  ;  and  even  as  he  was  wheeling  to  the  left 
Sheridan's  aides  came  tearing  through  the  woods  to  order  the 
move.  Brother  artillerists  were  Ayres  and  Griffin  in  the  old  days 
before  the  war,  and  now  almost  at  full  run  the  latter  "  changed 
front  forward "  in  rapid  wheel  to  the  left,  and  came  crashing 
through  the  brake  and  thickets  on  the  right  of  his  comrade  in 
arms,  and  not  too  late ;  for,  as  his  lines  straightened  out  and 
swung  round  until  they  faced  southwestward  before  the  eager 
"forward"  rang  along  from  battalion  to  battalion,  they  came 
upon  a  confused  throng  of  gray-clad  infantry  drifting  back 
through  the  woods  from  the  now  raging  battle  front,  and,  leap- 
ing upon  them,  added  fifteen  hundred  prisoners  to  the  swarm, 
already  being  disarmed  by  Ayres. 

Meantime  there  had  been  a  glorious  scene  to  the  west.  No 
sooner  did  Merritt  hear  the  crash  of  musketry  and  the  thunder 
of  guns  over  to  the  right,  than  he  gave  the  long-awaited  order 
to  attack  along  the  whole  line,  and,  while  the  Fifth  corps  pushed 
through  open  fields  or  unresisting  forest,  Merritt's  cavalrymen 
unslung  carbines  and  sprang  forward  to  the  assault  of  the  line 
of  earthworks.  Theirs  was  the  brunt  of  the  battle,  for  the  at- 
tack of  parapets  lined  by  infantry  is  no  bagatelle  at  any  time, 
and  for  horsemen,  turned  for  the  nonce  into  foot-soldiers,  it  is 
especially  trying.  With  strong  skirmish  lines,  and  inspired  by 


PICKETT'S   LEFT   AND   CENTRE   ROUTED.  (J67 

the  music  of  cheers,  volleys  and  martial  bands  over  at  the  right, 
and  the  ringing,  stirring  signal  calls  of  their  own  trumpets,  the 
cavalry  corps  made  its  spirited  advance.  Superb  leaders  had 
they — men  who  rode  with  the  foremost  skirmishers,  and  whose 
flashing  sabres  pointed  the  way :  whose  joyous  voices  cheered 
on  every  charge.  Devin,  Fitzhugh  and  Gibbes  on  the  right; 
Custer,  Pennington  and  Capehart  on  the  left,  while  Merritt 
from  the  centre,  directed  every  move  and  vigilantly  watched  the 
changing  phases  of  the  battle.  Far  off  to  the  left,  Custer  had 
two  brigades  still  in  saddle,  and  with  these  led  charge  after 
charge  on  the  Southern  cavalry  west  of  the  intrenchments,  but 
all  the  rest  of  the  line  fought  dismounted  in  front  of  the  parapets, 
and  this  was  trying  work.  At  first  but  little  headway  could  be 
gained,  for  the  infantry  defenders  made  the  air  hum  with  bullets 
and  the  entire  front  was  a  "  dead-line,"  but  as  Ayres'  men  came 
tumbling  over  the  lines  along  the  "  return,"  and  Griffin's  volleys 
crashed  through  the  woods  behind  them,  the  gray  brigades  along 
the  White  Oak  road  began  to  slacken  the  vigor  of  their  fire. 
Seeing  this,  Fitzhugh,  of  Devin's  division,  called  on  his  brigade 
and  in  a  gallant  charge  dashed  over  the  parapets  in  his  front, 
capturing  three  guns  and  a  thousand  prisoners  with  their  battle- 
flags.  Pickett's  left  was  now  gone.  One  brigade,  Mayo's,  was 
retiring  in  fair  order  through  Five  Forks,  but  others  were  caught 
between  the  sweeping  lines  of  Warren  and  Merritt,  just  as 
Sheridan  had  planned,  and  all  was  up  with  them.  Crawford 
by  this  time  had  been  caught  and  turned  to  the  left  by  Warren, 
whose  divisions  and  brigades  were  so  hidden  in  the  densely 
wooded  country  that  it  was  impossible  to  see  more  than  one  or 
two  at  a  time.  He  himself  had  sent  Griffin  orders  not  to  follow 
Crawford,  but  to  turn  to  the  aid  of  Ayres,  and  then  had  plunged 
on  after  his  most  distant  division.  MacKenzie  too  had  come 
trotting  back  by  this  time,  and,  forming  out  on  Crawford's  right 
and  swinging  westward  with  him  in  a  wide  sweep  that  carried 
him  far  over  Hatcher's  Run,  Warren  leading  and  direct- 
ing, they  had  now  reached  the  rear  of  Pickett's  lines,  seized 
the  Ford  road  and  were  pressing  on,  picking  up  prisoners  by 
the  hundred.  Griffin  had  found  a  strong  brigade  posted  to  face 


FIVE    FORKS. 

him,  and  had  had  a  stubborn  struggle  of  half  an  hour  before 
they  broke,  but  now,  now  as  sunset  came,  everywhere  along  the 
left  and  centre  of  his  lines  Pickett  saw  only  rout  and  disaster — 
he  himself  had  almost  had  to  fight  his  way  through  Mac- 
Kenzie's  and  Crawford's  skirmishers  before  he  could  reach  the 
field. 

All  this  time  Warren  had  been  most  energetic,  riding  to  and 
fro — first  with  one,  then  with  another  division ;  but  never,  as  luck 
would  have  it,  being  seen  by  Sheridan.  The  latter  was  still 
aflame  at  the  thought  that  he  himself  had  had  to  rally  and  lead 
the  Fifth  corps,  and  that  his  staff  officers  could  not  find  Warren. 
Crawford's  long  detour  had  delayed  matters,  and  darkness  was 
coming  on.  No  half-way  victory  would  satisfy  Sheridan.  He 
aimed  to  destroy  Pickett  entirely,  and  his  plans,  if  promptly 
executed,  meant  destruction.  It  seemed  an  interminable  time 
to  him  after  Ayres  seized  the  works  and  prepared  to  sweep  west- 
ward before  he  heard  Griffin  coming  in  from  the  northeast.  It 
seemed  as  though  he  never  would  hear  Crawford.  At  last  came 
the  glad  chorus  of  cheers  from  behind  the  Five  Forks  woods, 
and  then,  as  the  entire  army  leaped  forward  to  "  wind  the  thing 
up,"  then  and  there,  he  had  his  first  news  of  Warren's  personal 
movements  and  sent  his  indignant  and  wrathful  reply. 

Custer  and  Devin  were  now  sweeping  over  the  parapets  along 
the  whole  line,  and  Pickett  himself,  striving  to  rally  his  centre, 
was  suddenly  pounced  upon  by  a  brawny  cavalryman  astride  of 
a  mule,  who  leaped  the  earthworks  and  with  conventional  sol- 
dierly blasphemy  demanded  his  surrender;  Pickett  barely  escaped 
with  his  life.  Still  his  right  hung  pluckily  together.  Craw- 
ford's division,  once  more  led  by  Warren  himself,  was  far  around 
behind  Five  Forks  at  this  moment;  had  captured  a  four-gun 
battery  and  was  still  pressing  on.  Here,  near  an  open  plat, 
called  the  Gilliam  field,  Pickett's  men  were  making  their  last 
stand,  and  as  Crawford's  division  emerged  from  the  woods 
greeted  them  with  a  scathing  fire.  The  men  were  in  loose  order 
after  long  pursuit  and  'cross  country  fighting,  and  were  halted 
and  a  little  staggered  by  the  discharge,  but  it  was  no  time  to 
delay  them,  and  even  as  Sheridan  had  done  in  front  of  Ayres, 


WARREN'S   DECISIVE   CHARGE.  669 

Warren,  corps-flag  in  hand,  sprang  into  the  front  of  Crawford's 
men,  officers  and  color-bearers  dashed  forward,  and  though  the 
hot  fire  swept  down  Warren's  horse  and  his  own  orderly,  and 
wounded  officers  immediately  around  him,  the  gallant  leader 
himself  was  unhurt — the  last  of  Pickett's  lines  was  swept  away, 
and  Custer's  brilliant  division  of  cavalry  thundering  up  from  the 
south  sent  the  fugitives  whirling  into  the  woods  along  the  road 
to  the  west,  and  Five  Forks  was  over  and  done  with. 

It  was  even  at  this  moment  of  almost  breathless  triumph  that 
Warren  received  the  order  relieving  him  from  the  command  of 
the  Fifth  corps,  and  ordering  him  to  report  in  person  to  the 
general  of  the  army — the  saddest  feature  of  this  most  brilliant 
and  gallant  day.  Prejudiced,  in  all  probability,  by  what  he  had 
heard  of  him,  exasperated  by  the  delays  of  the  previous  night 
and  the  apparent  apathy  of  the  present  day,  virtually  invited  that 
very  day  by  the  lieutenant-general  to  send  him  back  and  put 
some  other  man  in  his  place,  and,  finally,  unable  to  see  or  to 
hear  of  him  during  the  danger  and  daring  and  heat  of  the  battle, 
Sheridan  had  at  last  lost  all  patience;  had  availed  himself  of  the 
authority  expressly  conferred  on  him  by  General  Grant ;  had 
placed  Griffin  in  command  of  the  Fifth  corps,  and  sent  Warren 
to  the  rear.  Years  afterwards,  when  Warren  finally  succeeded 
in  having  a  thorough  investigation  of  the  whole  matter  by  a 
court  composed  of  just  and  distinguished  officers,  it  was  deter- 
mined that  his  conduct  during  the  battle  was  all  that  it  should 
have  been,  and  that  there  was  no  unnecessary  delay  in  bringing 
up  his  corps  that  afternoon ;  but  it  was  held  at  the  same  time, 
that  Warren  was  culpable  in  not  comfng  sooner  to  Sheridan  at 
Dinwiddie  on  the  morning  of  the  1st  of  April,  and  as  Sheridan 
began  to  judge  him  then,  could  only  see  during  the  day  what 
looked  like  apathy  or  lack  of  energy,  and  did  not  see  any  of  his 
superb  conduct  during  the  battle  itself,  there  is  little  need  of 
wonderment  at  his  strenuous  action.  It  was  simply  in  keeping 
with  his  vehement,  uncompromising  nature,  and  had  there  been 
a  Sheridan  in  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  earlier  in  the  war,  there 
would  have  been  fewer  Bull  and  other  Runs. 

Five  Forks  was  the  one  brilliant  tactical  battle  fought  and  won 


670  F1VE  FORKS. 

by  the  aid  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  and  it  was  all  planned, 
fought  and  won  inside  of  eight  hours.  Morally  and  materially 
its  results  were  most  important.  One-third  of  Lee's  army  was 
knocked  into  splinters ;  4,500  prisoners,  thirteen  colors  and  six 
guns  fell  into  the  hands  of  the. victors,  and  the  fragments  of 
Pickett's  army  were  pursued  till  dark  and  scattered  over  the 
Virginia  woods  in  sore  dismay  and  suffering — clothing  in 
tatters — food  they  had  none.  One  only  marvels  that  they  fought 
so  well.  Aided  by  troops  hurried  out  along  the  South  Side 
railway,  Pickett  managed  to  rally  some  few  thousands  of  his 
men  north  of  Hatcher's  Run  by  the  following  day;  but  that 
night  Sheridan's  troopers  and  the  worn-out  Fifth  corps  biv- 
ouacked around  Five  Forks,  while  couriers  pushed  off  through 
darkness,  mud  and  mire  to  find  General  Grant  waiting  eagerly 
at  Dabney's  Mills  for  tidings  from  his  trusted  right-hand  man, 
that  he  might  transmit  them  to  the  President,  still  more 
anxiously  waiting  at  City  Point. 

Badeau  well  describes  the  scene  at  Grant's  headquarters  that 
glorious  night.  All  day  long  they  had  been  intently  listening. 
Three  of  Grant's  aides-de-camp  had  ridden  over  at  different 
hours  to  find  Sheridan  near  the  Forks,  but  when  nightfall  came, 
only  one  had  returned,  and  he  brought  tidings  of  sharp, 
stubborn  fighting.  The  rain  had  at  lasted  ceased,  and,  two 
hours  after  dark,  the  general-in-chief  was  seated  by  the  camp-fire 
in  front  of  his  tent  "  wrapped  in  the  blue  overcoat  of  a  private 
soldier."  At  7.45  he  had  sent  word  to  the  President  that  Sheri- 
dan must  have  had  a  severe  fight,  and  that  he  hoped  to  send 
particulars  in  a  short  time.  Suddenly  there  came  th'e  sound  of 
distant  cheering.  Far  off  in  the  dark  wood-roads  the  soldiers 
were  taking  up  and  eagerly  repeating  the  brief  words  of  an 
officer  who  was  hurrying  along  towards  headquarters :  presently 
he  appeared,  and  before  dismounting  had  told  the  gist  of  his 
story.  "  The  rebs  were  whipped  this  time,"  but  he  had  left  the 
field  when  victory  was  assured,  and  could  not  tell  how  decisive 
it  had  been.  Soon,  however,  there  came  the  third  and  last 
aide-de-camp — Colonel  Horace  Porter,  the  most  impassive  and 
taciturn  of  men  under  ordinary  circumstances,  a  man  vigorously 


SHERIDAN   EVERYWHERE   VICTORIOUS. 

temperate  in  his  meats  and  drinks,  and  the  model  generally  of 
all  soldierly  reticence  and  virtues ;  but  now,  to  the  scandal  of 
some  of  his  associates,  Porter  seemed  absolutely  drunk.  He 
sprang  from  his  horse,  wild  with  delight  and  enthusiasm,  and  in 
detailing  the  results  of  Sheridan's  glorious  victory,  in  the  fulness 
of  his  joy  and  congratulations  he  had  the  hardihood  to  slap  the 
general-in-chief  on  the  back,  and  comport  himself  otherwise  in 
a  most  unusual  manner.  It  was  one  of  the  comical  features  of 
the  campaign.  Nobody  had  ever  seen  Porter  so  worked  up 
before;  but  Grant,  it  is  assumed,  readily  forgave  this  ebullition  of 
spirits.  The  colonel  had  not  tasted  a  drop  of  stimulant:  he 
was  simply  "  drunk  with  victory."  He  brought  complete 
tidings.  The  utter  rout  of  Pickett  and  his  men  had  been  ac- 
complished with  comparatively  small  loss  to  the  Fifth  corps  (634 
killed,  wounded  and  missing),  and  though  the  cavalry  had  lost 
heavily  in  officers,  its  aggregate  was  not  greater  than  'chat  of  the 
infantry,  and  only  8,000  cavalry  had  been  engaged.  "  Sheridan 
has  carried  everything  before  him,"  telegraphed  Grant  to  the 
President  at  City  Point ;  and  then  stepping  for  a  moment  inside 
his  tent  he  reappeared  with  a  written  order,  quietly  saying,  "  I 
have  ordered  an  immediate  assault  along  the  lines." 

That  was  a  wonderful  night  in  the  Army  of  the  Potomac. 
From  left  to  right;  from  Hatcher's  Run  far  around  to  and 
across  the  James,  the  soldiers  poured  forth  from  bivouac,  tent  or 
bomb-proof  madly  cheering  over  the  glorious  news ;  the  bands 
were  brought  out  and  kept  playing  by  the  hour ;  and  then,  long 
before  midnight,  the  loud-mouthed  cannon  belched  forth  in 
furious  bombardment.  At  four  in  the  morning  a  general  ad- 
vance was  to  begin,  and  meantime,  Miles,  of  the  Second  corps, 
pushed  down  the  White  Oak  road  to  strengthen  Sheridan  should 
Lee  send  a  heavy  force  against  him.  To  all  his  corps  com- 
manders Meade  sent  the  particulars  of  Sheridan's  victory,  and 
their  replies  to  the  orders  for  attack  were  full  of  hope  and 
spirit.  Ord  wrote  to  Grant  that  his  men  would  go  into  the 
works  like  "  a  hot  knife  into  melted  butter."  Wright  promised 
"  to  make  the  fur  fly  "  on  part  of  the  Sixth  corps ;  and  at  five 
o'clock  on  the  morning  of  the  2d  of  April  the  Grand  Army  of 


(572  1<1VE  FORKS. 

the  Union  was  pushed  into  the  final  assault  of  the  lines  of 
Petersburg. 

But  Lee  fought  to  the  last.  He  was  not  yet  ready  to  give  up 
his  position,  for  he  was  the  only  defence  of  the  Southern  capital 
and  cabinet.  He  still  had  som.e  40,000  men,  and  they  were 
snugly  ensconced  behind  their  earthworks.  Wright  did  indeed 
"  make  the  fur  fly  "  and  burst  through  the  lines,  as  was  to  be 
expected  of  him  and  the  old  Sixth  corps,  but  Parke  found  the 
main  line  still  defiantly  strong,  and  his  men  could  make  but 
little  headway.  He  carried  some  outer  works,  but  lost  severely 
in  officers,  while  Wright,  though  losing  1,100  men  in  fifteen 
minutes,  swept  everything  in  his  front,  and  in  the  headlong  im- 
petuosity of  their  attack,  some  of  the  Sixth  corps,  after  bursting 
through  tlv-  intr^nchments  just  southwest  of  Fort  Gregg,  plunged 
on  acros  ilie  Boydton  plank  road  and  never  stopped  until  they 
reached  the  South  Side  railway,  which  they  began  to  pull  up  at 
once.  It  was  at  this  time  that  one  of  the  most  gallant  and  dis- 
tinguished of  the  Southern  generals  met  his  fate:  Ambrose  P. 
Hill,  who  had  so  brilliantly  handled  his  corps  during  the  last 
two  years  of  the  w;sr,  was  shot  dead  by  a  Sixth  corps  soldier 
whom  the  general  had  come  upon  suddenly  in  the  woods  and 
ordered  to  surrender.  Once  through  the  lines,  Wright  had 
wheeled  westward  and  southward,  swept  up  the  defenders  as  far 
as  Hatcher's  Run;  then  the  Sixth  and  Twenty-fourth  corps  faced 
about,  and  marching  back  towards  Petersburg  enveloped  the 
city  on  the  south  and  west.  Lee  could  now  only  escape  by  the 
north  bank  of  the  Appomattox,  and  that  very  day,  April  2d,  he 
sent  word  to  Mr.  Jefferson  Davis  that  he  could  no  longer  hold 
Petersburg.  He  would  strive  to  carry  his  army  back  to  Dan- 
ville, and  there  renew  the  fight. 

Sunday  morning,  and  the  pious  people  of  Richmond  were 
listening  to  the  gospel  of  peace  in  their  churches,  while  the  boom 
of  the  distant  bombardment  fell  sullenly  upon  the  ear  of  the 
sentries  at  the  fortifications;  while  only  twenty  miles  away,  in 
most  gallant,  desperate  battle,  fathers,  husbands,  brothers,  sons 
were  fiercely  striving  to  hold  their  last  bulwarks  against  the 
savage  attack  of  the  Twenty-fourth  corps.  Forts  Gregg  and 


FLIGHT   OF   JEFFERSON    I3AVIS.  673 

Whitworth  fell  before  overpowering  numbers  even  as  the  church 
bells  summoned  the  worshippers  to  morning  service  in  the  all 
unconscious  capital.  It  was  a  mild  spring  morning,  soft,  balmy, 
sweet  with  the  odor  of  early  buds  and  blosspms.  Hearts  were 
beating  high  with  hope  in  Richmond,  for  the  news  had  gone 
abroad  that  Pickett  and  Fitz  Hugh  Lee  had  terribly  punished 
the  vandal  Sheridan  down  back  of  Petersburg  the  evening  before. 
Mn.  Davis  sat  in  his  accustomed  pew,  while  his  devoted  and 
long-suffering  people  sent  up  their  heartfelt  prayers  for  Divine 
blessing  upon  him,  and  the  cause  he  represented — the  cause 
they  firmly  believed  to  be  as  righteous  and  just  as  was  the  cause 
of  the  colonies  in  '76.  Suddenly,  through  the  open  doorway, 
there  came  a  messenger  who  strode  up  the  aisle,  handed  one 
paper  to  the  head  of  the  Confederate  government,  and  sent 
another  to  the  officiating  clergyman.  Mr.  Davis  opened  and 
read  his  letter;  then  quickly  rose  and  left  the  church.  People 
w.ondered,  but  said  no  word.  Then  the  minister  in  as  calm  a 
voice  as  he  could  command,  announced  that  the  local  forces 
were  ordered  to  assemble,  and  that  no  afternoon  service  would 
beheld.  With  that  the  congregation  dispersed,  yet  seemed  to 
have  no  idea  of  the  impending  disaster.  That  evening,  however, 
Davis,  his  cabinet  and  the  legislature  fled  by  railway  and  canal. 
Ewell  withdrew  his  garrison,  setting  fire  to  warehouses,  bridges 
and  stores  as  he  was  ordered,  and,  leaving  not  a  man  to  guard 
the  thousands  of  helpless  women  and  children,  leaving  the  sick  and 
wounded,  turning  the  city  over  to  the  mercy  of  a  mob  of  escaped 
convicts,  drunken  desperadoes  or  half-starved  laborers.  Taking  all 
the  plunder  they  could  conveniently  carry,  the  great  leaders  of  a 
brave  and  deluded  people  sought  their  own  safety  without  so 
much  as  an  act  of  protection,  a  word  of  farewell  or  advice  for 
those  who  had  trusted  and  followed  them  to  the  bitter  end.  Of 
Mr.  Davis'  subsequent  adventures,  his  ignominious  flight  and 
undignified  masquerade,  his  capture,  imprisonment  and  final 
release,  far  more  has  been  written  than  the  subject  really  de- 
serves. After  pondering  a  while  as  to  what  punishment  might 
most  suitably  be  inflicted,  the  nation  eventually  turned  him 
loose  as  being  no  longer  dangerous,  and  has  permitted  him  to 
43 


674 


FIVE   FORKS. 


live  to  a  green  old  age,  a  dreamy  witness  of  the  total  failure  of 
his  treason. 

It  is  of  the  men  who  fought,  and  dared  and  never  flinched 
even  when  the  supreme  moment  came,  that  we  love  to  think 
to-day.  Theirs  is  a  name  of  honor,  a  record  of  deathless  cour- 
age, that  all  true  soldiers,  North  or  South,  must  hold  in  respect 
and  admiration.  Even  the  victors  could  not  see  the  dejected 
gray  columns  filing  slowly  westward  in  the  dawn  of  that  April 
Monday,  without  a  thrill  of  sympathy  for  the  brave  fellows  who 
had  fought  so  long  and  well,  only  to  come  to  this.  We  all  know 
the  story.  That  night  of  the  2d  of  April,  blowing  up  the  forts, 
burning  the  bridges  behind  him,  Lee  slowly  fell  back  from 
Petersburg,  making  for  Amelia  Court-House,  twenty-five  miles 
to  the  west ;  and  Ewell,  leaving  Richmond  in  flames,  pushed 
southwestward  to  join  him.  Early  on  Monday  morning  the  Sixth 
Michigan  sharp-shooters  were  waving  their  flags  on  the  court- 
house in  Petersburg,  and  a  little  squadron  of  cavalry,  escorting 
two  of  General  Weitzel's  staff-officers,  trotted  through  the  curi- 
ous throngs  in  the  Richmond  streets,  dismounted  at  the  capitol, 
and  there,  taking  from  the  pommel  of  his  saddle  the  flag  he  had 
had  in  readiness  for  several  days,  Lieutenant  J.  L.  DePeyster,  a 
New  York  boy  of  eighteen,  leaped  up  the  steps  with  Captain  Lang- 
don  of  the  First  regular  artillery,  and  in  a  few  moments  the  stars 
and  stripes  were  thrown  to  the  breeze  in  place  of  the  humbled 
standard  of  rebellion.  Richmond  and  Petersburg  were  at  last 
taken,  and  there  could  be  but  few  days  more  for  the  Southern 
army. 

It  was  Lee's  hope  to  reach  the  Danville  railway  at  Amelia 
Court-House,  concentrate  at  that  point,  then  fall  back  south- 
westward  to  Danville,  and  make  a  junction  with  the  army  of 
Joseph  E.  Johnston.  It  was  the  determination  of  Grant  and 
Sheridan  that  he  should  do  nothing  of  the  kind.  Lee  expected 
Grant  to  follow  on  his  track ;  Grant  decided  to  race  and  head 
him  off;  and  once  more  Sheridan  was  called  on  to  take  the  lead. 
At  Amelia  Court-House  Longstreet,  Gordon  and  Ewell  united 
their  wearied  and  hungry  troops.  Here  was  the  railway^,  but 
where  were  the  hoped-for  supplies  ?  Sheridan  had  seized  the 


SHERIDAN   HEADS   THE   CHASE   OF    LEE.  675 

road  ten  miles  to  the  southwest  of  them,  and,  with  his  troopers 
and  the  swift-footed  Fifth  corps,  held  and  barred  the  way. 
Meade,  with  the  Second  and  Sixth,  was  but  a  short  distance 
behind  him ;  Grant,  with  Ord  and  the  Twenty-fourth,  farther  to 
the  south  along  the  South  Side  railway.  Lee  found  that  he 
could  not  reach  Danville  ;  but  there  v&s  another  hope  :  Lynch- 
burg,  fifty  miles  west — Lynchburg  and  the  neighboring  moun- 
tains. Thither  he  turned  his  weary  eyes,  and,  with  Sheridan 
hanging  to  his  bleeding  flanks  and  worrying  the  column  over 
every  mile  of  road,  the  Southern  leader  strove  to  keep  his  men 
together  and  still  push  ahead.  Almost  every  hour  he  had  to 
turn  and  fight;  first  on  one  side,  then  on  the  other,  in  front, 
flank  and  rear ;  small  detachments  of  cavalry  leaped  upon  his 
batteries  or  trains,  lopping  off  a  few  guns,  a  score  of  wagons  or 
an  hundred  prisoners  at  every  cross-road,  while  behind  him  and 
on  his  left,  pushed  relentlessly  ahead  the  now  enthusiastic  infan- 
try of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac.  Lucky  were  Lee's  men  who 
had  an  ear  of  corn  to  nibble ;  lucky  were  Grant's  who  could 
snatch  an  hour  of  sleep.  Night  and  day,  for  five  successive 
suns,  it  was  one  vehement,  never  relaxing  pursuit,  varied  only< 
by  the  savage  combats  that  attended  Lee's  every  halt  for  breath. 
At  Sailors'  Creek,  at  Farmville,  at  High  Bridge,  where  again 
they  strode  along  the  banks  of  Appomattox,  there  was  bloody 
fighting;  but  never  for  an  instant  could  the  Southern  general 
shake  off  the  death-grip  of  Sheridan ;  never  could  he  distance 
the  inexorable  pursuit  of  those  long  blue  columns.  Every  day, 
every  hour  his  men  were  dwindling  away  by  whole  thousands. 
He  had  full  40,000  at  Amelia  on  the  5th,  and  at  least  one-fourth 
of  these  were  gone  when  his  staggering  columns  pushed  on  for 
the  last  march  of  all — the  8th  of  April.  He  had  succeeded  in 
crossing  to  the  north  side  of  the  Appomattox  now,  leaving 
Ewell's  corps,  with  Ewell  himself,  Kershaw,  Custis  Lee,  Dubose, 
Hunton  and  Corse,  as  prisoners,  a  loss  of  fully  8,000  men  sus- 
tained in  one  day ;  and  now,  with  Humphreys  and  Wright  close 
behind  him  on  the  north  side,  and  Sheridan's  cavalry,  Ord  and 
Griffin's  corps  on  the  south  side  and  even  with  his  leading  col- 
umns. Lee  was  striking  for  Appomattox  Court-House,  where 


FIVE   FORKS. 

supplies  were  awaiting  him.  Which  could  reach  it  first,  Lee  or 
Sheridan  ? 

On  the  7th  Grant  had  written  a  few  words  to  General  Lee, 
pointing  out  to  him  the  hopelessness  of  further  resistance,  and 
asking  his  surrender  as  the  only  means  of  avoiding  further 
bloodshed.  Lee  replied  that  he  did  not  regard  his  situation  as 
hopeless,  but  inquired  what  terms  would  be  offered.  On  the 
8th  Grant  had  offered  most  lenient  terms — the  mere  disqualifica- 
tion of  all  surrendered  officers  or  men  from  again  taking  up 
arms  until  properly  exchanged ;  but  Lee  still  hoped  to  escape. 
He  counted  on  getting  those  supplies  at  Appomattox  and  then 
breaking  for  Lynchburg,  only  a  long  day's  march  away,  and  he 
declined.  This  correspondence  was  really  conducted  on  the 
run,  for  both  armies  were  pushed  to  the  utmost  in  the  race.  But 
Lee  stopped  twice  on  the  /th  and  8th  to  fight  Humphreys,  who 
was  clinging  to  the  rear  with  a  grasp  that  threatened  to  pull  him 
to  earth,  and  the  delay  was  fatal.  Stopping  for  nothing,  Sheri- 
dan's cavalry  shot  forward  along  the  lower  road,  sprang  upon 
the  railway  station  beyond  the  Court-House,  Custer's  cheering 
troopers  rode  recklessly  in  among  the  coveted  trains,  and,  long 
before  the  morning  of  the  Qth,  had  whisked  every  vestige  of 
supplies  out  of  sight;  brigade  after  brigade  came  trotting  up 
from  the  southeast  and,  deploying  its  skirmish  lines  up  the 
Richmond  road  toward  the  Court-House,  five  miles  away, 
whither  Custer  had  already  driven  the  advanced  guard  of  Lee's 
army,  sent  forward  with  empty  wagons  for  those  desperately 
needed  rations.  Poor  fellows  !  Hungry,  tired  and  foot-sore, 
they  never  thought  to  find  the  Yankees  there  first,  but  that 
night  Lee  knew  that  Sheridan's  cavalry  had  "  headed  "  him,  and 
that  now  he  must  not  only  fight  back  the  fierce  pursuers  so 
close  at  his  rear — he  must  cut  his  way  through  those  daring 
troopers  in  front.  Still,  thought  he,  it  is  only  cavalry,  and  Gor^ 
don's  men  can  brush  them  away  like  a  swarm  of  gnats. 

But  that  night  Sheridan  was  driving  back  staff-officers  and 
couriers  to  Grant,  to  Ord,  to  Griffin,  urging,  demanding  "  full 
speed  ahead."  He  had  at  last  thrown  himself  squarely  across 
the  beaten  army's  track.  He  would  hold  it  firmly  as  cavalry 


THE   WHITE   FLAG   HOISTED.  677 

could  hold  anything,  but  to  block  Lee  entirely,  to  oppose  in- 
fantry and  batteries  with  infantry  and  batteries,  he  must  have  the 
Fifth  and  Twenty-fourth  corps.  "  We  will  finish  the  job  in  the 
morning,"  he  wrote,  if  Gibbon  and  Griffin  could  only  reach  him. 

Reach  him  they  did ;  but  what  a  march !  Ord  pushed  the 
Twenty-fourth  corps  from  daybreak  on  the  8th  to  daybreak  on 
the  9th  with  only  three  hours'  rest.  Griffin  trudged  through  the 
muddy -roads  twenty-six  miles,  until  two  o'clock  in  the  morning, 
took  a  cat-nap  in  the  woods  until  four,  pushed  on  again,  and 
reached  Sheridan  at  six :  just  in  time. 

Facing  northeastward  now,  so  as  to  confront  the  gray  columns 
coming  down  the  Richmond  road,  Sheridan  deployed  his  dis- 
mounted skirmishers  far  out  to  the  front,  backed  them  up  by 
strong  cavalry  reserves,  and  behind  this  veil  of  horsemen  Ord 
formed  the  long  solid  lines  of  the  infantry  across  the  silent  val- 
ley west  of  the  Court-House.  All  unconscious  of  what  was  in 
store  for  them,  Lee's  men,  obedient  to  the  last,  sprang  forward 
with  rolling  volleys  to  dash  aside  the  insolent  troopers  barring 
their  path.  Slowly  the  long  lines  fell  back  towards  their  wait- 
ing horses ;  "  Rally  "  and  "  Mount,"  rang  the  trumpet-calls,  and, 
leaping  lightly  into  saddle,  the  horsemen  trotted  gayly  off  to 
right  and  left,  drawing  the  curtain  from  a  picture  before  which 
Lee  recoiled  in  dismay — the  infantry,  the  Army  of  the  Potomac. 

Then  at  last  was  he  brought  to  bay.  Forward  he  could  not 
go.  Sheridan,  Ord  and  Griffin  barred  the  way.  Back  he  could 
not  turn — Meade,  Humphreys  and  Wright  were  thundering 
at  his  rear.  Prompt  action  too  was  demanded,  for  Sheridan 
was*  fuming  for  instant  attack.  Lee  sent  requests  to  Humphreys 
begging  him  to  hold  off  his  men  until  he  could  communicate 
with  Grant,  but  that  thorough-going  soldier  replied  that  the  re- 
quest could  not  be  complied  with,  and  went  on  forming  for 
attack  on  Longstreet  who  was  facing  him;  but  just  as  he  was 
about  to  launch  his  corps  in  to  the  assault,  Meade  arrived  and 
ordered  an  hour's  truce.  On  the  other  side,  too,  just  as  Sheri- 
dan was  about  to  charge,  a  white  flag  was  waved  over  the 
Southern  lines  and  Generals  Gordon  and  Wilcox  rode  forward 
to  say  that  negotiations  for  surrender  were  already  going  on. 


(578  FIVE  FORKS. 

If  this  were  so,  said  Sheridan,  what  business  had  they  to  attack 
him  and  to  persist  in  the  attack  up  to  the  moment  they  dis- 
covered he  was  backed  by  infantry  ?  He  was  half-inclined  to 
think  it  all  a  trick,  a  deception,  and  was  fiercely  striding  up  and 
down  a  little  farm-yard  when  one  of  Grant's  staff-officers  rode 
up  to  him.  "  I've  got  'em  /"  said  he,  vehemently ;  "  I've  got  'em 
like  that"  clinching  his  muscular  fist  and  setting  his  teeth,  and 
it  was  plain  to  see  that  he  hated  to  let  go. 

But  it  was  no  trick.  Grant  himself  speedily  arrived,  and, 
while  his  army  completely  encircled  that  of  Lee,  the  two  great 
leaders  met  at  the  humble  house  of  farmer  McLean,  and  there 
the  surrender  was  quietly  accomplished.  In  a  few  calm  words 
the  generals  settled  the  preliminaries,  and  then  affixed  their 
signatures  to  the  paper  that  disarmed  and  disbanded  forever  the 
gallant  Army  of  Northern  Virginia. 

One  week  ago,  this  still  Sunday  morning,  the  flight  from  Rich- 
mond and  Petersburg  had  begun.  Now  in  this  humble  farm- 
house, nearly  an  hundred  miles  to  the  westward,  in  this  obscure 
and  hitherto  unmentioned  valley,  the  closing  scene  of  the 
greatest  drama  of  our  history  was  being  enacted.  In  the  bare 
country  room,  furnished  with  a  plain  wooden  table  and  two  or 
three  rude  chairs,  Grant,  Lee,  each  with  an  aide-de-camp,  and 
subsequently  Ord,  Sheridan  and  a  few  staff-officers,  were  gathered. 
The  two  great  chiefs  presented  a  striking  contrast.  Lee,  erect, 
soldierly,  dignified  and  formally  courteous,  the  beau-ideal  of  a 
chivalric  soldier,  accepting  with  calm  fortitude  his  defeat — but- 
toned to  the  throat  in  his  newest  and  most  becoming  uniform ; 
its  stars  and  gold-lace  fresh  and  untarnished ;  his  gauntlets  em- 
broidered and  spotless  ;  his  boots  polished ;  his  beautiful  sword 
burnished  and  glittering ;  his  aide-de-camp  as  accurately  attired 
as  himself.  Lee  certainly  had  the  advantage  in  personal  ap- 
pearance over  every  man  in  the  party.  Grant,  in  a  loose-fitting, 
unbuttoned  uniform  coat,  with  waistcoat  and  trowsers  of  un- 
military  cut,  and  much  splashed  with  mire,  with  muddy  boots 
and  not  a  symptom  of  sword  or  spur,  with  plain,  Western  man- 
ners, unkempt  beard  and  a  figure  somewhat  slouchy  and  round- 
shouldered — Grant  assuredly  looked  very  little  like  a  conquer- 


LEE'S   FORTITUDE   GIVES   WAY.  679 

ing  hero,  and  probably  felt  very  little  like  one.  He  had  been 
ill  on  the  march,  and  was  sorely  jaded  and  tired.  The  real 
hero  of  the  picture,  next  to  Lee — the  real  hero  of  the  vehement 
pursuit  and  capture",  next  to  nobody,  was  the  sturdy  trooper 
Sheridan.  His  form  was  snugly  buttoned  in  the  double-breasted 
frock  coat  of  a  major-general,  the  dress  he  wore  on  all  occasions 
in  the  field ;  his  short  legs  were  thrust  deep  into  huge  cavalry 
boots ;  his  eyes  were  still  snapping  with  the  flame  of  the  morn- 
ing's fight ;  his  whole  manner  was  so  suggestive  of  the  trick  he 
had  of  hitching  nervously  forward  in  the  saddle  when  things 
were  not  going  exactly  to  suit  him,  that  he  looked  to  some  pres- 
ent as  though  he  were  still  half  disposed  to  suspect  some  ruse 
— some  trick,  and  was  ready  to  spring  to  horse  and  pitch  in 
again  at  an  instant's  notice.  But  there  was  no  need.  Lee's  sur- 
render was  an  accomplished  fact,  and  having  signed  the  formal 
papers,  the  Southern  leader  remounted,  and,  saluted  by  all 
present,  rode  back  to  his  own  lines — back  to  the  starving  and 
still  devoted  men  for  whom  he  had  this  moment  to  beg  bread. 
Here  the  calm  fortitude  that  had  borne  him  with  gentle 
dignity  through  that  painful  interview  at  last  gave  way,  and  as 
he  gazed  down  into  the  wan  faces  that  thronged  about  him,  great 
tears  trickled  down  his  furrowed  cheeks.  No  such  terms  had 
ever  been  granted  to  insurgent  armies  in  any  previous  surrender; 
his  officers  retained  their  swords  and  personal  effects,  and  all 
were  allowed,  officers  and  men,  to  take  home  with  them  their 
horses.  They  were  to  be  fed  and  cared  for  at  once,  and  given 
free  transportation  over  any  government  lines  on  their  journeys 
homeward ;  they  might  continue  to  wear  the  old  uniform  so 
dear  to  them,  except  the  insignia  of  rank ;  all  that  was  required 
Avas  the  surrender  of  their  arms,  standards  and  munitions  of  war, 
and  the  individual  pledge  of  the  officers  to  take  no  further  part  in 
the  war  against  the  Union.  "  We  have  fought  through  the  war 
together,"  he  said  brokenly  to  them :  "  I  have  done  the  best  I 
could  for  you." 

Two  days  afterwards  the  muster-rolls  of  the  Army  of  Northern 
Virginia  were  completed,  and  on  the  lovely  morning  of  the  I2th 
of  April,  while  the  Union  troops  stood  at  a  distance,  the  Southern 


680  FIVE  FORKS. 

divisions  marched  forth  for  the  last  time,  halted,  dressed  their 
lines  with  old-time  precision,  then  in  solemn  silence  fixed  bay- 
onets, stacked  their  arms,  unbuckled  and  unslung  the  worn  old 
belts  and  cartridge-boxes,  hung  them  on  the  stacks,  placed  with 
them  the  tattered,  smoke-stained  flags,  which  many  of  them 
bent  to  kiss  with  reverent  farewell,  and  then,  falling  back  from 
the  lines,  this  last  remnant  of  the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia 
dispersed  forever. 

On  the  Union  side  no  sign  of  exultation,  no  cheer,  no  taunt, 
no  strain  of  stirring  music  was  permitted.  In  soldierly  silence 
— even  in  soldierly  sympathy,  the  last  act  was  witnessed,  and 
then  came  the  homeward  march.  The  work  of  the  Army  of 
the  Potomac  at  last  was  done. 

By  actual  figures  the  number  of  men  turned  over  at  Lee's 
surrender  at  Appomattox  was  28,356.  Of  these  nearly  15,- 
OOO  were  of  Longstreet's  corps ;  7,200  of  Gordon's ;  only  287 
of  Ewell's  (the  rest  having  been  killed  or  captured  around 
Sailor's  Creek  and  Farmville),  and  the  others  belonged  to  the 
cavalry,  artillery  and  navy  battalion  and  provost-guards.  Sorpe 
assertions  have  been  made  by  Southern  writers  that  only  8,000 
of  those  surrendered  bore  arms,  but  the  circumstance  would 
have  no  especial  significance  even  were  it  true,  for  it  was  an 
easy  matter  to  throw  their  rifles  into  the  little  streams  or  ponds 
or  bury  them  in  the  thick  woods,  and  whether  in  their  hands  or 
not,  over  22,000  small  arms  were  actually  turned  over  at  the 
surrender;  while  from  the  29th  .of  March  to  the  gth  of  April  a 
total  of  74,000  prisoners  had  been  taken  from  the  Southern 
ranks  by  Grant's  army  in  Virginia.  His  losses  during  the  same 
period  were  9,944,  and  are  given  by  General  Humphreys,  whose 
history  of  the  closing  campaign  of  the  war  is  accepted  by  all 
soldiers  as  the  most  reliable  and  complete  yet  written. 

On  the  25th  of  April  General  )ohnston  with  his  army  sur- 
rendered to  General  Sherman ;  others  soon  followed,  and,  ex- 
cept for  a  guerilla  warfare  across  the  Mississippi,  speedily  settled 
by  "  that  inevitable  Sheridan,"  as  the  Southerners  had  learned 
to  call  him,  the  war  of  the  Rebellion  was  at  an  end.  Foiled  in 
their  scheme  of  ruling  or  ruining  the  Great  Republic,  abandon-" 


ASSASSINATION   OF   PRESIDENT   LINCOLN.  681 

ing  the  people  whom  they  had  dragged  into  such  widespread 
misery  and  destitution,  the  leaders  of  the  movement  sought 
safety  in  flight,  leaving  behind  them  for  the  final  blow  one 
wretched  yet  fit  instrument  of  their  shameful  and  malignant 
hate.  Even  as  the  loyal  North  rejoiced  in  the  glad  incoming 
of  peace — even  as  he,  the  patient,  the  gentle,  the  all-merciful, 
the  generous,  who  had  stood  to  the  helm  through  all  the  fear- 
ful tempest,  was  now  seeking  how  best  to  aid,  how  surest  to 
bring  back  into  the  fold  the  suffering  people  of  the  South, 
cowardly  murder  robbed  the  Nation  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  and 
the  war  that  had  leaped  into  flame  from  the  torch  of  treason 
sputtered  out  at  last  in  the  quenching  life-blood  of  our  martyred 
President. 


GRAVELOTTE. 


1870. 

APOLEON  THE  GREAT,  the  conqueror  of 
Austerlitz  and  Jena,  has  been  called  a  military 
despot,  which  he  undoubtedly  was  :  more  than 
this  he  was  a  household  despot  and  ruled  the 
affairs  of  kith  and  kin  as  relentlessly  as  he  did 
those  of  conquered  states.  He  had  raised 
the  family  from  obscurity  to  fame  and  posi- 
tion, and  demanded  the  right  to  dispose  of 
them  as  he  would.  In  furtherance  of  this  doctrine  he  compelled 
his  brother  Louis  Buonaparte  in  1802  to  marry  Hortense  Beau- 
harnais,  daughter  of  Josephine.  As  Louis  was  avowedly  in  love 
with  a  cousin  of  the  young  lady  in  question,  and  the  young  lady 
herself  was  engaged  to  General  Duroc,  the  match  was  unhappy 
from  the  start.  Three  sons  were  born  to  Hortense,  and  the 
third,  Charles  Louis  Napoleon,  who  came  into  this  world  on  the 
2Oth  of  April,  1808,  rose  to  prominence  in  history,  as  Napoleon 
III.,  Emperor  of  the  French. 

The  eldest  son  died  when  a  child;  the  second  in  1831,  and 
Charles  Louis  Napoleon  became  heir  to  the  Buonapartist  claims 
to  the  throne  of  France.  He  led  a  life  of  adventure,  conspiracy 
and  intrigue ;  was  twice  imprisoned  for  political  crimes,  when 
hanging  would  have  more  adequately  punished  the  offence ;  he 
was  a  fugitive  from  justice,  and  ,an  exile  here  in  our  own  country, 
where  the  New  Jersey  and  Maryland  Buonapartes  turned  the 
cold  shoulder  on  him,  and  where  neither  his  conduct  nor  his 
associates  were  particularly  creditable;  and  the  death  of  the 
Duke  of  Reichstadt,  the  only  legitimate  son  of  the  Emperor 
Napoleon,  was  followed  by  plot  after  plot  on  the  part  of  this 
(682) 


Plate  IV.— Arms  and  Accoutrements  of  the  igth  Century. 


i.  Needle  Gun. 
2.  Chassepot. 
3.  Springfield  Rifle. 
4.  Martini-Henry  Rifle. 
5.  Vitterlin  Gun. 
6.  Werndl  Rifle. 
7.  Revolver. 
8.  Cartridge  and  Ball. 
9.  Rifle  Ball. 
10.  Bayonet, 
ii.  Officer's  Sword. 
12    Sabre. 
13.  Cavalry  Sabre. 

14.  Sabre  Bayonet. 
15,  16,  17,  18.  Standards. 
19.  Drum. 
20.  Cartridge  Box. 
21.  Trumpet. 
22.  Cuirass. 
23.  Knapsack. 
24.  Canteen. 
25.  Krupp    i2-Inch     Gun    and 
Cartridge. 
26.  Section     of    Conical    Steel 
Shot. 

27.  Ramrod  and  Wiper. 
28.  Catling  Gun. 
29.  Parrott  Gun. 
30.  Siege        " 
31.  32,  33-  Artillery  Cartridges. 
34.  Armstrong  Gun. 
35.  Mortar. 
36.  Round  Shot. 
37.  Sea-Coast  Gun. 
38.  Krtipp  Mortar  and  Carriage. 
39  to  56.   Modern  Military  Caps, 
Hats  and  Helmets. 

PLATE   IV.     ARMS   AND   ACCOUTREMENTS   OF  THE   19TH   CENTURY. 
iFamous  and  Decisive  Battles.) 


GRAVELOTTE. 


1870. 

APOLEON  THE  GREAT,  the  conqueror  of 
Austerlitz  and  Jena,  has  been  called  a  military 
despot,  which  he  undoubtedly  was  :  more  than 
this  he  was  a  household  despot  and  ruled  the 
affairs  of  kith  and  kin  as  relentlessly  as  he  did 
those  of  conquered  states.  He  had  raised 
the  family  from  obscurity  to  fame  and  posi- 
tion, and  demanded  the  right  to  dispose  of 
them  as  he  would.  In  furtherance  of  this  doctrine  he  compelled 
his  brother  Louis  Buonaparte  in  1802  to  marry  Hortense  Beau- 
harnais,  daughter  of  Josephine.  As  Louis  was  avowedly  in  love 
with  a  cousin  of  the  young  lady  in  question,  and  the  young  lady 
herself  was  engaged  to  General  Duroc,  the  match  was  unhappy 
from  the  start.  Three  sons  were  born  to  Hortense,  and  the 
third,  Charles  Louis  Napoleon,  who  came  into  this  world  on  the 
2Oth  of  April,  1808,  rose  to  prominence  in  history,  as  Napoleon 
III.,  Emperor  of  the  French. 

The  eldest  son  died  when  a  child;  the  second  in  1831,  and 
Charles  Louis  Napoleon  became  heir  to  the  Buonapartist  claims 
to  the  throne  of  France.  He  led  a  life  of  adventure,  conspiracy 
and  intrigue ;  was  twice  imprisoned  for  political  crimes,  when 
hanging  would  have  more  adequately  punished  the  offence ;  he 
was  a  fugitive  from  justice,  and  (an  exile  here  in  our  own  country, 
where  the  New  Jersey  and  Maryland  Buonapartes  turned  the 
cold  shoulder  on  him,  and  where  neither  his  conduct  nor  his 
associates  were  particularly  creditable;  and  the  death  of  the 
Duke  of  Reichstadt,  the  only  legitimate  son  of  the  Emperor 
Napoleon,  was  followed  by  plot  after  plot  on  the  part  of  this 
(682) 


PLATE   IV.     ARMS   AND   ACCOUTREMENTS   OF  THE   19TH    CENTURY. 
iFamous  and  Decisive  Battles.) 


CHARLES   LOUIS   NAPOLEON,  EMPEROR.  683 

exiled  nephew  of  the  great  emperor,  aimed  at  the  overthrow  of 
the  Bourbon  king.  In  1848  France  broke  out  into  another  of 
her  revolutions  and  essayed  again  to  start  a  republic,  Louis 
Napoleon,  watching  and  waiting  in  England,  slipped  over  at  the 
opportune  moment,  and  the  old  name  was  enough  for  the  mer- 
curial, sensation-loving  people;  he  was  elected  President  by  an 
overwhelming  vote.  Three  years  afterwards,  having  obtained 
complete  control  of 'the  Army  and  the  Press  of  the  nation,  he 
seized  and  imprisoned  the  National  Assembly,  placed  Paris 
under  martial  law,  demanded  an  election  for  a  term  of  ten  years 
with  power  to  name  his  own  cabinet,  and,  when  the  people  rose 
against  such  outrage,  he  slaughtered  them  without  mercy; 
5,600  men,  women  and  children,  natives  and  foreigners,  were 
butchered ;  thousands  were  sent  away  into  exile  or  penal  servi- 
tude, and  having  thus  stamped  out  the  "  insurrection,"  crushed 
the  leaders  of  the  people,  muzzled  or  bought  the  Press,  and 
taken  the  nation  by  the  throat,  he  demanded  the  free  will  offering 
of  their  votes.  Naturally  he  carried  the  polls,  and  in  December, 
1852,  this  Prince-President  became  Napoleon  III.,  Emperor  "  By 
the  Grace  of  God  and  the  will  of  the  French  people." 

There  is  no  question  as  to  the  ability  of  the  man,  and  the 
brilliancy  of  his  rule  both  as  President  and  Emperor.  France 
throve  under  his  guidance ;  industries  and  improvements  of 
every  kind  flourished  throughout  the  land,  and  commerce 
developed  as  it  never  had  before.  The  navy  was  built  up.  and 
manned  so  as  to  rival  even  that  of  England,  and  the  military 
spirit  of  the  people  was  fostered  by  exercises  and  manoeuvres 
that  made  the  army  the  pride  and  delight  of  the  nation.  Skill- 
fully avoiding  all  dissensions  with  the  powerful  monarchies 
around  him,  ignoring  the  slights  of  the  crowned  heads  of 
Europe,  he  worked  steadily,  building  up  his  strength  and  devel- 
oping his  resources,  until  France  became  a  power  that  had  to  be 
conciliated  and  fawned  upon,  and  then  even  proud  England  was 
glad  to  enter  into  an  alliance  with  her.  Wily,  scheming  and 
unscrupulous,  the  new  emperor  successfully  felt  his  way.  Rail- 
ways, harbors,  arsenals,  manufactories  sprang  up  in  all  direc- 
tions, labor  was  everywhere  worthy  its  hire,  money  flowed  in 


684  GRAVELOTTE. 

profusion,  all  was  prosperity.  Then  came  the  Crimean  war, 
and,  while  England  fought  and  blundered  with  her  invariable 
courage  and  accustomed  stupidity,  suffering  all  the  hard  knocks 
and  getting  none  of  the  credit  of  the  war,  France  laughingly 
praised  her  ally's  pluck,  condoned  her  faults,  good-naturedly  put 
up  with  her  temporizing  and  delay  around  Sebastopol,  helped  her 
out  when  she  got  in  a  tight  place,  as  at  Inkermann,  and  reaped 
all  the  credit  and  glory  that  could  well  be  extracted  frorh  that 
mismanaged  war,  while  dexterously  letting  England  foot  the 
bills  and  butt  her  own  head  against  the  walls  of  the  Russian 
stronghold.  Napoleon  III.  came  out  in  a  blaze  of  triumph;  the 
French  people  were  as  ready  to  stand  by  him  as  ever  they  were 
to  rally  to  the  eagles  of  his  uncle,  and  England's  Queen  had  to 
decorate  him,  so  lately  an  outcast  in  the  London  streets,  with 
that  priceless  Order  of  the  Garter,  and  to  greet  his  beautiful  but 
unknown  wife  with  the  kiss  of  royal  sisterhood.  The  birth  of 
the  Prince  Imperial  in  1856 — a  baby-boy  who  was  said  to 
strongly  resemble  his  renowned  grand-uncle — had  strengthened 
the  Napoleonic  hold  on  the  French  people ;  and  when  the 
emperor  himself  went  forth  to  lead  the  eagles  of  France  in  the 
Italian  campaign  against  Austria  in  1859,  Europe  had  no  sover- 
eign so  popular,  so  fortunate.  France  had  forgotten  the  bloody 
scenes  of  the  coup  d'etat  of  eight  years  before. 

But  Louis  Napoleon  was  now  growing  old ;  disease  had 
begun  to  tell  upon  him ;  death  might  come  at  any  time,  and  he 
felt  that,  to  secure  the  throne  to  his  son,  still  further  glories 
must  be  brought  through  his  guidance,  to  France.  At  the  mo- 
ment there  was  no  opportunity  in  Europe,  but  our  own  civil  war 
enabled  him  to  make  a  lodgment  in  Mexico — a  blow  aimed  as 
much  at  the  United  States  as  at  the  struggling  republic  on  our 
borders.  England  would  not  join  him  in  his  scheme  for  the 
recognition  of  the  Southern  Confederacy.  Mexico  proved  too 
strong  for  Maximilian,  whom  the  emperor  had  planted  on  the 
throne,  and  then  abandoned  when  he  found  that  our  quarrel  was 
settled  and  his  troops  would  be  useless.  Then  he  turned  back 
to  the  frontiers  of  France.  The  outbreak  of  a  war  between 
Prussia  and  Austria  in  1866  gave  him  a  coveted  opportunity. 


INTRIGUING    WITH    RIVAL   CONTESTANTS.  685 

He  offered  Austria  the  aid  of  France  provided  she  would  make 
over  to  him  the  Rhine  provinces  and  Belgium  as  his  share  of 
the  to-be-conquered  territory,  and  Austria  declined.  Then  this 
two-faced  plotter  turned  to  Prussia  and  offered  to  help  her  for 
the  consideration  of  Baden  and  Wurtemberg ;  and  Prussia  did 
not  need  his  help  and  would  not  have  it  if  she  did,  and  told  him 
so  in  diplomatic  but  emphatic  terms.  Then,  to  his  amaze,  in 
seven  weeks  Prussia  had  completely  thrashed  the  armies  of 
proud  Austria,  and  Napoleon  woke  up  to  a  realizing  sense  of  the 
fact  that  here  was  a  military  nation  it  behooved  him  >to  beware 
of.  Now  his  whole  attention  was  turned  to  Prussia,  the  nation 
that  had  so  relentlessly  striven  against  his  uncle  and  patron 
saint — and  that  was  destined  to  humble  him  and  his  forever. 

Led  by  old  "  Marshal  Vorwaerts,"  the  Prussian  armies,  as  we 
have  seen,  had  come  in  just  at  the  opportune  moment  at  Water- 
loo, and  chased  the  dejected  Frenchmen  back  to  Paris ;  but  the 
humiliation  of  the  Jena  year  was  not  to  be  avenged  by  a  divided 
triumph.  Under  Frederick  the  Great  the  military  system  of 
Prussia  rose  superior  to  all  Europe,  but  her  stern  preparations 
languished  with  his  death,  and  the  wars  with  Napoleon  showed 
her  soldiers  that  they  had  fallen  behind.  England  took  a  long 
breath  and  a  national  nap  after  Waterloo,  fondly  imagining  that 
British  pluck  and  brawn  and  loyalty  would  win  anywhere  and 
against  anybody,  and  that  study,  drill  and  exercise  were  only 
for  nations  less  favored  by  Divine  Providence  with  the  attributes 
of  conquerors.  Prussia  went  to  work  with  a  will.  Surrounded 
as  she  was  by  old-time  enemies  on  every  side,  her  geographical 
position  made  her  cautious.  Sweden,  Russia,  Austria,  France 
and  Denmark  lay  around  her  like  a  cordon  of  wolves,  and  all 
the  beautiful  German  provinces — Baden,  Wurtemberg,  Bavaria 
to  the  south,  and  the  Rhineland  and  Belgium  towards  the  west, 
were  only  half-friendly  to  Prussian  interests.  Nothing  but  the 
possession  of  the  most  perfect  military  machine  in  the  world 
would  enable  the  Prussians  to  hold  their  own;  and  with  rare 
patience,  skill  and  diligence  they  set  themselves  at  the  task. 
Every  able-bodied  man  became  a  soldier ;  every  brilliant  mind 
was  levied  upon  for  its  contribution  to  the  perfection  of  that 


686  GRAVELOTTE. 

machine  on  which  the  nation  was  at  work.-  Forty  years  after 
Waterloo,  when  France,  England  and  Turkey  clinched  with 
Russia  in  the  Crimea,  Prussia  calmly  compared  their  military 
shortcomings  with  her  own  advancement,  and  marvelled  at  the 
unprogressive  management  that  sent  the  armies  of  three  great 
powers  into  conflict,  armed  with  the  despised  old  smooth-bore 
musket,  or  the  faulty  and  untried  rifles  of  Minie,  Delvigne  and 
the  new  Enfield  system ;  while  she,  Prussia,  had  since  '48  taught 
her  troops  the  use  and  benefit  of  the  breech-loader — the  now 
famous  needle-gun  of  Dreyse. 

Wonderful  changes  had  been  made  in  the  fire-arms  of  Europe 
in  the  last  century.  The  old  match-lock  and  wall-piece  had  dis- 
appeared before  Marlborough  fought  at  Blenheim,  and  "  Brown 
Bess,"  the  flint-lock,  stepped  in  as  the  British  soldier's  pet  and 
pride.  So  conservative  is  the  Englishman,  that  for  a  century 
and  a  half  that  long,  cumbrous,  unreliable  old  musket,  with  few 
modifications,  remained  his  favorite  weapon  of  war.  Adopting 
the  bayonet  from  the  French,  he  dropped  the  match  for  the  flint 
and  steel,  and,  for  years,  that  clumsy  appliance  satisfied  the 
armies  of  Europe,  though  the  Americans,  with  their  squirrel- 
rifles,  well-nigh  annihilated  the  British  grenadiers  on  a  dozen 
fields.  Then  came  the  handy  little  percussion-cap,  and  the 
military  mechanism  of  "  load  "  was  reduced  from  fifteen  to  nine 
motions.  Still  it  was  Brown  Bess  that  went  to  war  late  as  1846. 
In  the  50*3  the  armies  of  Europe  had  to  adopt  the  grooved  rifle- 
barrel,  the  elongated  ball,  and  practice  at  long  range ;  and  still 
they  were  a  decade  behind  Prussia;  for  all  Christendom  was 
aghast  when,  in  1866,  the  armies  of  that  rigid  little  kingdom 
marched  to  Sadowa,  and  there,  despite  a  blunder  that  ought  to 
have  cost  them  the  battle,  swept  out  an  empire  with  their  breech- 
loaders. Prussia  became  the  nucleus,  the  acknowledged  leader 
of  the  North  German  Confederation.  Austria  fell  back  discom- 
fited, and  Louis  Napoleon,  on  the  throne  of  France,  marked  with 
infinite  chagrin  the  leap  to  prominence  and  power  of  the  most 
implacable  enemy  of  his  house. 

Of  course  all  Europe  saw  the  necessity  of  immediate  change 
of  armament.  Inventions  of  breech-loading  rifles  were  eagerly 


THE   PRUSSIAN   NEEDLE-GUN.  687 

rewarded,  tested,  and  several  systems  were  adopted.  Let  us 
take  a  brief  look  at  those  which  were  best  known  in  1870. 
First  the  "  Ziindnadelgewehr,"  Prussia's  famous  needle-gun. 
Thirty  years  Herr  Dreyse  labored  over  his  invention,  and  the 
principle  on  which  his  splendid  arm  is  working  to-day  is  pre- 
cisely that  which  secured  its  adoption  in  Berlin  in  1848.  Slight 
modifications  appear  in  the  cartridge,  but  the  gun  is  substanti- 
ally the  same.  Compared  with  the  beautiful  weapons  turned 
out  of  late  years  in  American  armories,  the  Prussian  needle-gun 
looks  somewhat  old-fashioned  and  clumsy ;  it  certainly  weighs 
too  much — twelve  pounds ;  but  it  has  stood  the  test  of  three 
wars,  and,  bulky  as  it  is,  the  mechanism  works  admirably,  rarely 
gets  out  of  order,  and  it  shoots  straight  and  well,  far  as  a  man 
can  see  to  aim  with  any  precision,  so  the  Prussians  swear  by  it. 

The  breech  apparatus  and  needle-lock  consist  substantially 
of  three  hollow  cylinders  working  smoothly  one  within  the 
other ;  the  innermost  contains  a  solid  steel  bolt,  and  to  this  bolt 
is  firmly  fastened  the  steel  needle.  To  load  the  gun,  the  breech- 
handle  is  drawn  back,  a  long  slit  opens  in  the  upper  side  of  the 
breech,  the  cartridge  is  dropped  in  the  slit,  the  handle  pushed 
forward  and  locked,  by  which  movement  the  cartridge  is  firmly 
set  in  its  position  with  the  point  of  the  needle  just  touching  the 
base  of  the  paper  shell.  A  short  upright  handle  back  of  the 
chamber  brings  the  gun  to  full  cock,  and  compresses  the  spiral 
spring  which  controls  the  needle-bolt ;  a  firm  pull  on  the  trigger 
releases  the  spring,  the  heavy  bolt  flies  forward  driving  the  nee- 
dle through  the  paper  base  and  through  the  powder,  until  its 
point  strikes  a  cap  of  fulminate  placed  at  the  base  of  the  bullet, 
fire  flashes  at  once,  the  piece  is  discharged  and  the  bore  is  wiped 
out  by  the  cartridge-paper.  The  odd  thing  about  the  explosion 
of  this  cartridge  is,  that  it  begins  from  the  front  instead  of  the 
base,  as  is  the  system  with  all  other  modern  war  rifles. 

Now  when  France  decided  that  she  too  must  have  a  breech- 
loader to  match  that  of  Prussia,  the  inspector-general  of  arms,  M. 
Chassepot,  came  out  with  his  invention  in  1863,  and,  with  im- 
provements adopted  in  1866,  the  gun  became  the  arm  of  the 
French  infantry  in  time  for  the  next  great  war.  It  was  lighter, 


(J88  GRAVELOTTE. 

it  was  handier,  it  shot  with  what  is  called  a  flatter  trajectory; 
that  is,  its  bullet  in  going  a  given  distance  did  not  have  to  rise 
as  high  as  the  Prussian ;  but  it  had  serious  defects.  The  breech 
was  closed  by  the  method  known  as  "  internal  obduration,"  the 
escape  of  gas  being  checked'  by  thrusting  the  chamber  into  the 
barrel ;  the  barrel  would  foul  in  rapid  firing,  in  which  case  the 
chamber  would  not  enter,  the  excitable  Frenchmen  would  ham- 
mer, shake  or  blow  into  their  guns  and  so  make  bad  worse.  The 
Chassepot  proved  one  of  the  many  failures  of  their  great  war, 
and,  in  common  with  some  other  European  nations,  France 
came  to  America  for  her  next  gun,  and  America  by  this  time 
was  ready  to  supply  the  world.  Of  our  own  systems  of  breech- 
loading  fire-arms  (single-shooters),  the  best  known  to-day  are 
those  which  were  already  leaders  when  France,  Turkey,  Egypt 
and  other  old-world  nations  sent  agents  here  for  the  purpose 
of  selection  and  purchase.  The  Sharp,  the  Remington,  the 
Springfield,  the  Ward-Burton  and  the  Peabody-Martini,  have  all 
had  enthusiastic  adherents  and  marked  success ;  the  Peabody- 
Martini  has  proved  to  be  the  most  wonderful  gun  for  long-range 
fire  in  the  world,  as  the  Russians  found  when  it  came  to  the  last 
war  with  Turkey ;  but  while  they  all  differ  in  principle  and  con- 
struction, all  have  their  merits,  and  all  have  stood  the  wear  and 
tear  of  hard  service  (except  the  Ward-Burton,  which  did  not 
prove  a  success  on  our  dusty  frontier),  none  were  well  enough 
known  in  Europe  to  be  available  when  the  great  Franco-Prus- 
sian war  broke  out.  After  that,  France  sent  for  our  Remington, 
and  Prussia  clung  the  more  enthusiastically  to  her  honest  old 
needle-gun.  Soldiers  are  the  most  conservative  of  men.  Every 
improvement  in  fire-arms  leads  to  a  change  in  tactics,  but  sol- 
diers hate  to  change,  and  the  older  they  get  the  more  are  they 
prone  to  cling  to  the  systems  and  methods  of  their  early  days. 
The  writer  well  remembers  how  contemptuously  the  rank  and 
file  of  a  German  volunteer  regiment  rejected  in  1861  the  beau- 
tiful Springfield  rifle  just  turned  out  from  the  national  armory. 
A  neighboring  organization  from  the  same  State  had  been  tem- 
porarily supplied  with  the  cumbrous,  brass-bound,  big-bored 
Belgian  tige  rifle,  and  our  Germans  demanded  the  same.  "  Dis 


THE   NAPOLEON   GUN.  689 

vass  no  goot,"  said  the  spokesman,  disdainfully  dandling  the 
new  Springfield.  "ZWvass  bei  Vaterloo,"  and,  as  young  soldiers 
are  apt  to  be  led  by  the  traditions  of  the  "old  hands,"  it  was  with 
difficulty  the  regiment  could  be  persuaded  that  the  Belgian  gun 
that  possibly  "  fought  at  Waterloo  "  was  far  behind  the  age. 
France,  in  ordering  her  first  breech-loader  of  M.  Chassepot,  made 
but  one  restriction — nothing  must  be  copied  from  Prussia.  The 
Chassepot  was  adopted,  but  before  it  had  been  fairly  tested — 
long  before  the  nation  had  learned  how  to  use  it — Louis  Napo- 
leon led  them  into  a  terrific  war,  and  was  a  ruined  man  in  thirty 
days. 

Now  the  French  had  long  laid  claim  to  the  distinction  of 
being  the  most  martial  people  of  Europe.  Led  by  Napoleon 
the  First,  Frenchmen  had  been  well-nigh  invincible.  Algeria, 
the  Crimea  and  Italy  had  seen  much  that  warranted  the  belief 
that  no  other  nation  possessed  such  soldiers.  They  conquered 
Arabs  and  Algerines,  and  readily  adapted  themselves  to  the 
brilliant  tactics  and  dispersed  order  required  in  fighting  over 
sandy  wastes.  They  battled  with  far  greater  skill  (though  none 
could  fight  with  greater  pluck)  than  their  allies,  the  English,, 
around  Sebastopol ;  and  Napoleon  III.  reaped  glory  and  do- 
minion from  the  successful  campaign  in  which  his  armies- 
fought  and  whipped  the  Austrians  at  Magenta  and  Solferino. 
He  prided  himself  upon  being,  like  his  uncle,  a  skilled  artillerist,, 
and,  having  bought  the  invention  of  an  impoverished  captain,  he  in- 
troduced as  his  own  creation  the  light  twelve-pounder — a  bronze, 
smooth-bore,  chambered  gun  that  was  admirable  for  short-range 
fighting,  and  was  immensely  popular  in  America  during  the  war 
of  the  rebellion.  Indeed,  many  of  our  most  distinguished  battery 
commanders,  from  first  to  last,  preferred  the  smooth-bore  Napo- 
leon with  its  resonant  roar  and  its  ponderous  mass  to  the  lighter, 
handier,  ten-pounder  Parrott  rifle,  or  the  three-inch  rifled  "  ord- 
nance gun."  Certainly  Napoleon  III.  had  good  reason  to  be 
proud  of  the  gun  that  bore  his  name  even  when  he  experimented 
with  rifled  cannon  against  the  Austrians,  for  at  all  ranges  under 
two  miles,  his  gun-howitzers  proved  the  equals,  if  not  the  su- 
periors, of  the  French-made  muzzle-loading  rifles.  But,  feeling 
44 


690  GRAVELOTTE. 

the  need  -of  a  machine  gun  to  cope  with  the  American  Gatling, 
which  began  to  be  known  about  the  close  of  the  war  of  the 
States,  and  was  being  vastly  improved  and  offered  for  sale  abroad 
in  1 869,  Louis  Napoleon  had  caused  to  be  adopted  a  volleying  gun 
of  French  invention  and  manufacture,  a  cumbrous  machine  that 
looked  like  a  huge  pepper-box  on  wheels;  and,  with  much 
mystery  of  manufacture  and  ominous  whisperings  of  its  death- 
•dealing  power,  the  mitrailleuse  was  introduced  to  the  French 
.artillery,  and  other  European  powers  curiously  sought  an  oppor- 
tunity of  testing  this  new  engine  of  which  so  much  was  prom- 
ised. It  would  sweep  away  whole  regiments ;  it  would  squirt 
ounce  bullets  a  mile  and  a  half;  it  would  be  artillery  and  infan- 
try combined,  for,  unlike  other  batteries,  it  could  defend  itself 
against  infantry  attack.  All  manner  of  things  were  promised 
for  this  French  invention ;  yet  the  Prussian  agents  who  took  a 
look  at  it  went  back  to  Berlin  without  being  much  impressed. 
Napoleon  would  copy  the  ideas  of  no  other  nation.  He  declared 
his  belief  that  with  his  mitrailleuse  and  the  Chassepot,  he  could 
fight  any  power  in  the  world.  Wise  counsellors  whispered  to 
him  of  new  breech-loading  field-guns  manufactured  by  Herr 
Krupp  of  Essen.  They  were  of  steel,  very  light,  and  very  pow- 
erful. Three  men  could  serve  them  with  rapidity  and  ease,  and 
they  would  carry  three  miles  with  the  accuracy  of  a  target  rifle; 
;but  Napoleon  pinned  his  faith  to  his  antiquated  smooth-bore — 
:a  "boomer"  that  would  have  delighted  Frederick  the  Great,  but 
made  his  grandchildren  laugh  in  their  sleeves.  Wise  counselors 
pointed  out  the  ease  and  rapidity  with  which  Prussia  "  mobilized" 
her  armies,  and  could  put  500,000  men  into  the  field  and  en  route 
for  the  frontiers  in  forty-eight  hours.  France  could  do  more 
than  that.  According  to  his  papers  the  emperor  of  the  French 
had  in  readiness  for  action,  completely  armed,  equipped  and  in- 
structed, 800,000  men — one-half  in  the  active  army,  one-half  in 
the  reserves ;  and  to  further  strengthen  this  array,  there  stood 
half  a  million  of  national  guardsmen.  Sublime  in  his  faith  and 
fatuity,  Napoleon  never  looked  behind  the  face  of  the  returns — 
never  dreamed  that  more  than  half  these  numbers  were  in  verity 
but  paper  soldiers.  Bent  on  his  project  of  firmly  planting  him- 


PRUSSIA   ON   THE   ALERT.  691 

self  and  his  race  on  the  throne  of  France,  and  in  the  hearts 
of  the  French  people,  knowing  well  that  no  influence  would 
be  with  them  so  potent  as  military  renown,  he  determined 
on  challenging  the  most  powerful  nation  of  Europe  to  mortal 
combat,  and  the  nation  of  all  others  that  from  hereditary  hatred 
France  would  be  most  willing  to  fight.  He  threw  down  the 
gauntlet  to  Prussia,  who,  all  these  years,  had  been  studiously, 
diligently,  scientifically  training  for  just  such  a  contingency. 
Far-sighted  statesmen  knew  it  must  come,  and  so,  while  the 
light-hearted  soldiers  of  France  were  dancing,  singing  and  chat- 
ting over  the  glories  of  the  past,  the  solemn  Prussians  were 
studying  every  line  of  French  topography,  every  stone  of  French 
fortifications,  and,  when  the  great  war  finally  burst  forth,  Prussia 
launched  through  "  the  corn-fields  green  and  sunny  vines "  a 
host  of  skilled,  vigilant,  practised  staff-officers,  any  one  of  whom 
knew  more  about  the  roads,  resources,  forts,  bridges,  railways, 
stores,  arsenals  and  supplies  of  the  "pleasant  land  of  France," 
than  the  best  of  her  gallant  generals.  "  In  time  of  peace  prepare 
for  war,"  was  the  advice  of  our  great  Washington.  We  laud  his 
memory,  but  scoff  at  that  much  of  his  advice.  The  Prussians 
are  wise  in  their  generation,  and  had  been  preparing  for  years.. 
Let  us  glance  at  their  leaders,  and  then  go  on  to  the  armies  of 
the  two  nations.  « 

In  1870  the  head  of  the  Prussian  nation  was  Friedrich  Lud- 
wig  Wilhelm,  better  known  as  William  L,  King  of  Prussia.  He 
was  seventy-three  years  old  when  the  war  broke  out,  was  the 
second  son  of  Frederick  William  III.,  and  a  grand-nephew  of 
Frederick  the  Great,  who,  having  died  childless,  had  left  his 
throne  to  a  nephew.  Following  the  warrior-King  of  Prussia 
came  in  succession  three  rulers,  whose  reigns  were  as  inglori- 
ously  weak  as  grim  old  Fritz's  had  been  superbly  strong.  Fred- 
erick William  II,  died  in  1797,  after  a  brief  and  disastrous  tenure 
of  office.  Frederick  William  III.  was  virtuous,  amiable  and 
meek,  and  Napoleon  trampled  him  under  foot  in  merciless  and 
inhuman  style,  humiliating  him  in  every  possible  way.  His 
two  sons  were  witnesses  in  their  boyhood,  to  all  the  indignities 
inflicted  by  Napoleon  upon  the  king  and  his  people.  Later  they 


692  GRAVELOTTE. 

had  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  the  oppressor  vanquished  in  1814, 
and*  crushed  at  Waterloo.  Frederick  William  IV.,  the  elder  of 
these  two  sons,  reigned  from  1840  until  his  mental  health  gave 
way,  then  the  younger  brother  took  the  reins,  and,  in  1860, 
became  king  on  his  own  account..  From  that  time  forth  Prussia 
has  had  a  ruler  to  be  proud  of.  Educated  a  soldier,  leading  a 
soldier's  life  from  earliest  boyhood,  the  present  King  of  Prussia 
and  Emperor  of  United  Germany  has  lived  beyond  the  allotted 
three-score  years  and  ten,  to  a  robust  and  vigorous  manhood — 
to  an  old  age  of  honor,  wisdom  and  strength  seldom  attained  by 
any  modern  monarch.  Firm,  positive,  obstinate  as  was  his  dis- 
position in  early  life  he  became  unpopular  among  the  people ; 
but  better  counsels  have  prevailed  with  advancing  years,  and 
the  purity,  integrity  and  dignity  of  his  character  have  won  their 
way  into  the  hearts  of  the  earnest  Germans,  and  "  Kaiser  Wil- 
helm  "  is  to-day,  at  eighty-six  years  of  age,  as  deservedly  loved 
as  he  is  deservedly  honored.  His  army  has  been  his  especial 
care  and  pride,  and  never  has  military  science  been  so  thor- 
oughly taught  or  so  keenly  appreciated  as  during  his  wise  and 
provident  reign.  Old  almost  as  his  imperial  master,  the  modest- 
mannered  little  man,  who  guides  the  armies  of  Germany,  stands 
intellectually  head  and  shoulders  over  any  soldier  in  Europe. 
Count  von  Moltke  is  the  military  giant  of  his  day.  To  him  is 
due  the  absolute  perfection  of  the  German  military  system  and 
the  unrivalled  proficiency  of  the  German  staff.  With  von 
Moltke  and  von  Roon  at  the  head  of  the  War  Department,  and 
that  long-headed  chancellor,  Bismarck,  directing  the  affairs  of 
state,  with  her  regular  army  of  450,000  men  admirably  led,  dis- 
ciplined and  equipped,  Prussia  stood  in  no  especial  fear  of 
France,  yet  courted  no  difficulty.  All  the  same  if  Napoleon  saw 
fit  to  be  aggressive,  one  can  fancy  the  grim  satisfaction  with 
which  the  rumors  of  entanglements  were  received.  Napoleon 
expected  to  find  Prussia  single-handed.  Prussia  knew  that  the 
South  German  States  would  sta'nd  by  her  in  a  war  with  France. 
In  threatening  Prussia,  Napoleon  menaced  the  whole  North 
German  Confederation.  In  assaulting  her,  he  aroused  all  Ger- 
many. Differences  that  might  have  existed  when  no  common 


THE   THUNDERBOLT   OF   SADOWA.  693 

enemy  hovered  over  the  frontier,  were  forgotten  at  his  appear- 
ance. Baden  and  Bavaria,  Wurtemberg,  and  even  Saxony, 
leaped  into  line  side  by  side  with  Prussia,  of  whose  power  all 
had  grown  jealous,  but  whose  power  and  prowess  made  her  now 
the  acknowledged  leader — the  nucleus  of  the  grand  defence  of 
the  beloved  Fatherland.  Napoleon  the  Great  would  have  made 
no  such  miscalculations  as  these,  which,  at  the  very  outset, 
stamped  with  the  seal  of  ruin  the  designs  of  his  nephew.  The 
war  of  1866  had  taught  the  latter  only  half  a  lesson.  He  had 
learned  to  look  with  jealous  dread  upon  the  vast  strides  made 
by  Prussia,  but  he  had  failed  to  look  within  and  satisfy  himself 
as  to  whether  corresponding  improvement  had  been  maintained 
in  the  military  system  of  France.  He  could  see  how,  left  to 
themselves,  jealousies  and  bickerings  might  disturb  the  harmony 
of  that  family  of  sisters — the  German  States.  He  could  not  see 
how,  when  threatened  by  an  outsider,  the  entire  sisterhood 
would  rally  like  a  flash  to  the  support  of  the  eldest  and  strong- 
est, against  whom,  but  a  moment  before,  they  lavished  their 
spiteful  comments.  South  Germany,  that  is  to  say,  such  States 
as  Baden,  Bavaria  and  Wurtemberg,  had  largely,  and  Saxony 
had  unanimously,  sided  with  Austria  in  the  war  with  Prussia, 
but  when  Prussia's  three  armies  leaped  across  their  frontiers  the 
instant  their  defection  became  apparent  and  drove  their  astonished 
forces  back  upon  Austrian  territory  to  the  supporting  arms  of  the 
renowned  Field-Marshal  Benedek,  and  then,  daring  to  concentrate 
his  armies  upon  instead  of  before,  the  day  of  decisive  battle,  the 
Prussian  king  fearfully  whipped  the  entire  disposable  field-forces  of 
the  empire,  these  wise  South  Germans  decided  that  in  future  wars 
their  safest  plan  would  be  to  stand  by  Prussia,  for,  despite  the 
military  blunder  by  which  King  William  utterly  underrated  the 
Austrian  force-  in  his  front  at  Koniggratz,  and  which  prompted 
him  to  undertake  the  attack  while  the  army  of  the  Crown  Prince 
was  still  fifteen  miles  away,  he  won  the  bloody  fight  at  an  ex- 
pense of  9,000  killed  and  wounded  among  his  own  forces,  against 
over  16,000  Austrians  dead  and  crippled,  taking,  too,  over 
20,000  prisoners  and  174  cannon.  This  great  victory  of  Sadowa 
settled  the  question  as  to  who  was  to  be  mistress  of  United  Ger- 


694  GRAVELOTTE. 

many;  but  Napoleon  III.  was  wild  enough  to  believe  that  at  his 
beck  and  call,  the  South  Germans  would  cut  loose  the  new  ties 
that  united  their  interests  with  those  of  Prussia.  He  never  made 
a  worse  mistake,  unless  it  was  when  he  thought  to  establish  a 
French-made  monarchy  in  Mexico.  Prussia  must  be  humbled, 
he  said ;  a  pretext  was  all  that  was  necessary. 

All  this  time  he  had;  unsuspected,  a  powerful  ally  in  his 
scheme — ally  and  enemy  in  one ;  a  man  who  meant  to  help  him 
find  a  pretext  for  war  with  Prussia,  meant  to  make  the  pretext 
so  flimsy  as  to  render  the  demands  of  France  tantamount  to  in- 
sult, throw  the  whole  burden  of  the  blame  on  Napoleon,  and, 
having  goaded,  guided  and  snared  him  into  a  declaration  of  war, 
then  to  turn  to  and  thrash  him  with  vehement  and  irresistible 
power.  That  man  was  Bismarck,  the  shrewdest  statesman  in 
Christendom,  the  subtle  ruler  of  both  the  German  king  and  the 
German  people. 

Spain  needed  a  new  monarch.  Queen  Isabella  had  been 
exiled;  the  provisional  government  sent  to  invite  Prince  Leopold 
of  Hohenzollern — a  Prussian  subject,  and  very  probably  Bis- 
marck's own  candidate — to  take  the  vacant  throne.  With 
hostile  Prussia  on  his  eastern  frontier,  Napoleon  wanted  no 
better  excuse  than  this  project  of  seating  a  Prussian  on  the 
throne. to  the  southwest  of  France.  His  nation  was  burning 
with  eagerness  for  a  fight  somewhere,  and  none  so  welcome  as 
with  Prussia.  Napoleon  demanded  that  the  king  should  refuse 
to  permit  Prince  Leopold  to  accept  the  Spanish  crown  on  the 
ground  that  his  reign  would  be  a  perpetual  menace  to  France. 
Count  Benedetti,  a  fiery  and  impetuous  little  Corsican,  was  the 
envoy  of  France  at  Berlin,  and  his  conduct  was  such  as  to 
justify  the  impression  that  on  the  I3th  of  July  flashed  through- 
out Germany,  that  France  had  instructed  him  in  a  studied  in- 
sult to  the  Prussian  king.  Two  interviews  had  already  taken 
place,  in  which  the  manner  of  the  count  was  characterized  by  a 
vehemence  and  energy  that  is  considered  discourtesy  in  diplomatic 
affairs ;  but  France's  excuse  for  war  was  at  an  end  when  Prince 
Leopold  of  his  own  accord  signified  his  withdrawal.  It  even  looks 
as  though  this  too  had  been  the  move  of  Bismarck,  who  meant  to 


THE   DECLARATION   OF  WAR.  695 

leave  to  the  Emperor  of  France  no  valid  pretext  for  his  dicta- 
torial course ;  but  not  to  withdraw  every  exciting  cause  until  so 
much  had  been  done  in  the  way  of  menace  and  bluster  that 
France  could  not  then  escape  the  toils. 

On  July  1 2th  Benedetti  knew  that  Prince  Leopold  had  with- 
drawn, and  that  some  further  pretext  must  be  resorted  to. 
King  William  on  the  1 3th  was  calmly  promenading  near  the 
public  fountain  at  Ems,  when  Benedetti,  regardless  of  all 
etiquette  governing  such  matters,  then  and  there  demanded  of 
the  king  a  pledge  that  never  in  the  future  would  Prussia  permit 
one  of  her  princely  houses  to  take  the  Spanish  crown,  and  the 
bluff  old  soldier-monarch  very  properly  and  promptly  refused. 
France  swore  he  turned  his  back  on  her  envoy,  and  whether  he 
did  or  not,  the  snub  would  have  been  deserved.  The  very  next 
day  all  Europe  knew  that  war  would  be  the  result,  and,  at  two 
o'clock  on  the  afternoon  of  July  I5th,  France  flashed  her 
declaration  to  the  world.  War  was  announced  with  Prussia 
because  of — first,  the  insult  offered  at  Ems  to  Count  Benedetti ; 
second,  the  refusal  of  Prussia  to  compel  the  withdrawal  of 
Leopold  as  a  candidate  for  the  Spanish  succession  (the  idea 
of  compelling  a  man  to  do  a  thing  he  had  already  done  volun- 
tarily!)  and  third,  the  fact  that  the  king  refused  to  interfere  with 
the  prince's  personal  liberty  in  the  matter  of  accepting  or  declin- 
ing the  throne. 

Both  nations  had  been  preparing  for  five  years  for  this  very 
emergency — Prussia  with  all  diligence  and  care,  France  with 
apparent  assiduity.  On  paper  the  army  of  the  latter  was  con- 
siderably the  stronger,  and  in  point  of  naval  force  Prussia  was 
far  behind ;  but  with  the  war,  the  navy  had  little  to  do.  Rely- 
ing on  the  reports  of  his  ministers  and  generals,  Napoleon 
Relieved  his  army,  both  in  point  of  numbers  and  efficiency,  fully 
equal  to  that  of  Prussia.  In  point  of  daring  and  devotion  he 
believed  it  far  superior.  Relying  on  the  power  of  his  own 
machinations,  he  believed  that  the  South  German  States  would 
now  abandon  their  alliance  with  Prussia  and  leave  her  to  her 
fate.  But  all  Germany  sprang  to  arms  when  the  arrogant 
demands  of  France  and  the  rudeness  of  her  minister  were  made 


696  GRAVELOTTE. 

known ;  and  at  the  very  outbreak  of  hostilities,  Napoleon  the 
Third  was  confronted  by  two  unlooked-for  catastrophes.  First : 
United  Germany,  not  unaided  Prussia,  replied  with  defiance  to 
his  challenge.  Second :  Fraud  of  the  worst  order  had  been 
practised  with  the  army  returns  for  years  past.  Pay  and  cloth- 
ing had  been  drawn  for  men  whose  only  existence  was  by 
name  on  paper,  and,  among  the  reserves  at  least,  nearly  three- 
fifths  of  the  entire  force  were  absolutely  not  to  be  found  when 
summoned  to  the  colors;  France  had  been  systematically 
swindled  by  officials  high  in  public  trust.  Even  in  the  regular 
army  there  had  been  astonishing  fraud,  and,. not  until  too  late  to 
retract,  did  Napoleon  find  that  his  reliable  force  fell  short  of  his 
estimate  fully  one-half. 

But  France  had  a  population  of  some  38,0x30,000,  and  the 
nation  took  up  the  war  in  glorious  earnest.  Senate  and  people 
in  a  flush  of  enthusiasm  pledged  unlimited  men  and  money  and 
devotion  for  the  cause,  and  for  the  moment  all  was  loyalty  to 
Napoleon.  "  On  to  Berlin ! "  was  the  ciy.  No  Frenchman 
could  doubt  that  there  along  the  banks  of  the  Spree,  the  nephew 
of  the  conqueror  of  Jena  would  dictate  a  peace  as  glorious  as 
that  of  Tilsit.  "Where  shall  I  address  your  letters?"  asked 
eager  Parisians  of  the  departing  soldiery.  "Paste  restante,  Berlin" 
was  the  confident  reply.  On  July  I9th  the  formal  declaration 
of  war  reached  the  Prussian  cabinet.  Both  nations  leaped 
forward  to  grapple  on  the  frontier.  The  little  river  Saar  became 
the  dividing  line ;  Saarbruck,  a  little  village  just  outside  the 
French  territory,  the  point  where  the  first  blow  fell.  On  July 
2Oth  a  French  skirmisher  was  shot  by  a  Prussian  fusileer.  On 
the  23d,  Prussia  sent  a  reconnoitring  party  over  towards  St. 
Avoid,  and  exchanged  shots  with  the  light  dragoons  of  France. 
On  the  26th  a  scouting  force  of  Frenchmen  fell  back  before  the 
German  Uhlans,  and  so  on  to  the  1st  of  August,  while  the 
armies  swarmed  to  the  front,  there  were  lively  little  rallies  and 
skirmishes  among  the  first  arrivals.  On  the  2d  of  August 
France  had  her  available  force  on  the  frontier,  and  thought  her- 
self ready  to  leap  into  Germany.  On  the  same  day  Prussia  had 
the  bulk  of  her  army  west  of  the  Rhine,  and  knew  herself  ready 
to  leap  into  France. 


GERMAN   AND   FRENCH   LEADERS.  697 

According  to  returns,  which,  even  as  late  as  August,  exag- 
gerated his  numbers,  Napoleon  had  gathered  along  a  line  of 
some  eighty-five  miles  about  350,000  men.  His  right  wing 
faced  the  Lauter;  his  centre  the  Saar;  his  left  the  Moselle. 
Against  them  marched  three  German  armies,  with  a  fourth  in 
support,  aggregating  on  that  front  alone  some  560,000  men. 
The  First  Army,  composed  of  the  First,  Seventh  and  Eighth 
corps,  and  led  by  General  Steinmetz,  advanced  against  the  French 
left  along  the  Moselle.  The  Second  Army,  composed  of  the 
Second,  Third,  Ninth  and  Tenth  corps,  and  led  by  Prince  Fried- 
rich  Karl  (the  Red  Prince),  advanced  upon  the  French  centre 
along  the  Saar.  The  Third  Army,  composed  of  the  Fifth, 
Sixth  and  Eleventh  corps,  the  two  Bavarian  corps,  and  led  by 
the  Crown  Prince  of  Prussia  ("  Unser  Fritz  "),  advanced  against 
the  French  right  along  the  Lauter.  The  Fourth  Army,  com- 
posed of  the  Fourth  and  Twelfth  corps  and  the  Saxon  and  Prus- 
sian Guards,  and  led  by  the  Crown  Prince  of  Saxony,  marched 
with  the  German  centre.  The  Fifth  Army,  mainly  Wurtem- 
berg  and  Baden  troops,  under  General  Werder,  was  directed  to 
attack  Strasburg  on  the  Rhine.  The  Sixth  and  Seventh  Annies 
defended  the  northern  coast.  Each  German  corps  had  a  nominal 
strength  of  40,000  men. 

Gallant  soldiers,  so  far  as  courage  and  devotion  went,  were 
they  who  confronted  these  disciplined  German  masses.  The 
emperor  had  not  yet  reached  the  front,  and  the  army  corps 
were  for  the  moment  acting  somewhat  independently  of  one 
another.  They  were  composed,  with  one  exception,  of  30,000 
men  each  (the  First  corps  had  45,000),  and  commanded  as  fol- 
lows :  First  corps,  MacMahon ;  Second  corps,  Frossard ;  Third 
corps,  Bazaine ;  Fourth  corps,  L'Admirault;  Fifth  corps,  De 
Failly;  Sixth  corps,  Canrobert;  Seventh  corps,  Douay;  Eighth 
corps  (Guards),  Bourbaki.  The  cavalry  was  estimated  at  34,000. 
Artillery  and  reserves  40,000  more. 

On  the  2d  of  August  the  emperor  and  his  boy-prince  arrived 
and  witnessed  the  skirmishing  between  Frossard's  men  and  the 
Prussians  at  Saarbruck.  "  Louis  has  received  his  baptism  of  fire," 
telegraphed  the  emperor  to  Eugenie,  whom  he  had  left  at  Paris. 


698  GRAVELOTTE. 

Poor  mother !  Her  only  child  was  at  the  front  when  the  crash 
came.  One  can  but  look  with  sympathy  and  sorrow  upon  the 
wreck  of  all  those  high  hopes  and  fond  aspirations  when  the 
gallant  boy  who  had  his  soldier's  baptism  at  Saarbruck,  faced 
his  soldier's  death,  dauntless  though  deserted,  fighting  England's 
savage  foes  when  English  friends  had  fled,  in  that  wretched 
jungle  in  South  Africa  only  so  short  a  while  ago.  "The  sol- 
diers wept  at  his  tranquillity,"  wired  Napoleon.  They  would 
have  wept  the  more  could  they  have  foreseen  his  hopeless  rally 
and  lonely  struggle  for  life  against  those  swarming  Zulus.  It 
would  have  been  better  for  the  Napoleonic  cause  had  the  bullet 
he  picked  up  at  Saarbruck  found  its  billet  then  and  there  in 
his  boyish  heart. 

On  August  4th  the  Crown  Prince  of  Prussia  swooped  with 
his  army  across  the  Lauter,  and,  to  the  amaze  of  France, 
whipped  MacMahon  and  seized  Weissenburg,  the  key  to  Alsace. 
On  the  5th  the  First  Army  crossed  the  Saar.  On  the  6th  two 
great  battles  were  fought,  and,  despite  severe  losses  in  killed 
and  wounded,  and  most  determined  gallantry  on  part  of  the 
French,  German  system,  science  and  tactics  prevailed ;  Mac- 
Mahon was  terribly  beaten  at  Woerth  by  "  Unser  Fritz,"  losing 
18,000  in  killed,  wounded  and  prisoners,  and  being  driven  back 
in  great  disorder  towards  Metz ;  while,  still  farther  to  the  north, 
old  Steinmetz  with  the  First  Army  fought  and  won  the  bloody 
fight  of  Forbach  or  Spicheren  Heights,  and  drove  Frossard 
back  on  parallel  roads  with  MacMahon's  dismayed  remnants, 
until  they  met  the  sheltering  forces  of  Bazaine.  The  grand  ad- 
vance of  France  on  Berlin  was  turned  into  ghastly  rout.  Na- 
poleon was  stunned.  On  the  /th  a  proclamation  to  the  French 
people,  signed  by  the  Empress-regent,  Eugenie,  reluctantly  con- 
fessed the  disaster;  and  by  orders  of  the  emperor  Marshal 
Lebceuf  was  dismissed  from  the  command  of  the  army ;  Bazaine 
was  raised  to  his  place ;  Trochu,  hitherto  disliked  by  the  em- 
peror, was  made  military  governor  of  Paris;  Ollivier  was  required 
to  resign  his  office  as  prime-minister,  and  Palikao  became  premier 
in  his  stead.  Napoleon  was  just  waking  up  to  the  realization  of 
the  befogged  condition  in  which  his  chief  advisers  had  kept  him. 


MOLTKE'S   PRECISE   CALCULATIONS.  (J99 

But  it  was  too  late  now.  Like  a  mighty  torrent  the  armies  of 
Germany  surged  over  the  frontier  and  pushed  forward  towards 
the  great  fortifications  of  Metz.  The  king  himself  had  come 
with  the  army  of  the  Red  Prince.  With  him  were  two  wonder- 
ful men,  Bismarck,  the  statesman,  and  Moltke,  "The  Silent." 
The  former  to  advise,  almost  to  dictate,  every  move  in  statecraft; 
the  latter  to  be  the  real  commander-in-chief.  Modest,  shy  in 
manner,  unassuming  in  dress  and  deportment,  having  only  two 
apparent  passions,  whist  and  snufT,  this  marvellous  little  general 
came  upon  the  field  and  quietly  took  general  charge  of  the  ad- 
vance. Nothing  had  been  a  surprise  to  him.  He  expected 
just  such  results.  He  counted  upon  just  such  victories.  He 
knew  every  inch  of  the  French  territory.  He  knew  that  now 
only  one  hope  remained  to  the  beaten  emperor — that  of  uniting 
his  shattered  commands  and  falling  back  fighting  to  the  lines 
of  Paris.  And  now,  as  though  it  had  all  been  discussed  and 
planned  years  before,  Moltke  made  his  moves  to  destroy  those 
hopes  and  projects. 

MacMahon,  with  some  60,000  men,  all  he  could  rally  from 
half  a  dozen  corps,  was  by  this  time  falling  back  to  the  towns 
of  Nancy  and  Toul,  with  the  intention  of  retreating  to  Paris  by 
way  of  Chalons  on  the  Marne,  where  was  an  immense  fortified 
camp.  Bazaine,  with  a  much  larger  army,  fully  150,000  strong, 
was  retiring  before  the  hammering  Prussians  towards  Metz. 
MacMahon  expected  to  reach  Chalons  undisturbed;  to  be 
joined  there  by  vast  reinforcements  now  hurrying  forward  from 
Paris,  and  to  keep  in  communication  with  Bazaine.  To  his 
amaze,  the  army  of  the  German  Crown  Prince  leaped  the  Moselle 
in  pursuit,  raced  his  rear- guard  through  Nancy  and  Toul,  and 
cut  off  all  communication  between  him  and  his  baffled  and  be- 
wildered emperor,  then  waiting  at  Metz  for  the  result  of  Bazaine's 
manceuvrings.  Bazaine  could  not  strike  at  the  Prussian  Third 
Army  rushing  past  his  right  flank  in  vehement  pursuit  of  Mac- 
Mahon, for  there,  with  the  Second  Army,  stood  the  Red  Prince 
daring  him  to  try  it,  and  all  the*  time  old  Steinmetz  with  his 
superb  First  Army  was  beating  him  back  from  village  to  village. 
On  the  1 3th  of  August  Frossard  breathlessly  reported  his  arrival 


GRAVELOTTE. 

in  front  of  Metz  to  his  new  general-in-chief,  adding  the  mourn- 
ful tidings  that  all  Prussia  was  at  his  heels ;  and  Bazaine,  drawing 
in  his  lines  for  one  gallant  rally  on  the  east  bank  of  the  Moselle 
in  front  of  the  city,  learned,  to  his  dismay,  that  it  was  useless 
to  fight  there.  That  bold  rider,  .the  Red  Prince,  was  crossing 
the  river  twenty  miles  above  him  (to  the  south)  at  Pont-3-Mous- 
son.  What  could  that  mean  ?  It  flashed  upon  him  quick  enough  : 
Von  Moltke  was  circling  around  him  from  the  south ;  meant  to 
pen  him  up  in  Metz,  and  thus  rob  France  at  once  and  for  all  of 
the  services  of  her  most  powerful  army.  He  had  not  an  instant 
to  lose.  The  emperor,  taking  the  boy-prince  with  him,  slipped 
out  while  there  was  yet  time,  leaving  to  the  inhabitants  of  the 
city  an  ingenious  proclamation,  beginning :  "  On  quitting  you  to 
fight  the  invaders,"  and  confiding  to  them  the  defence  of  the 
great  city  of  Metz.  Bazaine  did  his  best  to  get  his  army  across 
the  Moselle  and  out  of  the  trap;  but  while  Freidrich  Karl  with 
the  Second  Army  was  sweeping  around  his  right  flank,  racing 
him  over  the  river,  Steinmetz  leaped  like  a  panther  on  the  re- 
treating columns  before  they  reached  the  cover  of  the  forts.  The 
Second  Army  threw  its  foremost  corps  up  from  the  south,  and 
Bazaine  had  to  turn  to  fight  them  off.  All  day  Sunday,  the 
I4th,  the  savage  battles  raged  east  and  south  of  Metz;  severe 
losses  were  sustained  by  both  sides,  but  despite  all  the  devoted 
heroism  of  the  French,  those  stolid,  marvellously  disciplined 
Germans  pressed  on,  and  by  night  their  left  wing  was  facing 
northward  along  the  heights  commanding  the  great  highways 
from  Metz  to  the  west.  Now  Bazaine  could  not  escape  that  way. 
France  woke  up  to  the  realization  of  another  most  unwelcome 
fact :  "  Those  hated  Prussians  could  fight  like  the  very  devil." 
Despite  the  severity  of  their  losses — despite  the  absolute  slaughter 
of  some  of  their  advanced  battalions,  nothing  seemed  to  check 
their  predestined  moves.  With  relentless  purpose  their  corps 
commanders  hurled  their  men  at  the  designated  positions,  and, 
though  thousands  might  fall,  other  thousands  swarmed  over 
them,  and  weight  and  numbers  told  with  fatal  force. 

The  main  road  from  the  great  city  to  the  greater  cities  to  the 
west  runs  a  tortuous  course  through  rock  and  ravine,  over  boldly 


RESISTLESS   ADVANCE   OF   PRUSSIA/  701 

rolling  country,  among  wooded  heights  and  boulder-strewn  hill- 
sides until  it  reaches  the  town  of  Gravelotte — eight  miles  out. 
Here  the  highway  forks,  one  branch  going  north  of  west  through 
Conflans,  the  other  through  Rezonville,  Vionville  and  Mars  la 
Tour  to  Verdun.  This  latter  road  led  too  to  Chalons,  and  Mac- 
Mahon,  and  by  night  of  the  I4th  the  Red  Prince  threatened  it 
all  along  west  of  Gravelotte.  Bazaine  determined  on  a  desperate 
effort  to  beat  him  off  He  and  the  emperor  were  at  the  village 
of  Gravelotte.  Their  army  was  formed  in  two  lines  along  the 
Conflans  road  facing  the  southwest,  and  on  the  i6th  Bazaine 
hopefully  moved  Frossard's  corps  forward  towards  the  lower 
road ;  there  he  was  savagely  attacked  by  the  advanced  divisions 
of  the  Second  Army ;  while  on  this  very  day  the  rest  of  the 
forces  of  the  Red  Prince  were  all  up  in  line  and  Steinmetz  had 
crossed  the  Moselle  with  his  hard  righting  army,  the  right  wing 
pontooning  the  river  below  Metz  towards  Thionville,  the  left 
wing  crossing  above  and  supporting  the  army  of  Friedrich  Karl. 
All  day  the  combat  raged  along  the  Verdun  road.  Mars  la  Tour 
and  Vionville  were  turned  into  charnel  houses ;  the  losses  on 
both  sides  were  even  greater  than  on  the  I4th,  but  there  was  no 
shaking  off  the  hold  of  those  relentless  Prussians.  Night  fell 
on  thousands  of  corpses  of  the  magnificent  Imperial  Guard  of 
France,  sacrificed  in  vain  effort  to  regain  the  road  to  Verdun 
and  Paris.  The  emperor  had  slipped  away  by  the  other  route 
and  pushed  on  to  Rheims.  The  i/th  was  spent  by  Bazaine  in 
calling  in  all  his  troops  for  another  grand  effort  to  beat  back  the 
Prussian  invaders ;  by  the  Germans  in  concentrating  in  front  of 
and  to  the  west  of  Gravelotte ;  while  Steinmetz  with  the  right 
wing  of  his  army  was  preparing  from  the  north  to  swo6p  down 
upon  the  French  rear;  and  then  on  the  i8th  came  the  great  battle 
of  Gravelotte. 

First  we* want  to  have  a  look  at  the  general  features  of  the 
field,  and  for  this  purpose  let  us  take  our  stand  on  the  heights 
south  of  the  Verdun  highway — south  of  the  little  village  of 
Vionville,  around  which  there  was  such  desperate  fighting  two 
days  ago.  Here  let  us  face  eastward,  and  now  we  are  looking 
towards  Metz,  lying  somewhere  down  there  in  the  lovely  valley 


702  GRAVELOTTE. 

of  the  Moselle,  but  hidden  from  our  sight  by  a  dozen  miles 
of  billowy  upland,  of  cultivated  slopes  aaJ  ridges,  of  densely 
wooded  ravines.  Everywhere,  north,  south,  east  and  west  are 
cosy  little  hamlets  and  villages,  some  nestling  down  by  brook 
sides,  some  standing  boldly  on  the  heights.  Stretching  nearly 
on  a  straight  line  east  and  west  is  the  broad  highway  from  Metz 
to  Verdun,  lined  and  shaded  by  stately  poplars.  Criss-crossing 
the  landscape  are  little  country  roads.  Those  nearest  us  run 
down  southeastward  through  that  little  hamlet  of  Flavigny  to 
Gorze,  down  on  the  lowlands  of  the  Moselle.  Up  those  roads 
two  days  ago  came  the  scores  of  batteries  that  the  Red  Prince 
had  thrown  across  the  Moselle.  From  our  point  of  view  there 
is  seen  a  deep  fissure  or  seam  across  the  face  of  the  country  a 
mile  to  the  east  of  us.  It  is  a  gorge  running  north  and  south. 
On  the  western  brink  stands  a  little  town,  Rezonville,  and  here 
the  great  highway  bends  northeastward  that  its  descent  into  the 
gorge  may  be  more  gradual.  Then  up  it  climbs  to  the  plateau 
on  the  eastern  side,  and  there  is  lost  in  the  walls  and  spires  of 
another  village.  That  is  Gravelotte.  Beyond  Gravelotte  is 
another  black  gorge — deeper,  darker,  steeper  than  the  first ;  and 
south  of  Gravelotte  and  the  broad,  white  ribbon  of  the  highway 
the  tilled  fields  give  way  to  forest  All  the  huge  shoulder  of 
the  ridge  between  the  two  ravines  is  a  mass  of  green — the  people 
call  it  the  "Bois  des  Ognons"  or  Onion  Wood.  Across  the 
second  and  deeper  gorge  it  is  called  the  "Bois  de  Vaux"  after  a 
little  hamlet  that  lies  close  down  by  the  Moselle  at  the  eastern 
edge  of  the  forest.  To  carry  the  highway  down  into  this  second 
gorge  east  of  Gravelotte  and  up  to  the  plateau  beyond  was  a 
tax  to  the  engineers ;  but  the  road  no  sooner  reaches  the  summit 
to  the  east  than  it  turns  sharply  southward,  passes  little  Bellevue 
and  some  big  stone  quarries,  then,  more  sharply  still,  turns  east- 
ward again,  and  twisting,  turning,  doubling  on  itself,  it  goes 
winding  down  past  the  valley-sheltered  roofs  of  Rozerieulles, 
and  is  lost  to  sight  under  the  bluffs  of  the  west  bank  of  the 
Moselle.  Mark  well  that  grand  plateau  east  of  Gravelotte — east 
of  the  second  gorge,  for  there  is  to  be  the  fiercest  struggle  of 
the  day — there  is  France  to  make  her  final  stand;  and  there, 


LOCATION   OF   THE   BATTLE-FIELD.  703 

before  she  can  crown  it  with  her  colors,  Prussia  must  bathe 
every  foot  of  its  rugged  slopes  with  the  blood  of  her  best  and 
bravest. 

No  village  stands  upon  its  crest — Chatel  and  Rozerieulles  are 
down  in  the  ravines  on  its  eastern  slope — but  there  are  two  little 
farm  enclosures  north  of  the  highway — northeast  of  Gravelotte, 
and,  oddly  enough,  they  have  been  named  Leipsic  and  Moscow, 
names  pregnant  with  disaster  to  the  arms  of  France. 

Beyond  this  second  plateau  we  can  see  little  to  the  east  until 
the  distant  hills  across  the  broad  valley  of  the  Moselle  loom 
mistily  up  against  the  eastern  horizon.  Southeast  we  can  look 
down  towards  the  flats  of  the  Moselle — toward  the  wood  of 
Gorze,  where  Prussia  had  to  fight  her  way  inch  by  inch,  shoul- 
dering out  the  French  skirmishers  by  sheer  force  of  numbers — 
down  farther  still  to  the  broad  blue  winding  stream  fringed 
with  its  peaceful  vineyards  and  pleasant  homes — down  towards 
Pont-;i-Mousson,  twenty  odd  miles  away,  with  its  heavy  stone 
bridges  and  massive  walls.  And  all  this  lovely  landscape  is 
alive  with  Prussia's  swarming  soldiery ;  dense  columns  of  in- 
fantry; gay  squadrons  of  Uhlans  or  hussars;  divisions  of  heavy 
cavalry ;  battery  after  battery  of  powerful  field-guns  and  long 
trains  of  ammunition  and  provision  wagons.  Metz  was  to 
have  been  France's  bulwark  against  invasion ;  Prussia  scorned 
its  frowning  guns,  and  turned  it  into  a  prison-pen. 

Looking  northeastward,  far  across  this  second  plateau  which 
towers  in  places  one  hundred  and  fifty  feet  above  that  of  Grave- 
lotte, powerful  glasses  can  make  out  the  lines  of  fortifications  on 
distant  heights.  Those  are  the  strong  permanent  works  of  St. 
Quentin  and  Plappeville  on  the  bluffs  overhanging  Metz,  and 
not  until  Bazaine's  men  are  huddled  under  the  shelter  of  those 
guns  will  Prussia  halt. 

Looking  northward  we  see  a  gently  rolling  plateau,  fields, 
farms,  copses  and  country  villages.  The  distant  streak  of  white 
is  the  northwest  fork  of  the  Verdun  road,  coming  down  from 
Conflans  and  into  Gravelotte  from  the  north.  San  Marcel  and 
Villers  are  those  two  hamlets  north  of  Vionville ;  then  farther 
away  are  Verneville,  Amanvillers,  and  beyond  them  still,  perched 


704  GRAVELOTTE. 

on  seamed  and  rugged  heights,  the  faintly  glinting  spires  of  St. 
Privat.  Mark  well  that  spot,  too,  for  to  win  it  the  Royal  Guards  of 
Prussia  have  to  make  the  fiercest  fight  of  their  history  of  heroism. 
There  is  another  little  hamlet  just  south  of  Metz  by  the  same 
name.  Do  not  confound  them.  The  one  now  pointed  out  lies 
a  good  ten  miles  west  of  north  from  Metz,  and  its  full  name  is 
St.  Privat  la  Montagne.  Somewhere  in  sight  of  that  spire  it  is 
that  fierce  old  Steinmetz  with  the  right  wing  of  the  First  Army 
is  waiting  the  signal  to  come  up  from  his  pontoons  and  assault 
from  the  north,  for  now  at  this  moment,  dawn  of  the  i8th  of 
August,  the  main  force  of  Prussia  faces  north  along  the  Verdun 
road,  and  is  to  begin  a  grand  wheel  across  country  to  the  right, 
pivoting  down  here  on  "  the  woods  of  onions,"  and  as  soon  as 
the  wheel  is  completed,  enveloping  distant  St.  Privat,  Steinmetz 
is  to  finish  the  circle  to  the  Moselle,  and  Bazaine  will  have  the 
whole  army  of  Prussia  between  him  and  Paris.  Cut  off  from  his 
emperor,  cut  off  from  McMahon,  cut  off  from  every  hope  of 
reinforcement,  this  gifted  but  unfortunate  soldier  will  be  cooped 
up  in  the  lines  of  Metz. 

And  that  is  the  battle-plan  of  von  Moltke  the  Silent.  Now 
let  us  watch  its  execution. 

The  sun  is  not  yet  up.  The  mists  are  creeping  over  the  silent 
stream  down  in  the  Moselle  valley,  but  the  eastern  sky  is  brilliant 
with  the  hues  of  summer  morning.  The  air  rings  with  the  sig- 
nal notes  of  trumpet  and  bugle.  All  is  stirring,  soldierly  ac- 
tivity. Under  the  heights  on  which  we  stand,  dense  masses  of 
troops  are  already  in  motion,  and  column  on  column,  from 
Rezonville  to  the  east  of  us,  far  west  beyond  Mars  la  Tour,  they 
are  pushing  northward  across  the  Verdun  road.  Their  front  is 
over  three  miles  in  extent,  and  they  are  moving  to  seize  that 
streak  of  highway  we  see  some  three  miles  away,  the  upper 
branch  of  the  Verdun  road  that  runs  from  Conflans  down  to  the 
junction  at  Gravelotte.  Yesterday  the  French  held  it,  and  it 
was  that  way  that  Napoleon  and  the  boy  prince  escaped. 

This  northward  moving  army  is  the  grand  command  of  the 
Red  Prince,  Friedrich  Karl.  The  Ninth  corps  is  on  the  right, 
the  Twelfth  on  the  distant  left,  passing  through  Mars  la  Tour, 


THE  FRENCH  FALLING  BACK.  705 

the  gallant  Guards  corps  is  in  the  centre.  In  reserve,  or  in  the 
second  line,  are  the  Tenth  and  Third  corps,  the  latter  having 
borne  the  brunt  of  the  stubborn  fighting  of  the  i6th.  East  of 
us,  between  Rezonville  and  Gravelotte  and  facing  towards  Metz, 
are  the  long  lines  of  the  First  Army — Steinmetz's  people;  though 
he  himself,  with  a  large  portion  of  his  command,  is  far  to  the 
north,  as  we  have  said.  These  forces  facing  Gravelotte  are  the 
First,  Seventh  and  Eighth  corps,  and  their  lines  stretch  far  down 
to  the  southeast  of  our  position. 

Crowning  the  opposite  heights,  stretching  from  the  forest  of 
Vaux  on  their  left  (our  right)  up  through  Gravelotte  to  Verne- 
ville  far  to  the  north  of  us,  and  then  bending  back,  sweeping 
northeastward  through  Amanvillers  and  St.  Privat,  are  the  French. 
For  seven  days,  with  most  desperate  valor  and  against  grievous 
odds,  they  have  been  fighting  and  falling  back.  Now,  so  disheart- 
ened are  they,  that  all  the  gladness  and  gayety  of  their  race  has 
fled.  When  Napoleon  drove  away  through  their  lines  so  short  a 
time  before,  not  a  cheer  would  they  raise  even  for  young  Louis, 
at  whose  tranquillity  under  fire  they  wept  but  a  fortnight  since. 
But  they  will  fight,  and  fight  to  the  death.  Frossard  and  Le- 
bceuf  with  their  corps  hold  the  heights  around  Gravelotte.  Well 
back  of  the  centre  is  the  Imperial  Guard,  severely  reduced  after 
its  savage  fight  of  the  second  day  before.  Farther  to  the  north, 
near  Verneville,  the  heights  are  held  by  the  Fourth  corps  of 
Bazaine's  army  under  L'Admirault,  while  Canrobert,  with  the 
Sixth,  guards  Amanvillers  and  St.  Privat.  Bazaine  must  have 
at  least  100,000  men  in  line,  and  probably  20,000  more  in  re- 
serve. 

Against  him,  the  forces  of  United  Germany  muster  fully  220,- 
OOO,  with  no  less  than  600  guns.  France  fights  on  the  defensive 
with  every  advantage  of  position,  for  her  guns  and  mitrailleuses 
sweep  all  possible  approaches,  but  Germany  fights  with  relent- 
less force  and  with  scientific  precision.  It  must  be  beyond  all 
question  the  greatest  battle  of  a  great  war. 

At  seven  o'clock  the  combined  forces  of  the  Second  and 
Fourth  Armies  have  reached  the  Conflans  road,  the  Guards 
and  the  Twelfth  corps  passing  west  of  Doncourt.  Here,  back 
45 


706  GRAVELOTTE. 

of  Rezonville,  on  a  little  knoll,  are  gathered  the  headquarters' 
party  of  the  King  of  Prussia.  Von  Moltke  is  still  here,  and  Bis- 
marck, and  the  Red  Prince  has  not  yet  galloped  northward  to 
take  immediate  charge  of  the  battle  in  that  quarter.  Here  too 
stands  our  own  gallant  general,  Sheridan,  an  eager  and  vividly 
interested  spectator;  and  all  eyes  are  turned  to  the  gorge  in 
front  of  Rezonville,  along  whose  brink  scores  of  batteries  are 
silently  awaiting  the  order  to  commence  firing.  The  men  of 
the  ^eventh  and  Eighth  corps  are  ordered  to  threaten  the  posi- 
tion of  the  French  along  the  Gravelotte  ridge,  but  it  is  not  to  be 
a  determined  attack  until  those  northward  moving  troops  have 
completed  that  great  wheel  to  the  right.  It  may  take  most  of 
the  day. 

Still  there  is  sharp  and  lively  fighting  going  on  down  here  to 
<our  right  front.  The  woods  are  ringing  with  the  crash  of  mus- 
ketry, while  from  the  Gravelotte  ridge  the  French  batteries  are 
storming  away  at  the  Prussian  columns  on  the  lower  plateau  of 
Rezonville.  Then  the  German  gunners  get  the  word,  leap  in 
and  unlimber,  and  in  another  moment  the  earth  shakes  with  the 
steady  thunder  of  their  cannonade.  Skirmishers  too  are  pushing 
down  into  the  ravine  and  feeling  tjieir  way  up  the  opposite 
slope,  and  wherever  their  reserves  appear,  the  "  growling  whirr" 
of  the  mitrailleuses  tells  of  the  efforts  of  the  French  to  break 
them  up  with  streams  of  bullets. 

Except  for  the  skirmishers,  however,  all  this  is  long-range 
fighting.  The  Prussian  fire  is  slow,  deliberate,  but  fearfully  tell- 
ing, despite  the  awkwardness  of  up-hill  aiming,  and  the  French 
shells  are  bursting  everywhere  over  Rezonville  and  through  the 
'"  Bois  des  Ognons."  And  now  the  king  decides  it  time  for  the 
Seventh  corps  to  clear  that  forest,  cross  the  ravines,  and  assault 
from  the  south,  the  forest  and  slopes  of  Vaux.  It  is  the  strong- 
est part  of  the  French  line,  and,  once  carried,  renders  their  hold 
on  Gravelotte  no  longer  of  value.  But  however  possible  it  may 
be  for  this  massive  and  disciplined  Prussian  corps  to  sweep  the 
Onion  Woods  of  the  French  light  troops,  things  will  assume  a 
different  aspect  when  they  work  their  way  over  to  that  black 
gorge  between  the  shoulder  of  the  Gravelotte  ridge  and  the  high 


BAZAINE  BATTERED  OUT  OF  GRAVELOTTE.      7Q7 

bluffs  beyond.  This  second  ravine  turns  eastward  in  front  of 
the  Onion  Woods,  about  a  mile  and  a  half  south  of  Gravelotte, 
and  empties  into  the  Moselle  valley  at  the  little  town  of  Ars,  and 
the  rounded  shoulder  of  those  eastern  bluffs  is  seamed  with  tier 
on  tier  of  rifle-pits,  with  mitrailleuses  in  battery,  with  guns  upon 
guns,  for  Bazaine  and  Frossard,  at  first,  were  of  opinion  that  the 
Red  Prince  would  make  an  attempt  to  storm  these  heights  as 
soon  as  he  crossed  the  Moselle. 

Just  at  noon,  while  the  Seventh  corps  is  crashing  northeast- 
ward through  the  Onion  Woods,  and  the  Eighth  corps  with  a 
score  of  German  batteries  holds  Frossard  at  Gravelotte  and 
prevents  his  sending  aid  to  the  left  of  his  line,  there  come  from 
the  north  spurring  messengers  with  the  glad  tidings  that  the 
Ninth  corps  has  faced  eastward,  and  is  driving  the  French 
through  Verneville.  Great  clouds  of  battle-smoke  rising  over 
the  distant  trees  and  drifting  towards  the  Moselle  confirm  the 
tidings.  But  for  the  fierce  thunder  of  our  guns  we  could  hear 
the  cannonade  and  the  wild  cheering  up  towards  Amanvillers. 

And  now  every  battery  within  hailing  distance  seems  suddenly 
to  receive  orders  to  open  fire  on  the  French  in  and  around 
Gravelotte,  and  for  half  an  hour  that  crest  flames  with  bursting 
shells  and  the  flashes  of  its  own  guns.  Gallantly  as  the  French- 
men stick  to  their  work,  Prussia  has  here  perhaps  four  guns  to 
their  one,  and  the  fire  is  fearful.  The  German  artillerists  have 
the  exact  range,  and  now  pour  in  that  infernal  "  schnellfeuer  " 
(quick  fire)  for  which  they  are  famous,  and  it  is  soon  evident 
that  Frossard's  men  can  stand  it  no  longer.  Whole  batteries 
are  silenced  or  disabled,  and  those  that  can  be  limbered  up  and 
run  off,  are  rapidfy  leaving  the  plateau.  Dragged  by  hand  or 
by  the  remaining  horses,  the  French  guns  are  being  run  across 
the  second  gorge  to  the  stronger  heights  beyond.  Bazaine  is 
battered  out  of  Gravelotte. 

Splendidly  he  handles  his  retiring  men.  First  the  guns  are 
hauled  back  and  placed  in  battery  on  the  great  plateau,  while  the 
long  ranks  of  infantry  secure  their  safe  removal.  Then,  at  half- 
past  one,  the  last  serviceable  gun  being  across,  the  battle-lines 
slowly  fall  back,  covered  by  dense  clouds  of  skirmishers,  and  just 


708  GRAVELOTTE. 

as  the  Seventh  Prussian  corps  bursts  cheering  across  the  lower 
gorge  between  the  wood  of  Vaux  and  the  south,  the  Eighth 
corps  "ploys  into  column"  by  the  heads  of  brigades,  its  guns 
and  those  of  the  Third  corps  limber  up  and  go  rumbling  off  across 
the  little  valley,  and  at  three  o'.clock  the  whole  Prussian  line 
has  advanced  a  mile.  The  batteries  are  now  ranged  in  line  from 
north  to  south  with  burning  Gravelotte  for  the  centre,  and  the 
Eighth  corps  has  joined  hands  once  more  with  the  Seventh. 
The  French  are  swept  from  their  first  position,  but  now  they  are 
massed  on  one  ten  times  as  strong. 

Once  more  the  tremendous  booming  of  the  cannonade  bursts 
on  the  ear.  King  William  well  knows  that  the  assault  of  those 
opposite  heights  must  cost  him  many  thousand  men,  and  he 
must  do  all  he  can  with  his  guns  to  beat  down  the  French 
defenders  before  sending  in  his  infantry.  For  hours  a  steady 
stream  of  footmen  pours  through  the  Bois  des  Ognons  to  reinforce 
the  Prussian  right  wing,  and  until  heavily  reinforced,  no  further 
advance  can  be  attempted.  The  king  and  his  staff  have  pushed 
forward  to  a  height  back  of  Gravelotte,  and  are  watching  this 
coming  of  General  Goben's  men.  Between  four  and  five,  Ba- 
zaine  orders  all  available  guns  to  concentrate  their  fire  on  those 
teeming  woods.  No  more  troops  must  be  allowed  to  come  to 
Prussia's  aid  that  way.  They  must  be  stooped,  and  they  are. 
Such  a  hell  of  fire  rains  on  those  wood-paths,  that  the  Prussians 
are  driven  to  the  shelter  of  the  ravines,  and,  for  the  time  being, 
France  is  successful.  The  losses  are  appalling. 

But  the  Germans  in  winning  Gravelotte  have  complete  evi- 
dence of  the  heroism  of  the  French,  and  of  the  superiority  of 
their  own  artillery.  The  plateau  is  littered  with  shattered  gun-car- 
riages, and  black  with  the  bodies  of  slaughtered  men  and  horses. 
The  Frenchmen  have  died  by  hundreds  in  its  defence.  Now 
they  deluge  it  with  their  own  missiles,  and  the  winners  have  to 
take  their  turn.  From  four  to  six  o'clock,  not  a  peg  does  Prus- 
sia gain  on  that  front ;  but  good  news  comes  from  the  north. 
The  Ninth  corps  has  hurled  back  1'Admirault,  and  the  Royal 
Guards,  after  a  fierce  and  bloody  struggle,  have  carried  the 
heights  of  St.  Privat ;  and  now,  with  the  Twelfth  corps  and  the 


THE   FRENCH    RIGHT   ENVELOPED.  709 

Saxon  Guards  on  his  extreme  left,  the  Red  Prince  has  enveloped 
the  French  right,  and  is  crowding  it  in  towards  Metz.  Can- 
robert,  overwhelmed  by  the  combined  forces  of  Friedrich  Karl 
and  Steinmetz,  is  falling  back  in  great  distress  and  after  severe 
losses,  but  fighting  bravely  all  the  way. 

At  six  P.  M.  the  German  line  is  a  vast  semi-circle,  completely 
enveloping  Metz  on  the  west.  The  French,  little  by  little,  have 
been  forced  back,  and  their  front,  convex  towards  the  west,  is 
now  really  stronger  than  before.  Thus  far  the  hardest  and 
fiercest  fighting  has  been  at  St.  Privat,  whose  slopes  are  littered 
with  the  dead  of  the  Prussian  Guards;  but  now  comes  the 
slaughter  of  Gravelotte.  Encouraged  by  the  news  from  his 
left,  King  William  orders  the  assault  of  the  stronghold  of  Ba- 
zaine. 

Directly  in  front  of  Gravelotte  the  highway  dips  down  into 
the  gorge,  then  hews  its  way  up  the  opposite  steep  through  al- 
most vertical  walls  of  rock  until  it  reaches  the  little  farm  hamlet 
of  St.  Hubert  at  the  crest.  North  and  south  of  this  cut,  the 
banks  are  steep  and  rugged.  The  farther  south  you  go,  the 
deeper  and  steeper  is  the  gorge.  Every  foot  of  the  eastern  side 
is  manned  by  French  artillerists  and  riflemen.  All  down  tow- 
ards the  south  the  rifle-pits  overhang  one  another.  It  is  a  des- 
perate undertaking.  It  seems  unnecessary.  It  looks  as  though 
King  William,  with  his  superiority  in  guns,  must  soon  be  able 
to  shell  the  French  out  of  their  burrows  on  that  broad-backed 
ridge.  But  night  is  coming  on.  Time  may  be  precious.  Per- 
haps he  wishes  to  teach  the  French  that  Prussians  will  stop  at 
nothing,  though  old  Steinmetz  did  that  most  convincingly  at 
Spicheren  Heights.  Who  knows?  The  order  is  given,  and 
with  devoted  bravery  the  infantry  lines  spring  forward  and  ad- 
vance cheering  to  the  attack.  For  a  few  moments,  only  the 
distant  batteries  of  the  Germans  can  use  their  guns.  The 
Frenchmen  train  their  cannon  on  the  advancing  columns  and 
lines,  and  in  a  few  moments  the  roar  of  battle  out-deafens 
Gettysburg.  Six  hundred  field-guns  here  are  thundering  away 
all  at  once,  for  as  the  Prussian  lines  sweep  forward  the  battery- 
men  are  able  to  fire  over  their  heads.  Once  in  the  ravine  they  are 


710  GRAVELOTTE. 

partially  sheltered,  but  when  their  helmeted  heads  begin  to  peer 
over  the  crests  beyond,  the  butchering  begins.  Even  up  that 
narrow  slit  of  highway,  one  brave  regiment  is  daring  to  push  its 
advance,  and  its  entire  length  is  swept  by  Frossard's  guns. 
The  attempt  is  madness.  Far  to  the  front  their  officers  leap, 
cheering  on  their  men,  pointing  with  their  white-gloved  left 
hands  at  the  guns  above,  but  grasping  with  their  bared  right  their 
flashing  swords.  Down  they  go,  officers  and  men,  under  the 
pitiless  storm  of  grape  and  canister ;  down  they  go  before  the 
smiting  blast  of  the  mitrailleuse.  The  faster  the  lines  reach  the 
crest  and  push  ahead,  the  more  terrible  grows  the  slaughter. 
Still  they  push  forward  into  the  face  of  those  flaming  earthworks, 
leaving,  by  scores  and  hundreds,  stricken  or  struggling  beings 
in  their  wake.  Most  of  the  fallen  lie  still ;  some  struggle  to 
their  feet  and  plunge  on  after  their  comrades;  some  stumble 
painfully  a  few  yards,  then  down  they  go  again — but  none  come 
back.  Forward  !  Forward !  is  the  only  order,  and  yet,  to  what 
good  ?  They  have  yet  three — four  hundred  yards  to  traverse 
before  they  can  cross  bayonets  with  the  sheltered  lines  of  France, 
and  by  that  time,  what  will  be  left  of  them  ?  What  strength 
will  they  have  after  that  fearful  climb?  The  French  deluge 
them  with  musketry.  The  whole  thing  is  a  sacrifice,  and  there 
are  American  soldiers  looking  on  who  remember  the  assault  on 
Resaca,  or  the  last  charge  of  Pickett.  Old  von  Moltke  can 
stand  it  no  longer,  and  sends  his  aides  to  order  the  recall,  but, 
before  the  officers  can  gallop  to  the  -ravine,  the  advance  is 
stemmed,  the  leading  lines  have  melted  away,  the  second  is 
breaking  up,  the  third  wavering,  and  then  back  they  come,  and 
after  them  with  wild,  exultant  cheering,  the  French  brigades  of 
Valaze  and  Jolivet — the  counter-charging  lines  of  Frossard. 

North  of  the  highway,  too,  Bazaine's  old  Third  corps,  now 
led  by  Lebceuf,  hurls  back  the  Prussian  Eighth,  and  now,  indeed, 
there  is  need  for  prompt  action.  Even  the  German  reserves 
have  been  involved,  and  for  some  few  moments  a  veritable  stam- 
pede occurs — an  unusual  thing  among  troops  so  marvellously 
disciplined. 

The  old  king  is  looking  on  the  scene  of  confusion  with  terri- 


GERMAN   DISASTER   TURNED   TO  VICTORY.  71 1 

ble  anxiety.  Bismarck  is  in  a  state  of  nervous  excitement,  and 
wild  with  eagerness  to  go  in  person  to  the  front.  Von  Moltke, 
old  as  he  is,  has  leaped  into  saddle  and  galloped  off  to  stem  the 
rout.  Staff-officers  spur  in  every  direction  to  reform  and 
straighten  out  the  lines  as  they  come  drifting  back  across  the 
ravine.  But  the  assault  is  turned  to  repulse.  The  Prussian 
right  is  whipped — badly  whipped,  and  if  not  promptly  supported, 
Bazaine  will  sweep  it  from  the  field ;  for  now,  in  the  wild  elan 
and  enthusiasm  of  their  charge,  tirailleur  and  Turco,  Zouave  and 
"Piou-piou "  *  come  surging  on  in  close  pursuit — the  whole 
French  left  is  advancing  in  full  confidence  of  victory. 

What  stops  their  triumphant  course  ?  It  is  barely  seven 
o'clock.  It  will  be  light  enough  for  fighting  two  full  hours  yet. 
They  have  got  the  Germans  fairly  started  on  the  run,  and  close 
following  will  keep  them  at  it  unless  strong  reserves  are  at  their 
back;  and  at  six  o'clock  the  plateau  of  Rezonville,  behind  them, 
was  bare  of  troops.  Why  do  their  bugles  sound  the  halt  ?  Why 
are  the  fire-flashing  lines  brought  to  a  stand  with  the  setting  sun 
glaring  in  their  faces  and  burnishing  their  heated  arms? 

Look  behind  Rezonville,  and  there  is  the  answer. 

Long  lines  of  dusty,  travel-worn  infantry ;  nimbly  handled 
batteries  of  field-artillery ;  whole  regiments  of  dragoons,  are 
issuing  from  the  wood-roads  south  of  Vionville,  and,  as  though 
snuffing  the  battle  from  afar,  deploying  right  and  left  as  they 
come,  they  sweep  out  upon  the  open  plain,  covered  as  it  is  with 
the  dead  and  dying  of  the  morning's  battle. 

It  is  the  Second  corps  of  Friedrich  Karl's  army,  that  has  been 
marching  all  the  livelong  day  to  reach  the  field,  and  now  comes 
upon  the  scene  at  sunset,  to  turn,  like  Sheridan  at  Cedar  Creek, 
a  dire  disaster  into  matchless  victory. 

Von  Moltke  himself  spurs  to  meet  and  welcome  them,  to 
urge  them  forward  into  the  fray,  and  their  breathless  comrades 
of  the  Seventh  and  Eighth  corps,  taking  heart  once  more  at 
sight  of  their  coming,  face  again  towards  the  blazing  heights 
across  the  gorge,  and  determine  on  another  dash.  No  time  is 
lost.  Von  Moltke  is  all  alive  with  vehement  determination 

*  A  soldier-name  for  the  French  infantryman  of  the  Ihie  regiments. 


712  GRAVELOTTE. 

now,  and  once  more  orders  the  assault.  With  one  grand  im- 
pulse the  combined  corps  leap  forward  in  renewed  attack.  The 
French,  far  in  front  of  their  works,  are  taken  at  disadvantage. 
They  recoil — face  to  the  foe — before  superior  numbers,  and 
when  at  last  they  regain  their  rifle-pits  and  batteries,  the  cheering 
Prussians  are  tumbling  in  among  them.  The  crest  is  crowned 
by  the  light  of  the  burning  villages,  for  the  sun  has  gone  down 
upon  the  scene  of  carnage,  and  darkness  settles  over  the  hard- 
fought  field.  Nine  o'clock  has  come,  and  despite  fearful  pun- 
ishment, despite  losses  that  have  left  some  regiments  almost 
without  an  officer  and  reduced  to  one-tenth  their  morning 
strength,  the  Germans  have  carried  the  heights  in  their  front, 
and  along  the  entire  semi-circle  the  Army  of  France  has  suffered 
defeat. 

Von  Zastrow  with  the  Seventh  corps  and  the  supporting  col- 
umns of  General  Goben  hold  the  woods  of  Vaux  from  the  crest 
at  "  Point  du  Jour " — or  Bellevue — up  the  road  beyond  St. 
Hubert's,  down  southward  through  the  great  quarry,  and  so  on 
around  eastward  to  the  village  of  Vaux.  On  the  great  plateau 
around  St.  Hubert's  and  northward  to  the  Moscow  farm,  the 
bulk  of  the  shattered  Eighth  corps  is  resting  on  its  arms  after 
its  tremendous  double  effort.  In  storming  the  position  of  St. 
Hubert's  six  solid  regiments  of  infantry,  any  one  of  them  as 
large  as  the  effective  fighting  strength  of  one  of  our  brigades 
during  the  civil  war,  were  so  cruelly  cut  up,  that  mere  shreds  of 
their  organization  remain.  Fortunate  it  was  for  Germany  that 
those  Pomeranians  of  the  Second  corps  arrived  when  they  did. 
Fortunate  for  the  Eighth  and  Ninth  corps  that  they  had  such 
stout  backers  as  old  Albensleben  with  the  hard  fighters  of  the 
Third. 

All  along  the  great  crest  are  smouldering  the  ruins  of  farm- 
cottages,  hamlets  and  homes.  All  along  through  the  thronged 
villages  the  beaten  Frenchmen  are  drawing  back  their  lines  for 
refuge  under  the  guns  of  St.  Quentin  and  Plappeville.  Far  to 
the  north  the  Red  Prince  follows  up  the  retiring  columns,  and 
posts  his  pickets  in  plain  sight  of  the  watch-fires  under  the  forts. 
Far  to  the  south  the  men  of  von  der  Goltz's  brigade  are  shout- 


FRIGHTFUL   LOSSES   ON   BOTH    SIDES.  713 

ing  congratulation  from  the  heights  of  Jussy  and  Vaux  to  their 
cavalry  comrades  across  the  Moselle. 

But  in  the  darkness  and  distance  back  of  Gravelotte,  all  is  still 
anxiety.  Here  on  a  rude  railing,  stretched  across  the  body  of  a 
French  horse,  the  King  of  Prussia  sits  in  silent  torment  He 
knows  that  thousands  of  his  men  have  fallen  in  the  desperate 
fighting  of  the  day ;  he  cannot  yet  tell  to  what  result.  The 
thunder  of  the  guns  has  died  away;  only  scattering  volleys  now 
are  heard.  Near  by,  a  large  factory  is  in  flames,  and  the  king 
and  his  staff  are  grouped  around  a  garden  wall  on  the  eastern 
skirts  of  Rezonville.  Near  the  king  are  his  tried  and  trusted 
ministers,  Bismarck  and  von  Roon.  Von  Moltke  is  still  absent 
at  the  front,  and  all  are  waiting  eagerly  for  his  report.  Presently, 
guided  by  the  shouts  of  the  escort  and  guards,  two  horsemen 
urge  their  panting  steeds  up  the  slope,  and  von  Moltke  springs 
from  the  saddle  and  salutes  his  soldier-monarch  :  "Please  your 
majesty,  we  have  conquered  ;  we  have  driven  the  enemy  out  of  all 
his  positions;"  and  then,  at  last,  anxiety  gives  way  to  triumphant 
joy.  Gravelotte  is  won.  Bazaine  penned  up  in  Metz.  The 
greatest  of  her  regular  and  disciplined  armies  is  lost  to  France. 

In  the  three  days'  battling  around  Metz,  in  those  bloody  en- 
gagements of  the  1 4th,  1 6th  and  i8th  of  August,  Bazaine  has 
sustained  losses  aggregating  between  12,000  and  15,000  killed, 
and  50,000  wounded  and  prisoners.  Germany  of  course  has 
lost  few  prisoners,  but,  in  one  tremendous  effort,  in  that  supreme 
struggle  of  the  1 8th  of  August,  in  that  bloody  but  finally  suc- 
cessful battle  to  cut  off  the  great  French  army  from  the  rest  of 
France,  Prussia  and  her  confederate  sisters  lose  no  less  than 
25,000  in  killed  and  wounded,  against  the  19,000  lost  to  France 
that  day. 

Gravelotte  was  the  greatest  battle  of  the  war,  but  it  by  no 
means  ended  it.  The  Emperor  Napoleon,  with  his  boy  prince, 
reached  MacMahon  at  Chalons  on  the  I7th.  They  had  great 
difficulty  and  narrow  escapes,  for  the  Prussians  hounded  them 
along  their  way ;  but  once  at  Chalons  with  its  immense  camp, 
the  emperor  seems  to  have  resolved  on  measures  to  rescue  Ba- 
zaine. The  empress  at  Paris,  now  regent  of  France,  and  her 


714  GRAVELOTTE. 

ministers  in  council  decided  that  this  step  must  be  taken.  There 
were  by  this  time  600,000  German  troops  in  France.  Both  the 
emperor  and  MacMahon  are  said  to  have  believed  it  impossible 
to  cut  out  Bazaine  against  such  a  force,  and  their  going  back  to 
his  aid  left  the  road  to  Paris  open  to  the  crown  prince  and  the 
Third  army,  which  was  marching  steadily  westward  from  Nancy 
to  Chalons.  Practicable  or  not,  the  move  was  demanded  by  the 
government  at  Paris,  who  thought  the  vast  army  of  "  Gardes 
Mobiles,"  now  being  raised  and  equipped  by  Trochu,  could  fight 
back  any  force  of  Prussians  that  might  threaten  the  walls. 

On  August  2 1st  MacMahon  broke  camp  and  marched  north- 
ward towards  Rheims ;  his  idea  being  to  make  forced  marches 
up  through  the  Argonne  hills — cross  the  Meuse  west  of  Mont- 
medy  and  swoop  down,  by  way  of  Thionville,  on  the  Prussians 
encircling  Metz.  In  other  words,  he  meant  to  make  a  wide  swing 
through  the  country,  so  as  to  avoid  direct  conflict  with  the  Ger- 
mans pressing  westward  after  him,  and  save  his  strength  for  the 
attempt  to  release  Bazaine.  Could  he  once  more  unite  with  him 
there  was  hope  for  France. 

Meantime,  leaving  the  Red  Prince  to  completely  surround  and 
hold  Bazaine  in  Metz,  the  king  with  his  faithful  generals,  the 
Fourth  corps,  the  Saxons  and  the  Guards,  pushed  on  after  the 
crown  prince.  On  the  24th  the  advance  of  the  Germans  found 
Chalons  deserted,  and  flashed  back  word  to  the  king,  then  at 
Bar-le-Duc,  that  MacMahon  had  gone  northward  with  his  whole 
army. 

Von  Moltke  was  engaged  that  night  in  his  customary  game  of 
whist.  All  about  him  was  disciplined  silence  and  order.  In  an 
adjoining  room  his  maps  were  spread  open  upon  the  tables ; 
aides-de-camp  and  staff-officers  were  noiselessly  at  work,  while 
the  great  head  of  all,  having  so  perfected  his  system  that  each 
man  had  his  allotted  task  for  so  many  hours  of  the  twenty-four, 
was  now  enjoying  his  one  relaxation  with  the  three  officers  who 
were  that  night  designated  to  make  up  the  game.  The  entry  of 
an  aide-de-camp  indicated  important  despatches.  Von  Moltke 
laid  down  his  cards,  read  the  paper  through  without  a  word, 
took  it  with  him  into  the  adjoining  room,  glanced  at  his  maps, 


MACMAHON    AT    SEDAN.  715 

wrote  a  brief  note  to  the  king,  and  returned  to  his  game  as 
though  nothing  had  happened. 

And  yet,  in  that  matter-of-fact  method,  he  had  issued  the  orders 
changing  the  whole  plan  of  campaign.  Early  the  next  morning 
the  German  armies  were  striking  northward,  and  that  with  the 
king  was  still  keeping  vigilantly  between  MacMahon  and  Metz. 
On  the  29th  the  French  were  fighting  with  the  Saxons  for  a 
chance  to  cross  the  Meuse,  and  getting  the  worst  of  it.  On  the 
3Oth  a  savage  battle  took  place,  the  very  thing  MacMahon 
wished  to  avoid,  and  numbers  of  guns  and  prisoners  were  lost  to 
the  French ;  but  on  the  3ist  the  Germans,  still  between  him  and 
Metz,  were  hammering  him  back  down  the  Meuse  and  into  the 
fortified  city  of  Sedan.  MacMahon  had  still  with  him  over  100,- 
ooo  men  and  400  guns,  and  at  and  around  Sedan  he  was  brought 
to  bay.  All  day  of  the  3 1st  of  August  he  found  the  German 
armies  more  closely  enfolding  him.  Morning  of  September  1st 
found  his  army  posted  in  the  low-lying  valley  east  of  the  Meuse, 
and  surrounding  the  city  of  Sedan.  General  de  Wimpflen,  just 
arrived  from  Algeria,  was  commanding  the  Fifth  corps  in  and 
close  under  the  eastern  fortifications.  Lebrun  with  the  Twelfth 
corps  held  the  lines  from  the  village  of  Bazeilles,  south  of  Sedan, 
to  a  point  due  east  of  the  city,  where  Ducrot  with  the  First 
corps  took  up  and  prolonged  the  front  to  Givonne,  a  village 
northeast  of  Sedan.  Then  the  line  bent  back  at  a  right  angle 
and  stretched  across  to  the  Meuse  to  the  west.  This  front  was 
held  by  Felix  Douay  with  the  Seventh  corps  (his  brother,  Abel 
Douay,  was  killed  at  Weissenburg),  and  passing  through  the  vil- 
lage of  Floing,  was  supported  on  the  left  by  heavy  divisions  of 
cavalry. 

At  seven  A.  M.  the  Prussian  army  was  confronting  the  French, 
east,  west,  and  south  of  Sedan — the  First  Bavarian  corps  and 
the  Fourth  and  Twelfth  corps  on  the  east;  the  Fifth  and 
Eleventh  corps,  with  heavy  masses  of  cavalry,  marching  up  through 
Donchery,  on  a  deep  bend  of  the  Meuse,  to  the  west,  and  aiming 
to  sweep  around  the  French  to  the  north  from  the  west,  while 
the  Guards  of  Prussia  and  Saxony  swung  round  to  meet  them 
and  complete  the  circle  from  the  east.  South  of  the  city  and 


716  GRAVELOTTE. 

across  the  Meuse,  the  commanding  heights  were  held  by  the 
Second  Bavarian  corps  and  the  Wurtembergers.  Every  height 
was  crowded  with  guns ;  and  from  early  dawn  a  pitiless  storm 
of  shot  and  shell  rained  on  the  unfortunate  Frenchmen.  Little 
by  little,  despite  the  fiercest  and  bravest  fighting,  they  were 
hemmed  in  and  driven  back ;  village  after  village  was  wrested 
from  them  by  the  Germans ;  at  two  p.-  M.  the  circle  was  completed. 
Two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  Germans  surrounded  less  than 
half  that  many  Frenchmen.  MacMahon,  severely  wounded, 
turned  over  the  command  to  WimpfTen;  and  Napoleon  III.,  de- 
spairing and  broken-hearted,  sent  General  Reille  to  the  Prussian 
king. 

"  Not  having  been  able  to  die  at  the  head  of  my  troops,"  wrote 
the  sensational  emperor  (though  it  is  to  this  day  not  apparent 
that  he  sought  death  "  at  the  head  of  his  troops  "  or  any  other 
point),  "  I  lay  down  my  sword  to  your  majesty."  Napoleon  had 
bowed  the  knee  to  Prussia.  Jena  was  avenged. 

The  next  day  was  marked  by  the  surrender  of  the  great  army 
in  and  around  Sedan.  There  were  turned  over  to  Prussia 
100,000  men  and  400  guns,  seventy  mitrailleuses  and  10,000 
horses;  and  the  fallen  emperor  was  conducted  a  prisoner  to 
the  castle  of  Wilhelmshohe.  In  a  brief  campaign  of  thirty  days, 
therefore,  the  genius  of  von  Moltke  and  the  marvellous  disci- 
pline and  system  of  Prussian  arms,  had  enabled  her  king  to  cut 
in  twain,  then  to  rout  and,  in  detail,  to  ruin  the  great  army  as- 
sembled on  the  frontier  for  the  avowed  invasion  of  the  Father- 
land. The  regular  army  of  France  was  gone. 

Now  there  was  nothing  to  prevent  the  triumphant  march  of 
Prussia  on  Paris.  On  September  2/th  General  Uhrich  surren- 
dered Strasburg  with  all  its  garrison,  guns  and  stores  ;  and  on 
October  2Qth  Bazaine,  starved  out,  he  claimed,  capitulated  with 
his  great  command  at  Metz.  Afterwards,  France  .tried  and  con- 
victed him  on  charges  of  treason,  as  his  provisions  were  not  ex- 
hausted by  any  means ;  but  it  is  only  fair  to  say  that  he  had 
made  one  or  two  fierce,  but  ineffectual,  efforts  to  fight  his  way 
out,  and  succumbed  only  to  the  inevitable. 

Strasburg  and  Metz  cost  France  nearly  200,000  more  men, 


't  FRANCE'S   EXTREME   HUMILIATION.  717 

nearly  2,500  guns,  sixty-six  mitrailleuses,  and  over  300,000 
Chassepots.  Bereft  of  her  regular  army,  France  drove  out  the 
empress  and  her  adherents,  and  fought  under  republican  colors 
with  devoted  heroism  to  the  final  close  of  the  war.  Paris  was 
taken  by  siege  and  starvation,  after  a  long  and  courageous  de- 
fence, and  by  February,  1871,  the  people  gave  up  the  fight.  To 
her  infinite  chagrin,  France  struck  her  colors  to  the  hated  Prussians. 

As  the  results  of  this  great  war,  the  French  forfeited  to  Ger- 
many 6,200  square  miles  of  territory  in  the  provinces  of  Alsace 
and  Lorraine,  the  fortresses  of  Metz  and  Strasburg,  and  were 
condemned  to  pay  a  war  indemnity  of  5,000,000,000  francs  within 
three  years  (and  astonished  Prussia  by  doing  it  with  comparative 
ease).  She  lost  some  10,000  cannon  and  500,000  prisoners,  be- 
sides her  terrible  list  of  killed  and  wounded.  As  further  results, 
France  became  a  great  and  growing  and  prosperous  republic, 
Germany  an  empire,  with  her  grand  old  Prussian  king  as  Kaiser. 

France  has  Seen  steadily  profiting  by  her  sad  experiences,  and 
as  steadily  repairing  her  losses.  She  stands  to-day  with  an  army, 
navy  and  treasury,  in  far  better  shape  than  when  the  fate-impelled 
emperor  sought  to  lead  her  to  conquest,  across  the  Rhine,  four- 
teen years  ago ;  and  Germany  well  understands  that,  despite  the 
terrible  punishment  of  that  war, -her  plucky  adversary  may 
speedily  leap  at  her  throat  for  another  trial  of  strength,  and  Ger- 
many is  ever  ready.  While  France  is  not — at  least,  not  yet. 


PLEVNA. 


1877. 

UROPE  settled  down  into  a  period  of  rest  after 
the  conflict  between  France  and  Germany,  but 
it  was  not  long  before  the  attention  of  all  Chris- 
tian nations  was  drawn  to  the  borders  of  the 
infidel  monarchy — Turkey.  For  years,  the  peo- 
ple of  one  of  the  Danube  provinces — Bulgaria — 
had  been  subjected  by  the  Mussulman  Turks 
to  all  manner  of  indignities  growing  out  of  the 
differences  in  their  religious  faith,  if  indeed  the  so-called  "  Faith- 
ful" of  the  Mohammedan  sect  are  entitled  to  the  term  "  religious 
faith"  as  applied  to  their  peculiar  belief.  These  indignities, 
despite  the  protests  of  neighboring  powers,  grew  worse,  as  though 
goaded  on  by  interference,  and  ere  long  became  outrages  of  the 
most  flagrant  kind.  Murder,  rapine,  and  brutality  of  every  de- 
scription were  dealt  out  to  the  wretched  people  under  the  eye  of 
the  officials  and  the  soldiery  of  Turkey.  Even  America  sent 
her  representative  to  inquire  into  the  facts,  and  the  country  has 
not  yet  forgotten  the  fearful  picture  drawn  by  Mr.  Eugene  Schuy- 
ler — now  our  minister  at  the  court  of  Greece.  It  was  in  no  de- 
gree exaggerated ;  and  all  Christendom  seemed  to  realize  that 
the  policy  of  non-interference  could  no  longer  be  extended  to 
Turkey.  In  the  spring  of  1877,  Russia  called  her  to  account, 
and  the  followers  of  the  Greek  Church  took  up  arms  against  the 
followers  of  the  Prophet. 

Outside  of  any  consideration  of  revenge  for  Turkey's  success 
in  the  war  of  i854~'55,  it  was  more  natural  that  Russia  should 
become  the  champion  of  the  oppressed  people  of  the  Danube  val- 
ley than  that  the  duty  should  fall  to  the  nations  to  the  west,  though 
(718) 


BULGARIA   AND   WALLACHIA.  719 

it  was  at  one  time  thought  that  Austria,  too,  would  have  taken  a 
hand.  The  great  river  sweeps  on  in  a  general  eastward  course 
after  bursting  through  the  Iron  Gates,  and,  leaving  Austria  behind, 
flows  toward  the  Black  Sea.  When  within  forty  miles  of  the 
coast  it  turns  suddenly  to  the  north  near  the  city  of  Tcherna- 
voda,  runs  squarely  up  to  Galatz  near  the  Russian  border,  and 
then,  making  another  rectangular  turn,  this  time  to  the  east,  it 
flows  through  its  broad  delta  into  the  Black  Sea. 

Around  this  delta  and  all  along  the  left  bank  live  a  people  far 
more  Russian  in  their  tastes,  sympathies,  habits,  and  religious 
belief  than  Turkish.  On  the  right  bank  live  the  Bulgarians,  a 
people  but  faintly  removed  in  their  views  from  the  Wallachians. 
Between  them  and  Turkey  proper,  to  the  south,  upheaved  the 
great  wall  of  the  Balkan  Mountains ;  and  this  natural  barrier 
between  the  countries  was  but  typical  of  the  broad  line  of  demar- 
cation between  them  as  people.  Bulgaria  was  Turkey's  by  right 
of  conquest,  and  was  held  only  by  force  of  arms.  South  of  the  Bal- 
kans, down  to  the  shores  of  the  ^Egean,  all  is  distinctively  Turk- 
ish, and  the  portion  of  Turkish  domain  west  of  the  Bosphorus, 
the  Dardanelles  and  the  Sea  of  Marmora  is  sometimes  known  as 
Turkey  in  Europe.  These  are  the  straits  and  the  inland  sea  that 
form  the  great  channel  to  the  Black  Sea  farther  north.  East  of 
them  lies  Turkey  in  Asia,  stretching  far  over  through  Armenia 
and  Koordistan  until  it  is  bordered  on  the  northeast  by  the  Cau- 
casus of  Russia,  and  on  the  east  by  Persia.  Close  to  the  Rus- 
sian border  lies  the  city  of  Kars,  where,  as  well  as  at  Erzeroum 
to  the  west  of  it,  the  Muscovite  and  Mussulman  had  many  a 
fierce  grapple. 

It  is  with  the  campaign  in 'the  Danube  valley  that  we  have 
most  to  do  however,  and  thither  let  us  turn  our  eyes.  The  events 
of  that  short  and  sharp  encounter  are  so  fresh  in  the  minds  of 
many  readers  that  there  can  be  little  of  novelty  in  the  descrip- 
tion to  be  given  here.  All  the  great  military  nations  of  the 
world  sent  representatives  to  the  scene,  and  every  battle,  siege, 
and  skirmish  was  vividly  described  by  scores  of  masterly  writers; 
but  while  the  columns  of  the  London  journals  teemed  with 
graphic  accounts  from  such  famed  war  correspondents  as  Archi- 


720  .  PLEVNA. 

bald  Forbes  and  Messrs.  MacGahan,  Millet,  and  Grant,  it  has  been 
reserved  for  a  gallant  young  officer  of  our  own  army  to  furnish  a 
history  of  this  memorable  war  that  has  been  translated  and  read 
all  over  the  globe,  and  is  pronounced  by  all  authorities  a  most 
admirable  and  comprehensive  work.  To  those  of  our  readers 
who  wish  to  fully  study  the  "  Russian  Campaigns  in  Turkey, 
jg^-jg/S,"  the  large  volume  by  that  title,  written  by  Lieutenant 
Francis  V.  Greene,  of  the  Corps  of  Engineers,  U.  S.  Army,  is  es- 
pecially commended,  and  to  that  work  mainly  is  the  writer  of 
these  sketches  indebted  for  the  details  recounted  in  this  chapter. 

The  valley  of  the  Danube  is  bounded  on  the  north  by  the 
Carpathian  Mountains,  which  sweep  around  and  take  a  south- 
ward trend,  are  cut  through  by  the  river  at  the  Iron  Gates  and 
are  lost  in  the  rugged  uplands  of  Servia.  South  of  the  river  and 
parallel  to  its  general  eastward  course  is  the  Balkan  range,  and 
from  these  two  great  ribs  or  ridges — from  range  to  range — there 
is  a  general  distance  of  200  miles.  Northeast  of  the  Carpathians 
lie  the  rolling,  treeless  "  steppes"  of  Russia.  South  of  the  Car- 
pathians their  foothills  roll  away  down  into  the  valley  some  fifty 
miles,  and  from  that  line  to  the  river  itself  all  is  one  flat,  open 
level — well  watered  but  bare  of  trees.  South  of  the  Danube, 
however,  the  Balkans  send  their  slopes  down  to  end  in  abrupt 
bluffs  at  the  water's  edge,  and  these  bluffs  are  often  from  500  to 
l,ooo  feet  in  height.  The  Bulgarian  shores  are  picturesque,  roll- 
ing, well  wooded,  and  cut  up  by  rich  and  fertile  valleys.  Where 
the  Danube  turns  abruptly  northward  at  Tchernavoda  it  leaves 
to  the  east  a  rectangular  tract  of  barren  country  known  as  the 
Dobrudja,  and  across  the  narrow  neck  of  the  Dobrudja  are  the 
remains  of  the  old  Roman  wall  built  by  Trajan  to  keep  out  bar- 
baric invaders  from  the  north. 

Into  this  valley  from  the  north  there  come  two  lines  of  rail- 
way which  unite  at  the  important  city  of  Galatz,  where  the  river 
makes  its  last  eastward  turn  before  rolling  into  the  sea,  and  from 
Galatz  a  single  line  stretches  southwest  to  Bucharest,  then  south 
to  the  Danube,  which  it  crosses  to  Rustchuk,  and  then  winds  off 
eastward  again  to  Turkey's  great  naval  station  and  port  on  the 
Black  Sea — Varna.  The  railway  from  Russia  to  Galatz  and 


RUSSIA   DECLARES   WAR.  721 

thence  to  Bucharest  was  the  line  along  which  Russia  had  to  send 
her  supplies,  for  the  Black  Sea  swarmed  with  the  powerful  arma- 
ment of  the  Turkish  navy. 

On  April  24th,  1877,  the  Tsar  of  Russia  declared  war  against 
Turkey.  He  stated  that  for  two  years  he  and  all  the  Christian 
powers  of  Europe  had  striven  in  vain  to  induce  the  Porte  (as  the 
government  at  Constantinople  is  termed)  "to  introduce  those 
reforms  to  which  it  was  solemnly  bound  by  previous  engage- 
ments, and  by  which  alone  the  Christians  in  Turkey  could  be 
protected  from  local  exaction  and  extortion ;  that  these  negotia- 
tions had  all  failed  through  the  obstinacy  of  the  Porte;  and 
now,  all  peaceful  methods  being  exhausted,  the  moment  had 
arrived  for  him  to  act  independently  and  impose  his  will  upon 
the  Turks  by  force ;  and  therefore  the  order  had  been  given  to 
his  army  to  cross  the  Turkish  frontier." 

At  this  moment  Turkey  had  about  250,000  troops  in  readiness 
for  war,  and  of  these,  165,000  were  close  at  hand  and  available 
for  duty  along  the  Danube.  Against  these  Russia  thought 
herself  able  to  conduct  an  offensive  campaign  with  only  200,000 
men — and  in  this  she  was  mistaken.  Instead  of  profiting  by 
the  example  of  Prussia  and  sending  instantly  an  overwhelming 
force  to  the  frontier,  she  doled  out  her  resources  by  driblets,  and 
suffered  losses  and  delays  that  better  counsels  and  generalship 
would  have  averted.  By  August,  the  Turks  had  225,000  fight- 
ing men  along  the  European  theatre  of  war,  and  Russia  had  to 
call  for  her  reserves. 

The  "Army  of  the  South,"  Russia's  first  invading  force,  was 
placed  under  the  command  of  the  Grand  Duke  Nicholas.  It 
consisted  of  seven  army  corps,  and  two  brigades  of  rifles.  Each 
Russian  army  corps  consisted  of  two  divisions  (24  battalions)  of 
infantry,  two  brigades  (96  guns)  of  mounted  artillery,  and  one 
division  (18  squadrons)  of  cavalry,  with  two  horse-batteries  (12 
guns).  The  invading  army  consisted,  therefore,  of  about  180 
battalions,  200  squadrons  and  800  guns ;  and  by  the  time  this 
force  could  reach  the  Danube,  the  ordinary  casualties  of  service 
would  be  more  than  apt  to  reduce  it  to  180,000  effectives. 

But  Russian  infantry  is  admirable.  No  firmer,  steadier,  more 
46 


722 


PLEVNA. 


reliable  foot-troops  can  be  found.  They  are  thoroughly  drilled 
and  disciplined,  are  docile  and  obedient,  and  devoted  to  their 
tsar.  They  are  comfortably  and  sensibly  uniformed,  are  not 
heavily  burdened  with  useless  camp-equipage,  and  when  in  line 
or  in  mass,  their  courage  and  stability  are  proverbial.  It  is  as 
skirmishers  and  light  troops  that  the  Russian  infantry  lack 
intelligence.  The  Russian  foot-soldier  seems  to  have  no  indi- 
viduality, and  is  helpless  without  the  guiding  hand  of  his  officer.. 

Not  of  a  much  brighter  class  is  the  Russian  cavalry  or* artil- 
leryman. All  are  faithful  and  subservient,  but  the  element  of 
"  dash,"  so  conspicuous  in  our  own  and  the  Franco-Prussian 
war,  seems  to  have  had  little  more  place  in  the  rank  and  file  of 
Russia  than  it  had  at  Inkerman  and  Balaclava. 

While  in  point  of  service-dress  and  equipment  the  Russian 
regulars  were  fully  up  to  the  needs  of  the  campaign,  their  weap- 
ons were  clumsy  and  inadequate.  The  infantry  arm  at  the  out- 
break of  the  war  was  an  altered  musket — an  old  muzzle-loading 
rifle  converted  to  a  breech-loader  by  the  system  of  an  Austrian 
armorer  named  Krenk.  The  mechanism  consisted  of  a  block 
turning  on  an  axis  parallel  to  that  of  the  bore,  and  locked  by 
heavy  shoulders  of  metal  on  the  breech  piece ;  but  the  gun  was 
of  antiquated  calibre  (60),  larger  than  the  Springfield  rifles  we 
used  in  1862,  and,  with  its  bayonet,  the  gun  weighed  10^ 
pounds,  while  forty  rounds  of  cartridges  weighed  5^  pounds. 
Its  extreme  range  was  only  about  1,200  paces,  a  pitiful  arm 
indeed  as  compared  with  the  rifles  of  other  nations.  Yet  this 
was  the  musket  with  which  the  Russian  footman  had  to  fight 
his  way  to  the  walls  of  Constantinople. 

In  field-artillery,  too,  Russia  was  far  behind  other  European 
powers.  Her  guns  were  of  bronze,  too  soft  a  metal  for  sharp 
rifling,  and  not  until  the  war  was  over  did  she  obtain  from  the 
great  Krupp  factory  the  steel  breech-loaders  with  which  her 
batteries  are  now  supplied.  The  guns  of  the  mounted  batteries 
(those  which  accompanied  the  infantry)  were  half  of  them  nine- 
pounders — half  four-pounders.  Three  batteries  of  each  calibre  to 
a  brigade,  eight  guns  to  a  battery.  The  horse-batteries  were  all 
four-pounders,  six  guns  to  each.  All  the  field-guns  were  breech- 


THE   COSSACKS   AS   LIGHT   CAVALRY.  723 

loaders,  and  the  extreme  range  of  the  largest  was  5,000  yards, 
the  smallest  3,800  yards. 

In  cavalry,  the  Russian  army  was  well  represented.  Each 
division  of  the  line  consisted  of  four  regiments,  one  each  of 
dragoons,  lancers,  hussars  and  Cossacks.  The  guard  divisions 
had  also  fine  regiments  of  cuirassiers.  The  dragoons  were 
armed  with  sabre,  musket  and  bayonet ;  the  lancers  and  hussars 
with  sabre,  lance  and  revolver  in  the  front  rank;  sabre,  musket 
and  revolver  in  the  rear  rank.  The  Cossacks  carried  the  lance, 
the  "  schaska  "  (a  sharp,  single-edged,  curved  sword)  and  the 
carbine.  The  American  Smith  and  Wesson  revolver  was  uni- 
versal. 

These  Cossacks  deserve  a  word  of  special  mention.  As  light 
cavalry  they  have  few  superiors  except  among  the  Sioux  and 
Cheyenne  Indians  of  our  northern  plains,  who  are  unequalled 
anywhere.  They  form  a  recognized  corps  of  the  regular  army, 
and  yet  are  more  like  irregulars  in  their  own  way  of  fighting  and 
management.  No  pay  is  given  them.  They  perform  military  ser- 
vice in  lieu  of  paying  taxes — four  years  on  the  active  list  and  away 
from  home  eight  years  with  the  reserves  in  their  own  province. 
The  Don  Cossacks  are  the  most  numerous  and  the  best  trained, 
a  full  regiment  of  them  being  attached  to  each  division  of  regu- 
lar cavalry.  The  government  supplies  their  arms  and  ammuni- 
tion, but  the  Cossacks  themselves  provide  their  horses,  clothing 
and  equipments.  For  rations  and  forage  a  certain  sum  is  paid 
them  from  which  they  make  all  necessary  purchases ;  but  their 
wants  are  few,  and  their  shaggy,  hardy  little  horses  are  as  om- 
nivorous and  easily  satisfied  as  Indian  ponies,  which  they  re- 
semble in  many  characteristics.  Lieutenant  Greene  says  of  the 
Cossacks  that  "  they  are  fine  horsemen,  expert  swimmers,  good 
shots  and  skillful  boatmen,"  and  that  those  of  the  Caucasus  are 
extremely  bold  riders,  training  "  their  horses  to  lie  down  and 
keep  quiet  while  they  fire  over  them,  and  then  to  get  up  quickly 
and  go  off  at  rapid  gallop."  They  do  not  need  to  be  held  or 
tied,  but  their  riders  can  at  any  time  spring  off  and  leave  them 
to  look  out  for  themselves  while  the  Cossacks  are  drilling  or 
fighting  on  foot,  and  when  wanted,  the  horses  will  be  found  just 


724 


PLEVNA. 


about  where  they  were  left.  All  this  is  precisely  the  system  of 
our  plains  Indians,  and  no  regular  cavalry  in  the  world  can  do 
anything  like  it. 

A  Cossack  regiment  is  equipped  and  uniformed  in  a  semi-bar- 
baric style  that  is  picturesque  and  yet  serviceable.  The  bridle  is 
as  simple  as  the  Mexican  affair — a  leather  head-stall  without 
buckles,  but  provided  with  only  a  snaffle  bit.  The  saddle,  like 
that  of  the  Sioux  Indians,  is  a  tree  of  light  wood,  with  high  and 
abrupt  pommel  and  cantle,  very  short  in  the  seat ;  but  unlike  our 
Indians,  or  any  civilized  horsemen,  the  Cossacks  strap  a  cushion 
on  their  saddles  and  sit  some  six  or  eight  inches  higher  than  the 
horse's  back,  so  that  their  feet  never  show  below  his  body.  The 
uniform  is  a  dark  blue  jacket,  plain  and  snug,  without  ornaments 
of  any  kind,  and  the  cap  is  a  cylindrical  tower  of  black  leather, 
nine  inches  high.  The  linesman  or  regular  is  a  helpless  creature 
when  left  to  shift  for  himself.  He  expects  every  detail  to  be  ar- 
ranged for  him,  and  is  all  afloat  when  rations,  forage  or  shelter 
are  not  forthcoming ;  but  the  tough  little  Cossack  is  never  so 
well  off  as  when  turned  loose  and  told  to  forage  for  himself.  He 
and  his  horse  will  thrive,  but  the  neighborhood  may  suffer. 

In  time  of  war,  Russia  is  able  to  call  into  the  field  over 
150,000  Cossacks,  most  of  whom  are  cavalry,  though  there  are 
thirty-nine  Cossack  field-batteries,  and  seventeen  battalions  of 
infantry.  The  Don  Cossacks  furnish  more  than  one-third  of  the 
entire  number,  and  the  other  tribes,  those  of  the  Caucasus,  the 
Volga,  the  Ural,  etc.,  the  remainder.  Serving  so  much  with  the 
troops  of  the  line,  the  Don  Cossacks  lose  something  of  the  "plains 
craft,"  which  is  so  marked  a  characteristic  of  their  wilder  breth- 
ren ;  but  take  them  all-in-all,  these  irregular-regulars  are  a  most 
valuable  element  in  the  Russian  army,  and  the  tsar  is  very  careful 
to  keep  them  in  as  efficient  a  state  as  possible.  They  are  the 
eyes  and  ears  of  his  field-force,  as  the  Uhlans  are  of  Prussia's,  and 
when  a  foe  is  beaten  and  in  retreat,  the  Cossack  becomes  a  fearful 
enemy.  The  Grand  Army  of  France,  which  began  the  retreat 
with  Napoleon  from  ruined  Moscow,  was  goaded  to  death  by 
their  swarming  lances,  and  only  a  shadow  of  it  got  back  across 
the  Vistula. 


TURKEY'S   PREPARATIONS    FOR   WAR.  725 

Such  being,  in  brief,  a  summary  of  the  Russian  military  field- 
force,  the  Turkish  army  is  next  to  be  considered. 

Thanks  to  a  vast  recruiting  field  in  Asia,  the  Porte  was  able  to 
keep  its  ranks  well  filled  throughout  the  war ;  but  in  discipline, 
equipment  and  instruction,  the  Turkish  army  was  far  inferior  to 
the  Russian.  They  had  but  half  as  many  guns,  and  their  cav- 
alry was  the  worst  in  Europe,  and  very  small  in  number.  It  was 
in  point  of  armament  that  Turkey  stood  head  and  shoulders 
above  her  antagonist.  Her  field-guns  were  Krupp's  best  make, 
steel  breech-loaders ;  and  her  infantry  was  supplied  through- 
out with  the  finest  long-range  breech-loading  rifle  ever  placed  in 
the  hands  of  troops — the  celebrated  Peabody-Martini,  calibre  .45, 
made  by  the  Providence  Tool  Company,  in  our  own  Rhode 
Island.  When  the  war  broke  out  300,000  of  these  guns  were 
on  hand,  and  200,000  more  were  sent  them. 

Being  short  of  cavalry,  the  Turks  thought  to  match  the  Cos- 
sacks by  enlisting  the  services  of  some  Bulgarian  and  Roumelian 
guerillas,  called  Bashi-bozouks.  Being  pushed  to  the  wall,  Tur- 
key had  to  make  the  most  of  her  untrained  subjects,  and  these 
vagabond  "bushwhackers"  were  given  arms  and  ammunition. 
It  was  an  experiment  not  unlike  that  resorted  to  by  our  own 
government,  when  in  1861  it  enlisted  from  the  scum  of  the  New 
York  streets  the  regiment  known  as  "  Billy  Wilson's  Zouaves  " — 
an  incalculable  boon  to  the  locality  from  which  it  was  drafted, 
but  of  no  earthly  use  to  the  nation.  A  wise  discretion  prompted 
the  assignment  of  Colonel  Billy's  regiment  to  the  lonely  strand 
of  Santa  Rosa  Island,  where  they  could  only  steal  from  one 
another,  and  so  served  a  term  in  a  penal  colony  all  their  own ; 
but  these  Bashi-bozouks  followed  the  movements  of  the  Turkish 
army,  and  robbed  and  pillaged  right  and  left.  They  would  have 
been  a  terror  to  defenceless  Russian  hamlets,  but  they  never  got 
across  the  border,  and  so  proved  a  pestilence  to  their  own  people. 

In  point  of  organization,  the  army  of  Turkey  differed  but 
slightly  from  those  of  the  military  nations  of  Europe.  Infantry 
was  handled  in  battalions  and  brigades ;  cavalry  in  squadrons 
and  regiments,  and  artillery  in  field-batteries,  very  much  as  were 
those  arms  of  service  in  Russia ;  but  where  all  was  steady  dis- 


726 


PLEVNA. 


cipline  and  efficiency  among  the  troops  of  the  tsar,  there  was 
laxity  and  grave  irregularity  among  the  soldiers  of  the  Porte. 

One  thing  can  be  said  of  the  Turk.  He  has  a  certain  disregard 
of  danger,  is  a  "  fatalist"  to  the  extent  of  believing  that  the  mat- 
ter of  life  and  death  is  beyond  eontrol  of  any  precaution  on  his 
part,  and  when  the  appointed  time  comes,  be  it  soon  or  late,  he 
must  die.  It  gives  him  a  certain  stoical  indifference  to  personal 
peril  which  is  a  valuable  trait  in  the  soldier,  and  yet  is  no  kin 
to  the  high  order  of  courage  we  see  in  the  intelligent,  the  Chris- 
tian man ;  that  courage  which,  while  it  leaves  its  bearer  fully  sen- 
sible of  every  risk  to  life  and  limb,  yet  guides  him  in  serene  and 
steadfast  purpose  along  the  path  of  duty — the  bravery  of  true 
manhood.  Wonderful  fortitude  and  pluck  were  displayed  on 
many  occasions  by  the  Turkish  armies  during  the  war.  Severe 
hardships  were  uncomplainingly  endured,  but  when  crushing 
defeat  came  upon  them  they  seemed  to  lose  all  cohesion,  and 
went  to  pieces  with  stunning  rapidity. 

The  Russian  plan  of  campaign  was  a  problem  from  the  start. 
The  treaty  of  Paris,  in  1856,  after  the  fall  of  Sebastopol,  robbed 
the  tsar  of  his  fleet  in  the  Black  Sea,  and  left  Turkey  in  supreme 
naval  control  of  that  inland  ocean.  With  a  strong  fleet,  Russia 
could  have  sent  her  supplies  and  armies  down  along  the  coast, 
past  the  mouths  of  the  Danube,  past  the  Dobrudja,  past  the 
Balkans,  and  so  carry  the  war  into  the  heart  of  Turkey.  But 
Russia's  ships  were  gone,  and  hers  had  to  be  a  land  attack. 
She  must  march  her  armies  through  the  principalities  along  the 
border,  through  possibly  hostile  populations,  across  a  great  river, 
and,  like  Sherman  at  Atlanta,  depend  for  life  upon  that  slender 
thread  of  300  miles  of  railway  stretching  far  behind  him.  But 
Sherman  never  hesitated  ;  neither  did  the  grand  duke.  Sherman 
had  to.  fight  his  way  foot  by  foot,  for  Johnston  disputed  every 
gap,  ridge  or  rail-fence.  The  grand  duke  with  the  army  of  the 
south  had  an  actual  "  walk-over,"  for  Turkey  never  woke  up  until 
the  Russian  bugles  were  blowing  the  reveille  along  the  Danube. 

The  Army  of  the  South,  near  the  end  of  April,  was  posted  along 
the  frontier  about  fifty  miles  north  of  Galatz,  with  headquarters 
at  Kishineff.  As  it  crossed  into  Turkey  it  consisted  of  the  Eighth, 


RUSSIA'S  DISADVANTAGES.  72? 

% 

Ninth,  Eleventh,  and  Twelfth  corps  d'armee,  commanded  respect- 
ively  by  Lieutenant-Generals  Radetsky,  Baron  Kriidener,  Prince 
Shakofskoi,  and  Vannofsky.  There  were  two  rifle  divisions  under 
major-generals,  and  there  was  finally  a  great  cavalry  command 
of  Cossacks  led  by  Lieutenant-General  Skobeleff  Subsequently, 
the  Fourteenth,  Fourth,  and  Thirteenth  corps,  under  Zimmerman, 
Zotof,  and  Prince  KorsakofF,  respectively,  were  ordered  to  join  the 
Army  of  the  South,  bringing  it  up  to  182  battalions,  204  squad- 
rons, and  808  field-guns — in  all  some  200,000  combatants.  On 
the  morning  of  April  24th  the  advance  deliberately  crossed  the 
line,  and  on  the  24th  of  May  the  Russian  army  was  aligned  along 
the  north  bank  of  the  Danube,  the  centre  at  Bucharest,  the  front 
picketed  from  Nicopolis  to  Silistria.  Turkey  had  hardly  opposed 
a  gun  to  the  advance. 

Arriving  at  the  Danube,  Russia  was  brought  to  a  halt.  The 
spring  had  been  very  wet ;  the  river  was  fifteen  feet  higher  than 
usual ;  the  gauge  of  the  Roumanian  railway  was  smaller  than 
that  of  the  Russian  roads  ("five-footers"),  and  much  of  the  roll- 
ing stock  had  been  gotten  out  of  the  way,  so  that  unexpected 
delays  occurred  in  bringing  forward  the  pontoon  and  siege  trains 
and  the  needed  supplies  of  rations,  forage,  and  ammunition. 

But  while  the  army  was  brought  to  a  stand,  some  splendid 
work  was  done  by  officers  of  the  Russian  navy.  The  Turks 
had  a  powerful  fleet  of  iron-clads  under  Hobart  Pasha,  an  ex- 
officer  of  the  English  navy,  and  these  thunderers  were  vastly  in 
the  way  at  the  mouth  of  the  Danube.  Russia  had  no  ships  or 
iron-clads  there,  but  she  sent  down  some  spirited  young  lieuten- 
ants from  the  Baltic,  and  one  of  these  daring  fellows  (bethinking 
himself  probably  of  our  Gushing  and  the  "  Albemarle,"  whose 
story  is  so  well  told  in  Dr.  Shippen's  Naval  Battles)  took 
some  little  steam-launches  and  torpedo  boats  one  dark,  rainy 
night  and  blew  up  the  Turkish  ship-of-war  "  Seife  "  in  the  Matchin 
channel  of  the  Danube,  below  Braila,  and  in  a  short  time  after 
the  declaration  of  war,  Russian  torpedoes  were  so  thick  along  the 
delta  channels  and  the  lower  river  that,  in  very  dread  of  them,  the 
Turkish  iron-clads  backed  out  and  were  no  more  seen.  Up  the 
river  around  Rustchuk  and  Nicopolis  the  Turks  had  smaller 


728  PLEVNA. 

iron-clads,  and  the  Russian  officers  so  tormented  them  with  torpe- 
does that  from  first  to  last  the  Mussulman  navy  was  of  no  account 
whatever.  On  the  Danube  the  fleet  was  a  perfect  failure,  and  was 
speedily  driven  to  the  shelter  of  the  shore  guns  and  kept  there. 

On  June  22d,  General  Zimmerman  ferried  two  regiments  across 
the  Danube  at  Galatz  and  drove  the  Turkish  outposts  from  the 
heights  on  the  Dobrudja  shore.  Soon  afterwards  he  crossed  his 
whole  force  at  Braila  and  moved  southward,  whereupon  the 
Turks  gave  up  the  Dobrudja  without  further  struggle  and  fell 
back  behind  Trajan's  wall. 

On  June  24th  the  Russian  siege  batteries  on  the  north  bank 
began  hammering  at  the  walls  of  Rustchuk,  and  on  the  night  of 
the  26th  the  advance  of  the  Eighth  corps  slipped  across  the  Dan- 
ube in  boats  and  effected  a  lodgment  below  Sistova.  The  fol- 
lowing afternoon  the  town  itself  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  invaders 
after  brief  resistance,  and  by  the  first  days  of  July  the  pontoon 
bridges  were  thrown  across,  the  Army  of  the  South  was  on  Bul- 
garian soil,  and  Turkey  had  done  little  or  nothing  to  prevent  it. 
"  In  ten  weeks  from  the  opening  of  hostilities,"  says  Greene, 
"  the  Russians  had  established  themselves  on  the  southern  bank 
of  the  Danube,  and  with  a  loss  which,  in  comparison  to  the  im- 
portance of  the  success,  was  totally  insignificant."  The  Turks 
tried  to  make  believe  it  was  all  part  and  parcel  of  a  plan  to  lure 
the  Russians  across  the  Danube  and  there  surround  and  crush 
them.  Lure  them  across  they  certainly  did,  whether  designedly 
or  not.  Crush  them  they  did  not,  nor  did  they  come  anywhere 
near  it.  Now,  however,  began  their  defensive  campaign. 

The  entire  Army  of  the  South,  except  detachments  left  to 
guard  the  towns  and  railway  to  their  rear,  crossed  the  Danube 
by  the  pontoons  near  Sistova,  all  but  the  Fourth  corps  being  over 
by  July  1 5th.  In  accordance  with  the  plan,  General  Gourko  with 
the  advance,  and  followed  by  the  Eighth  corps,  was  to  push  ahead 
for  the  Balkans  by  way  of  the  main  high-road  through  Tirnova. 
Two  rivers  come  down  into  the  Danube  from  the  mountains  to 
the  south — the  Yantra  east  of  Sistova,  the  Vid  to  the  west  and 
beyond  Nicopolis.  The  Yantra  drains  a  large  tract  of  country 
around  Tirnova,  which  lies  on  one  of  the  nine  branches  into 


RAPIDITY   OF  THE   RUSSIAN   MOVEMENT.  729 

A-hich  it  splits  up  on  nearing  the  range,  but  as  it  approaches  the 
Danube  it  falls  away  to  the  eastward  a  dozen  miles  or  so  from 
the  Sistova  highway,  and  passes  the  town  of  Biela  on  the  great 
cross-road  between  Tirnova  and  Rustchuk.  This  same  high-road, 
continuing  westward  over  the  rolling  foothills  of  the  Balkans, 
bridges  the  little  river  Osma,  and  some  twenty-five  miles  beyond 
that,  dips  down  into  the  valley  of  the  Vid,  and  crosses  the  east 
fork  of  that  stream  at  the  town  of  Plevna.  While  the  Russian 
centre  was  to  follow  the  high-road  to  the  Balkan  passes,  the 
Twelfth  and  Thirteenth  corps  were  thrown  out  into  the  Yantra 
valley  to  cover  the  left  flank ;  the  Ninth  corps  was  designated 
to  assault  Nicopolis  and  go  up  the  valley  of  the  Vid  on  the  right 
flank,  while  the  Fourth  and  Eleventh  corps  were  for  the  time 
being  to  be  held  in  reserve. 

The  cavalry  seized  Biela  on  the  5th  of  July,  and  Gourko  won 
Tirnova  on  the  7th*.  Then  the  tsar  arrived  and  joined  the  army 
at  Biela ;  the  left  wing  pushed  steadily  forward  up  the  Yantra ; 
Gourko  burst  through  the  Balkans ;  Kriidener  captured  Nico- 
polis— all  within  a  brief  fortnight — and  everything,  right,  centre, 
and  left,  was  going  swimmingly  for  Russia  and  all  amiss  for  Tur- 
key, when  suddenly  Kriidener,  plunging  up  the  Vid  valley,  struck 
a  rock  at  the  forks  and  came  to  a  dead  stop  at  Plevna.  On  the 
2Oth  of  July  the  Russian  right  was  whipped,  and  then  everybody 
elsewhere  in  the  Army  of  the  South  had  to  pull  up  short  in  his 
triumphant  career  and  turn  back  to  help  Kriidener  out  of  trouble. 

But,  meantime,  there  had  been  consternation  at  Constanti- 
nople. The  political  effect  of  the  passage  of  the  Danube  and 
Gourko's  sudden  leap  for  the  passes  through  the  Balkans  was 
startling.  Panic  reigned  at  Adrianople  and  spread  to  the  capital 
on  the  Bosphorus.  The  sultan  was  well-nigh  ready  to  flee  to 
Asia  Minor,  and  leave  the  nation  to  take  care  of  itself.  He  dis- 
graced and  banished  the  general-in-chief,  Abdul  Kerim  Pasha, 
and  the  minister  of  war.  Then  Mehemet  Ali  was  made  com- 
mander-in-chief,  Suleiman  was  sent  to  confront  Gourko,  and  even 
England  took  alarm.  Her  side  of  that  complex  political  problem, 
"The  Eastern  Question,"  was  involved,  and  as  there  are  few 
spots  on  the  face  of  the  earth  where  a  fight  can  come  off  without 


730  PLEVNA. 

stirring  up  a  British  subject,  so  here  the  interests  of  Great 
Britain  in  restraining  Russia  from  control  of  the  Bosphorus  and 
Dardanelles  became  threatened  by  such  sweeping  success,  and 
promptly  the  great  English  fleet  was  sent  steaming  to  Besica 
Bay,  while  her  foundries  and  arsenals  at  home  resounded  with 
the  clang  of  preparation  for  war.  All  seemed  agreed  that  it  was 
right  for  Russia  to  whip  Turkey — but  not  too  much. 

But,  in  winning  Nicopolis,  Baron  Kriidener  had  lost  some 
1,300  officers  and  men,  and  had  found  an  enemy  that  showed 
fine  stomach  for  fighting.  The  Turks  had  succumbed  to  supe- 
rior numbers  and  scientific  disposition  offeree,  and  the  fall  of  the 
old  fort  was  a  misfortune  which  involved  the  surrender  of  over 
loo  guns,  10,000  small  arms,  two  monitors  and  7,000  men. 
Whether  success  of  this  kind  turned  Kriidener's  head,  or 
whether  this  effect  was  confined  to  his  subordinates,  does  not 
appear;  but  that  somebody  was  to  blame  for  fhe  horrible  blunder 
that  followed  is  beyond  peradventure.  With  all  his  admirable 
cavalry  at  his  disposal,  Kriidener's  advance  stumbled  on  up  the 
valley  of  the  Vicl  and  into  the  clutches  of  the  bravest  army  and 
the  best  soldiers  Turkey  could  possibly  lay  claim  to — 40,000 
seasoned  veterans — and  Osman  Pasha. 

From  the  city  of  Widdin,  more  than  one  hundred  miles  up  the 
valley,  this  strong  column  had  come  marching  down  on  the  Rus- 
sian flank.  Another  column  12,000  strong  had  been  ordered  up 
from  Sophia,  across  the  Balkans.  Prisoners  taken  at  Nicopolis 
told  Kriidener  that  heavy  reinforcements  were  on  the  road.  Com- 
mon sense  ought  to  have  told  him  that  they  would  be  coming. 
Then  his  Caucasian  Cossacks  up  the  Vid  said  they  saw  them 
coming,  and  neither  the  grand  duke  nor  Kriidener  seems  to  have 
thought  the  tidings  of  any  importance.  "  Occupy  Plevna  as 
promptly  as  possible,"  were  the  orders  sent  to  Kriidener,  and, 
obedient  to  them,  the  baron  directed  General  Schilder-Schuldner 
on  the  1 8th  of  July  to  advance  and  seize  the  town.  A  strong 
division  was  under  this  officer's  command,  and  a  brigade  of  Cos- 
sack cavalry  was  ordered  to  report  to  him  for  duty.  He  had 
6,500  men  and  forty-six  guns.  While  part  of  his  force  marched 
westward  along  the  Rustchuk  road  toward  Plevna,  and  his  Don 


RUSSIAN   ARMY   IN   A   TRAP.  731 

Cossacks  followed  the  river  road  up  the  Vid  to  his  right,  Schil- 
der-Schuldner  himself  with  the  main  body  and  with  no  cavalry 
near  him  at  all,  pushed  out  southwestward  on  Plevna.  At  two 
o'clock  on  the  afternoon  of  the  I9th,  the  Don  Cossacks — taking 
dinner  after  their  gipsy  fashion,  over  on  the  banks  of  the  Vid— 
were  amazed  to  hear  the  booming  of  cannon  eight  miles  out  to 
the  southeast.  Instead  of  covering  their  general's  front,  here 
they  were  far  to  his  right  and  rear,  and  he,  meantime,  had  stum- 
bled into  trouble  among  the  hills  around  Plevna.  Promptly  they 
bundled  up  pots  and  kettles,  sprang  into  saddle  and  went  clatter- 
ing off  to  the  support  of  their  comrades;  but,  the  moment  they 
got  in  sight  of  Plevna,  and  before  they  could  reach  their  chief, 
they  found  the  way  barred  by  the  long  lines  of  red-fezzed  Turks. 
In  the  same  way  the  Nineteenth  regiment,  advancing  from  the 
east,  was  confronted  by  Turkish  skirmish  lines,  and  the  centre 
ran  slap  into  a  brace  of  well-handled  batteries  that  not  only 
checked  the  advance  but  inflicted  severe  loss  upon  the  columns. 
Still,  he  had  no  idea  the  Turks  were  in  force,  and  though  his 
people  bivouacked  for  the  night  on  a  sweeping  circle  of  seventeen 
miles,  the  Russian  general  determined  on  an  assault  at  daybreak, 
July  2Oth,  and  this  led. 

THE  FIRST  BATTLE  OF  PLEVNA, 

a  short  and  sharp  one.  Schilder-Schuldner  meant  to  take  the 
initiative  at  dawn,  but  the  Turks  were  ahead  of  him.  At  four  in 
the  morning  they  pounced  upon  his  Don  Cossacks  at  Bukova, 
just  north  of  the  town,  and  so  opened  the  ball  on  the  Russian 
right.  A  battery  was  sent  to  the  aid  of  the  Cossacks,  while  the 
centre  confidently  pushed  forward ;  three  batteries  and  six  battal- 
ions assaulted  the  heights  of  Grivitza  east  of  the  town,  and  after 
a  lively  fight  whipped  the  Turks  out  of  the  west  end  of  their 
improvised  field-works  and  raced  them  under  the  very  garden- 
walls  of  Plevna.  But  here  there  came  stubborn  resistance,  and 
at  seven  o'clock  the  Seventeenth  and  Eighteenth  regiments  found 
themselves  in  a  very  hot  and  uncomfortable  place,  while  their 
guns  were  still  shelling  the  east  end  of  the  Grivitza  lines. 

Far  around  to  the  Rustchuk  road  the  Nineteenth  regiment  had  ' 


732  PLEVNA. 

early  begun  the  assault  of  the  Turkish  outposts,  and  had  been 
successful  in  driving  them  in  as  far  as  the  town,  but  here  they, 
too,  came  to  a  stand,  unable  to  make  headway  and  unwilling  to 
go  back.  Farther  south  the  Caucasian  Cossack  brigade  pitched 
in  with  its  feeble  battery,  and  to*  no  perceptible  effect.  The  guns 
were  too  short-ranged  to  be  of  any  use.  But  the  Nineteenth  had 
suffered  heavily,  and  needed  aid,  so  the  brigade  was  drawn  in 
towards  them  just  in  time  to  take  part  in  the  next  phase  of  the 
battle,  a  general  retreat. 

Over  on  the  Russian  right  the  Don  Cossacks  had  been  suc- 
cessful in  beating  back  the  Turks  and  following  them  to  the  lines 
of  the  town.  Then  came  the  counter-stroke. 

All  this  time  the  main  body  of  Osman  Pasha's  force  had  lain 
in  quiet  retirement  within  the  streets  of  Plevna.  Now  of  a  sud- 
den it  burst  forth  in  furious  attack  north  and  east.  Column  after 
column  came  surging  forth  from  the  gates  until  the  slopes  were 
lined  with  the  red  skull-caps  and  flashing  with  the  scathing  vol- 
leys of  the  Peabody-Martinis.  Brave  as  was  the  struggle  made 
by  Schilder-Schuldner,  his  effort  was  all  in  vain.  His  patient 
infantry  never  broke  or  scattered,  but,  torn,  crippled  and  bleeding, 
fell  slowly  and  stubbornly  back  until,  at  five  o'clock,  the  firing 
ceased  and  the  Russian  advance  on  the  right  flank  was  shattered. 

So  heavy  were  the  losses  in  killed  and  wounded  that  the  Rus- 
sians had  to  leave  them  on  the  field,  and  so  great  was  the  de- 
struction of  artillery  horses  that  seventeen  caissons  had  to  be 
abandoned.  Twenty-two  officers  were  killed,  fifty-two  wounded, 
and  2,771  men  were  lost  in  the  same  way;  more  than  two-thirds 
of  the  officers,  and  one-third  of  the  rank  and  file  being  thus 
placed  hors  de  combat.  The  Turkish  loss  was  probably  no 
greater,  while  to  them  remained  the  glory  of  victory.  General 
Schilder-Schuldner  had  blindly  ordered  the  assault  of  a  force  four 
times  his  strength,  and  was  deservedly  beaten. 

Baron  Kriidener  could  not  but  feel  the  utmost  chagrin  at  this 
unforeseen  result  of  his  attempt  to  occupy  Plevna.  The  command 
was  speedily  withdrawn  to  the  neighborhood  of  Nicopolis,  and 
vigorous  measures  were  taken  to  bring  up  the  entire  Ninth  corps 
to  the  renewal  of  the  attack.  Meantime,  the  Turks  were  not 


f 
STRONG   POSITION   OF  THE   TURKS.  733 

idle.  For  ten  days  they  worked  like  beavers,  strengthening  their 
intrenchments  east  of  the  town  and  around  to  Bukora  on  the 
north,  and  by  July  3Oth  Osman  Pasha  had  40,000  well-trained 
troops  at  his  back ;  and  the  concentration  of  the  Ninth  Russian 
corps  on  the  heights,  to  the  northeast,  gave  him  little  concern. 
Ten  days  after  the  disaster  to  Schilder-Schuldner  came 

THE    SECOND    BATTLE    OF   PLEVNA, 

fought  July  30th,  and  fought  somewhat  against  the  wishes  of 
Baron  Krudener,  the  immediate  Russian  commander.  He  had 
carefully  studied  the  position,  marked  the  strength  of  the  re- 
doubts and  lines  of  the  Grivitza  heights,  and  become  dubious  as 
to  the  result  of  direct  assault.  Then,  too,  he  had  learned  to 
dread  putting  in  his  troops  against  that  fearful  fire  of  small-arms 
— a  fire  that  carried  off  his  people  at  what  he  and  they  had 
hitherto  considered  artillery  range.  Long  before  his  leading  lines 
could  throw  their  fire  upon  the  Turks,  those  American-made 
bullets  were  whistling  over  their  heads  and  bringing  down  by 
the  dozen,  men  in  the  distant  reserves.  Krudener  telegraphed 
for  further  instructions  and  they  came,  sharp  and  stern  and  sting- 
ing. The  grand  duke  could  not  understand  his  wing-com- 
mander's hesitancy,  and  said  so  in  as  many  words.  This  left 
poor  Krudener  no  alternative.  He  gave  the  word  and  did  his 
best,  but  Osman  Pasha  was  far  too  much  for  him,  as  the  results 
will  show. 

The  town  of  Plevna,  with  its  labyrinth  of  narrow,  crooked 
streets,  lies  in  a  deep  depression  where  the  valleys  of  two  little 
streams — Tutchenitza  creek  from  the  south,  and  Grivitza  brook 
from  the  east — unite  to  form  the  east  fork  of  the  river  Vid.  All 
around  it,  east,  west,  north  and  south,  are  high  rolling  hills,  and 
deep  ravines  with  precipitous  banks.  The  highway  to  the  east 
runs  up  the  valley  of  the  Grivitza  brook  and  skirts  on  the  south- 
ern edge  the  little  hamlet  of  that  name,  some  four  miles  out. 
South  of  the  high-road  and  jutting  southeastward  are  two  high 
ridges  separated  by  a  little  stream  purling  through  a  deep  gorge. 
On  the  first  of  these  ridges — the  northernmost — the  Turks 
had  built  four  strong  redoubts,  bristling  with  guns ;  three  of 


734  PLEVNA. 

them  overhanging  the  ravine  which  separated  them  from  the 
southern  ridge,  known  as  the  Radischevo  ridge,  from  a  bunch  of 
rural  cottages  to  which  that  name  is  given  as  a  village  deserving 
of  some  distinction.  It  nestles  close  under  the  crest  along  the 
southern  slope,  and  was  the  sce'ne  of  some  of  the  most  stirring 
features  of  the  second  battle,  for  here  were  the  headquarters  of 
Lieutenant-General  Shakofskoi  and  the  left  wing  of  the  Russian 
attack.  North  of  the  Grivitza  brook  and  a  mile  northwest  of 
Grivitza  itself,  perched  on  the  summit  of  a  commanding  knoll, 
was  another  strong  redoubt — the  Grivitza,  it  was  called.  From 
here,  around  to  Bukora  to  the  west  and  the  Plevna  ridge  to  the 
south,  were  freshly  dug  lines  of  rifle-pits,  and  the  ridges  between 
the  lower  redoubts  were  scored  and  seamed  with  them.  West  of 
Plevna  to  the  Vid,  there  were  no  works  at  all ;  but  down  in  the 
valley  on  the  northwestern  skirts  of  the  town  lay  a  reserve  camp 
where  20,000  men  could  be  held  in  readiness  to  move  in  any  di- 
rection, and  where  probably  that  many  men  were  posted,  and 
not  one  of  the  encircling  Russians  could  see  them. 

South  of  Plevna  runs  the  high-road  to  Lovtcha,  climbing  up 
between  the  knolls  of  what  are  called  the  Green  Hills,  and  when 
it  became  his  duty  to  attack  the  position  of  the  Turks,  Kriidener 
sent  across  this  road  and  up  into  those  hills  a  little  brigade  of 
Cossacks  with  their  horse-battery,  and  this  was  the  command  of 
a  young  major-general  who  won  world-wide  fame  during  the 
fighting  that  followed — Skobeleff.  Greene  designates  him  as 
Skobeleff  II.,  to  distinguish  him  from  the  senior  SkobelefT,  who 
was  a  lieutenant-general,  and  in  command  of  the  united  division 
of  Don,  Terek  and  Caucasian  Cossacks. 

With  only  30,000  disposable  men,  Baron  Kriidener  was  now  to 
attempt  the  assault  of  a  superior  force,  far  better  armed  and  in  a 
strong  position.  To  us,  who  know  that  Osman  Pasha  has 
40,000  men  with  cannon  and  rifles  that -can  far  outshoot  the 
Russian  arms,  the  result  must  be  a  foregone  conclusion.  The 
grand  duke  had  refused  to  believe  the  Turks  were  in  heavy  force, 
and  being  himself  at  Tirnova,  eighty  miles  away,  he  gave  his 
orders  with  all  the  incisiveness  of  the  autocrat  that  he  was. 

Early  on  the  morning  of  the  3Oth  of  July  the  Ninth  cavalry 


A   LONG-RANGE   DUEL.  735 

division  marched  forward  on  the  extreme  right  of  the  Russian 
lines,  and  faced  the  heights  to  the  northeast  of  Plevna.  Krii- 
dener,  with  the  right  centre,  marched  westward  and  deployed  his 
lines  facing  west,  and  threatening  the  Grivitza  redoubt  and  the 
lines  north  of  the  brook.  Shakofskoi,  with  the  left  centre,  faced 
northward  along  the  Radischevo  ridge,  confronting  the  frowning 
redoubts  across  the  deep  ravine,  and  far  over  to  the  west,  facing 
Plevna  from  the  southwest,  was  young  Skobeleff  with  his  little 
band  of  Cossacks.  There  was  a  gap  of  over  two  miles  on  a 
bee-line  between  the  right  of  Shakofskoi's  line  and  the  left  of 
Kriidener's,  and  as  big  a  gap  over  to  Skobeleff  This  looked 
ominous.  Kriidener  had  along  this  circular  line  176  guns, 
thirty-six  battalions,  and  thirty  squadrons. 

While  the  cavalry  on  his  widely  separated  flanks  were  ordered 
to  guard  well  all  approaches,  the  right  centre  was  directed  to 
assault  the  Grivitza  redoubt  and  ridge,  the  left  centre  the  Plevna 
ridge,  and  the  reserve,  one  brigade,  was  held  in  rear  of  the  centre 
near  Karagatch. 

It  was  seven  o'clock  before  the  simultaneous  advance  and  de- 
ployment began.  By  eight  o'clock  the  right  centre,  advancing  in 
two  deep  lines,  moved  gradually  into  range  of  the  Turkish  guns 
in  the  big  redoubt,  but,  never  halting  until  it  came  within  3,000 
yards  and  its  own  guns  could  be  brought  -into  play,  the  leading 
division  (the  Thirty-first)  swept  steadily  on.  At  half-past  eight 
its  four  batteries  unlimbered  and  opened  fire,  while  the  infantry 
lay  down  and  watched  the  long-range  duel.  In  the  same  way 
Shakofskoi's  wing  marched  unopposed  to  Radischevo.  There  it 
deployed,  ran  forward  its  guns  to  the  crest  and  o'pened  on  the 
redoubts  only  1,500  to  2,500  yards  away,  across  the  ravine.  By 
nine  o'clock  the  foothills  of  the  Balkans  were  ringing  with  the 
reverberations  of  some  two  hundred  guns,  and  for  six  mortal 
hours,  while  the  infantry  lay  prone  upon  the  ground  and  never 
pulled  trigger  or  made  a  move,  this  incessant  thunder  was  kept 
up.  At  the  end  of  that  period  Kriidener  decided  he  had  had 
enough  artillery  practice  and  it  was  time  to  do  something.  Thus 
far  two  Turkish  batteries  (small  ones)  were  silenced,  and  three 
Russian  guns  were  dismounted,  as  the  apparent  result  of  a  vast 
expenditure  of  time  and  ammunition. 


736  PLEVNA. 

Now,  however,  it  was  the  infantry's  turn,  and  the  serious  busi- 
ness of  battle  began.  At  half-past  two  the  columns  of  the  right 
centre  sprang  to  their  feet  and  pushed  out  over  the  slopes  toward 
the  smoke-crowned  heights  of  Grivitza,  and  at  the  same  moment 
Shakofskoi's  lines  popped  up  over  the  Radischevo  and  swept 
forward  to  the  assault  of  the  works  along  the  Plevna  ridge.  In 
the  right  wing  the  command  had  been  divided  into  two  columns 
— one  assaulting  from  the  northeast,  the  other  from  the  east.  The 
first  column  was  made  up  of  the  battalions  of  the  One  Hundred 
and  Twenty-first  and  One  Hundred  and  Twenty-third  regiments, 
\*ith  the  Seventeenth  and  Eighteenth  in  reserve.  The  second 
column,  assaulting  from  the  direction  of  the  village  of  Grivitza, 
was  made  up  of  the  One  Hundred  and  Twenty-second  regiment 
and  the  First  battalion  of  the  One  Hundred  and  Twenty-third. 
Attacking  in  "  company  columns,"  according  to  the  system  in 
vogue  before  such  guns  as  the  Peabody  were  made  known  to 
them,  these  devoted  regiments  marched  forward  to  a  useless 
sacrifice.  The  instant  their  purpose  became  apparent,  the  Turk- 
ish infantry  manned  their  parapets,  opened  fire  with  their  long- 
range  rifles,  and  the  work  of  destruction  began.  Before  they  were 
fairly  within  a  mile  of  the  coveted  redoubt  the  men  were  drop- 
ping by  scores  far  back  in  the  second  and  third  lines,  pierced  by 
bullets  which  seemed  to  come  from  the  clouds.  Amazed,  yet 
undaunted,  they  plunged  ahead,  holding  their  own  fire  until  they 
could  reach  a  point  from  which  their  Krenks  could  possibly  carry 
into  the  Turkish  lines ;  but,  long  before  such  a  position  could 
be  attained,  hundreds  of  their  number  were  stricken  down  by  a 
hail  of  lead  against  which  there  was  neither  reply  nor  shelter. 
Sadly  crippled,  yet  still  in  determined  order,  the  Penza  regiment 
pushed  bravely  on,  and  when  at  last  within  charging  distance 
its  leading  battalion  burst  forward  with  the  "  hurra !  "  and  act- 
ually leaped  into  the  first  line  of  earthworks;  but  by  this  time 
they  were  far  too  few  in  number  to  hold  the  prize,  and  the  Turks 
would  have  made  short  work  of  their  remnant  but  for  the  sup- 
porting rush  of  the  Second  battalion  that  came  cheering  over 
the  trenches  just  in  time.  Thus  reinforced,  the  Russian  advance 
swept  on,  drove  the  Turks  out  of  the  second  line  down  into  the 


MURDEROUS   WORK  OF  THE   «  PEABODYS."  737 

ravine  beyond,  then  up  the  slopes  to  the  shelter  of  the  Grivitza 
redoubt  itself.  The  Second  battalion  followed  so  closely  on  the 
heels  of  the  fleeing  Turks  as  to  be  able  to  dash  over  the  para- 
pet in  the  ardor  of  pursuit;  but  here  the  gallant  major  who  led 
them  was  killed,  and  the  three  leading  companies  literally  cut 
to  pieces.  The  Turks  swarmed  to  the  breastworks,  and,  keep- 
ing under  shelter  themselves,  held  their  rifles  over  the  parapets, 
and,  firing  at  random  in  many  instances,  made  havoc  in  the  dense 
masses  of  the  Russians  swarming  up  to  the  assault.  Others 
aimed  and  fired  with  practiced  eye  and  hand,  and  the  precision 
and  rapidity  of  their  aims  were  too  great  for  possibility  of  suc- 
cess on  the  part  of  the  assailants.  The  other  battalions  of  the 
Penza  regiment  made  a  most  gallant  and  determined  attack  in 
support  of  their  Second,  but  the  fire  was  simply  terrible,  and  in 
a  very  few  moments  they  were  hurled  back,  bleeding  and  van- 
quished, into  the  ravine,  leaving  on  the  slopes  or  in  the  redoubt 
twenty-nine  officers  and  1,006  men  shot  down — one-half  their 
officers,  one-third  of  their  men. 

Instead  of  making  simultaneous  assault,  the  two  battalions  of 
the  One  Hundred  and  Twenty-third  waited  apparently  to  see 
what  the  effect  of  the  Penza's  charge  would  be.  This  was  a 
grievous  blunder,  recalling  the  very  unprofessional  style  in 
which  our  militia  and  volunteer  regiments  were  put  in  at  the 
first  Bull  Run.  Seeing  their  comrades  vanquished,  the  One 
Hundred  and  Twenty-third  very  pluckily  made  an  attempt 
of  their  own,  but  they  too,  despite  the  aid  of  the  reduced 
Seventeenth  and  Eighteenth  regiments,  were  sent  staggering 
back  into  the  ravine,  with  losses  almost  as  great.  Two 
hours  of  the  sharpest  kind  of  fighting  along  the  northern  front 
had  resulted  in  general  disaster,  and  no  better  success  had 
attended  Kriidener's  attack  from  the  east.  Here  the  regiments 
of  Tamboff  and  of  Galitz  only  succeeded  in  getting  within  400 
yards  of  the  redoubt,  where,  harassed  by  savage  volleys  from 
front  and  from  their  left  flank,  where  a  lot  of  Turks  had  crept 
out  among  the  trenches,  they  were  compelled  to  stand  at  bay 
and  fight,  firing  as  best  they  could.  It  was  an  inglorious  effort, 
and  no  good  came  of  it. 
47 


738  PLEVNA. 

Far  over  to  the  south,  Shakofskoi  at  Radischevo  had  put  in 
two  fresh  regiments.  These  fellows  made  a  spirited  rush  down 
into  the  ravine,  and  then,  partially  sheltered  by  the  steep  banks, 
slowly  and  steadily  crawled  to  the  top,  and,  despite  a  murder- 
ous fire  that  mowed  them  down  ^when  they  once  more  appeared, 
they  dashed  forward  with  ringing  cheers,  and,  though  their 
own  losses  were  terrible,  they  whipped  the  Turks  out  of  the  two 
eastern  redoubts  and  captured  two  of  their  guns.  This  was  im- 
portant and  really  unexpected  success.  Could  Shakofskoi  but 
hold  them,  and  from  them  drive  the  enemy  out  of  the  other  two 
and  down  the  slopes  into  Plevna,  the  town  and  the  reserve 
camp  would  be  at  his  mercy,  for  by  this  time  the  reserve 
camp  had  been  discovered.  SkobelefT  far  over  across  the  Lov- 
tcha  road  among  the  Green  Hills,  had  pushed  daringly  for- 
ward early  in  the  day  to  the  edge  of  the  bluffs  overlooking 
Plevna  and  the  entire  field,  and  there  his  soldier's  eye  was 
caught  by  that  great  magazine  of  men  down  behind  the  town, 
and  he  at  least  no  longer  doubted  the  presence  of  Osman's  entire 
force. 

But  it  was  after  five  o'clock.  Shakofskoi's  right  was  now 
resting  in  the  outermost  redoubt,  while  his  left  was  down  in  the 
ravine  close  to  town.  No  help  could  come  from  Krudener. 
A  great  gap  intervened  between  them,  and  into  this  the 
Turks  were  pushing  a  strong  force.  At  five  o'clock  Krudener 
had  called  on  his  last  reserves,  sent  one  regiment  to  Shakofskoi 
and  taken  the  other  himself,  but  even  as  it  came  marching  to 
support  the  south  attack,  this  first-named  regiment  (the  One 
Hundred  and  Nineteenth)  caught  sight  of  the  Turks  swarming 
into  the  gap  between  the  wings,  and  promptly  faced  and  gave 
them  battle.  Despite  the  gallant  conduct  of  this  reserve  and 
his  best  efforts  on  the  ridge,  Shakofskoi  found  himself  at  six  p.  M. 
hemmed  in  on  three  sides  by  overpowering  numbers,  and  all 
thought  of  further  advance  was  abandoned.  The  question  now 
was,  could  they  get  out  of  it  at  all  ? 

Thanks  to  Skobelcff  the  answer  came,  and  the  left  was  saved. 
No  sooner  had  he  discovered  the  force  still  held  in  reserve  by 
the  Turks,  than  he  saw  that  they  had  not  only  men  enough  to 


ANOTHER   GRIEVOUS   RUSSIAN   DISASTER.  739 

check  Shakofskoi's  advance,  but  to  swing  out  southerly  and  en- 
velop his  left  and  rear.  Never  waiting  to  give  them  a  chance  to 
do  this,  he  daringly  lunged  forward  with  his  little  battery  and  a 
few  "  sotnias  "  (squadrons)  of  Cossacks,  and  actually  challenged 
them  to  combat.  The  Turkish  force  that  would  otherwise  have 
worked  around  the  flank  of  Shakofskoi — some  5,000  infantry — 
had  to  turn  to  drive  off  this  cloud  of  hornets  that  hung  about 
them ;  but  Skobeleff  kept  his  light  guns  and  lighter  horsemen 
fighting  daringly,  tenaciously,  brilliantly  all  the  live-long  after- 
noon and  most  of  the  morning,  and  the  slow  moving  infantry 
of  the  Turks,  in  exasperation  and  rage,  could  only  empty 
their  cartridge  boxes  in  random,  long-range  fire  at  him  and  his 
troopers,  and  were  never  allowed  to  get  near  Shakofskoi  at  all. 
At  darkness,  therefore,  the  latter  was  able  to  fall  back  to  the 
Radischevo  ridge,  and  early  next  morning,  finding  Kriidener 
gone,  he  marched  eastward  to  Poradim,  whither  Osman  did  not 
care  to  pursue. 

Just  before  dark,  Kriidener  ordered  one  final  and  combined 
assault,  and  the  order  was  obeyed  by  all  whom  it  reached, 
but  to  no  good  purpose.  It  only  added  to  the  fearful  sum  of 
casualties  on  the  Russian  side,  and  when  finally  his  lines  were 
driven  back,  leaving  scores  of  dead  behind,  Kriidener  gave  the 
order  to  retire. 

The  day's  losses  had  been  very  great.  They  were  most  severe 
in  the  One  Hundred  and  Twenty-first  regiment  of  Kriidener's 
wing,  and  the  One  Hundred  and  Twenty-sixth  in  Shakofskoi's, 
as  these  two  led  the  assault  on  their  respective  fronts.  The 
latter  left  725  killed  and  1,200  wounded  on  the  slopes — "75  per 
cent,  of  its  strength ; "  and,  out  of  the  30,000  engaged,  the  total 
Russian  loss  was  169  officers  and  7,136  men,  2,400  of  whom  had 
been  shot  dead  on  the  field. 

No  one  knows  just  what  casualties  befell  the  Turks,  but  it  is 
claimed  that  over  5,000  were  placed  hors  de  combat. 

And  so,  in  disaster  more  grievous  than  the  First,  ended  the 
Second  Battle.  It  had  been  blindly  ordered  by  the  grand  duke, 
blindly  attempted  and  blunderingly  fought.  The  two  wings  were 
not  in  supporting  distance  of  each  other.  The  regiments  made 


740  PLEVNA. 

no  combined  assaults,  but  one  was  sent  in  after  another  had 
failed,  and  their  old-fashioned  compact  order  in  company  col- 
umn was  kept  up  too  long  after  they  got  into  hot  fire.  The 
only  brilliant  work  of  the  bravely  fought  day  was  Skobeleff 's 
daring  and  skillful  manoeuvring  on  the  extreme  left.  He  un- 
doubtedly, as  Greene  says, "  saved  Shakofskoi  from  being  knocked 
to  pieces." 

Well !  It  blocked  the  Russian  march  of  triumph  then  and 
there.  It  would  be  impossible  to  attempt  to  pierce  the  Balkans, 
while  Osman  with  his  strong  corps  held  the  line  of  the  Vid  on 
the  right  flank.  Only  one  plan  could  be  adopted.  Stand  on  the 
defensive  and  telegraph  home  for  the  reserves.  The  tsar  was  at 
the  front,  and  there  was  no  delay.  On  August  3d  the  guards,  the 
grenadiers,  and  four  more  divisions  of  the  line,  with  the  appro- 
priate artillery,  were  summoned  to  the  scene  on  this  "  second 
alarm,"  and  120,000  regulars  and  460  additional  guns  were 
promptly  started  for  Bulgaria.  At  the  same  time,  188,000  militia 
were  called  to  arms  to  fill  up  gaps  at  the  front.  The  Prince  of 
Roumania,  too,  was  appealed  to,  and  his  army  of  37,000  men 
was  ordered  to  Nicopolis. 

Some  weeks,  however,  must  elapse  before  the  reinforcements 
could  reach  the  field,  and  now  was  Turkey's  opportunity ;  but 
the  nation  had  no  head.  Three  armies  acting  under  three  inde- 
pendent commanders  were  in  the  field,  only  a  few  days'  marches 
apart.  Mehemet  Ali  at  Shumla,  with  65,000  men  along  the 
Lorn;  Suleiman  at  Yeni  Zagra,  in  front  of  Gourko's  lair  in  the 
Balkans  with  40,000,  and  Osman  here  at  Plevna,  holding  the  Vid 
with  50,000.  A  "  war-council "  at  Constantinople  directed  the 
movements  by  telegraph,  and  not  a  thing  was  done.  Suleiman 
hung  for  months  in  front  of  Gourko,  shooting  at  the  pickets  in 
Shipka  Pass,  gaining  nothing  and  losing  much.  Mehemet 
waited  until  August  3Oth,  then  drove  the  Russian  left  to  the 
Yantra,  but  there  irresolutely  stopped  short.  Osman  at 
Plevna  made  a  fluttering  assault,  August  3ist,  on  the  gathering 
corps  of  the  Russians,  which  amounted  to  next  to  nothing,  and 
ten  days  after,  came  the  Russian  counter-hit,  which  is  known 
as  the 


CAPTURE   OF   LOVTCHA.  741 

THIRD    BATTLE  OF   PLEVNA, 

fought  September  nth,  and  won,  like  the  other  two,  by  the 
Turks.  Ever  since  the  second  battle,  the  genius  of  Osman  had 
kept  them  hard  at  work  with  their  spades,  and  by  this  time 
Plevna  was  a  citadel — a  walled  city,  though  the  walls  were  ugly 
earth-works. 

By  the  1st  of  September  100,000  Russian  and  Roumanian 
troops  were  assembled  around  Plevna,  and  the  grand  duke  de- 
termined to  attack  at  once,  and  crush  this  persistent  obstacle  to 
the  onward  move.  As  preliminary,  he  directed  a  column  up  the 
Vid  to  the  town  of  Lovtcha,  lying  south  of  Osman's  stronghold, 
and  being  the  most  important  position  on  the  road  to  the  Bal- 
kans. With  Lovtcha  in  Russian  hands,  it  was  then  proposed 
to  envelop  Plevna,  and  by  simply  contracting  the  circle,  crush 
the  Turks  into  surrender.  General  Imeretinsky,  with  brilliant 
young  Skobeleff  as  right-hand  man,  was  selected  for  the  com- 
mand of  the  Lovtcha  column,  and  on  the  3d  of  September  he 
won  a  sharply  fought  battle,  driving  the  Turks  out  of  their  forts 
after  desperate  resistance,  and  then  whirling  his  Cossacks  after 
their  retreating  horde,  lancing  3,000  of  them  in  the  melee.  With 
Lovtcha  won,  Prince  Charles  of  Roumania  took  command  of 
all  the  Russian  forces  around  Plevna;  the  tsar  and  the. Grand 
Duke  Nicholas  came  over  from  the  east  to  watch  the  struggle, 
took  up  their  temporary  abode  near  the  village  of  Radnitza,  and 
the  whole  army  knew  that  the  third  and  greatest  of  the  battles  for 
the  possession  of  Plevna  was  to  be  fought  forthwith.  At  this 
moment  the  troops  of  the  Russian  right  were  composed  as  fol- 
lows :  the  Roumanian  contingent,  under  General  Cernat,  30,000 
strong ;  the  Fourth  corps,  now  led  by  General  KrylofT  (Zotof 
having  been  made  chief  of  staff);  the  Ninth  corps,  under  Baron 
Kriidener;  the  Second  division  and  one  rifle  brigade,  under 
Imeretinsky,  and  two  brigades  of  Cossacks.  The  Fourth  and 
Ninth  corps  were  severely  reduced  in  numbers,  having  done 
pretty  much  all  the  fighting,  and  lost  some  13,000  men  up  to 
that  time ;  but  the  total  force  hurled  upon  Osman  Pasha,  in  this 
third  attack,  was  at  least  90,000  men,  with  some  440  guns.  The 
Turks  had  an  estimated  strength  of  56,000  infantry,  with  2,500 
cavalry  and  80  guns. 


742  PLEVNA. 

The  two  highest  points  in  the  immediate  neighborhood  of 
Plevna  were  the  Grivitza  knoll  to  the  eastward,  where  the  Gri- 
vitza  redoubt  had  been  built  early  in  the  campaign,  and  the  Krishin 
height,  3,000  yards  southwest  of  the  town.  These  two  com- 
manded the  ground  in  every  direction,  and  were  the  actual  key- 
points  of  the  situation.  When  the  second  battle  of  Plevna 
was  fought,  and  Skobeleff  so  brilliantly  held  the  left,  over 
on  the  Green  Hills,  there  were  no  Turkish  earthworks  on  their 
summits  ;  but  no  sooner  had  Osman  rid  himself  of  Kriidener,  on 
the  3Oth  of  July,  than  he  seized  and  began  the  fortification  of 
those  heights.  Now,  he  had  eighteen  .staunch  and  powerful  re- 
doubts around  Plevna,  and  those  of  Grivitza  and  Krishin  com- 
manded all  the  others,  with  which  they  were  connected  by  lines 
of  trenches  and  rifle-pits.  Greene  divides  the  fortifications  into 
what  he  terms  three  "  groups,"  and  it  simplifies  the  explanation 
of  the  field.  The  first  group  was  made  by  the  two  redoubts  on 
the  Grivitza  ridge  and  the  lines  stretching  westward  from  them ; 
•the  second  or  middle  group,  of  the  redoubts  and  works  on  what 
we  have  thus  far  called  the  Plevna  ridge — that  which,  ending  in 
abrupt  bluffs  at  the  town,  ran  out  southeastward  parallel  with  the 
Grivitza  brook  and  to  the  south  of  it ;  and  the  group  also  included 
the  works  on  a  spur  of  the  Radischevo  ridge,  between  the 
Tutchenitza  creek  and  the  deep  ravine  under  the  Plevna  heights. 
The  third  group  consisted  of  all  the  works  out  to  the  southwest, 
towards  Krishin,  none  of  which,  as  has  been  said,  were  built 
until  after  the  second  battle.  On  three  sides,  therefore,  Plevna 
was  well  defended.  The  fourth  or  west  front  was  protected  by 
rolling,  heavily  wooded  slopes,  and  was  not  "  invested." 

On  the  evening  of  September  6,  with  three  days'  cooked  rations 
in  their  haversacks  and  all  tents  left  behind,  the  Russians  silently 
moved  forward  from  their  camps  and  closed  around  the  scarred 
heights  that  looked  down  on  Plevna.  The  Roumanian  army 
took  post  among  the  hills  enveloping  the  Grivitza  heights  from 
the  northwest.  Kriidener,  with  the  Ninth  corps,  trudged  into 
position  south  of  Grivitza  and  reaching  round  to  Radischevo,  so 
as  to  confront  "  the  middle  group  "  from  the  east  and  southeast. 
Kryloff,  with  the  Fourth  corps,  climbed  the  Radischevo  ridge 


RUSSIA'S   SALUTE  TO   THE   CRESCENT.  743 

and  deployed  along  its  crest,  rapidly  posting  his  batteries  so  as 
to  command  from  the  south  the  parapets  of  the  middle  group 
on  the  Plevna  ridge ;  while  over  on  the  extreme  left,  towards  the 
Lovtcha  high-road,  Imeretinsky  and  Skobeleff  led  their  men,  the 
latter  as  before  having  the  prominent  station  at  the  left  front. 
For  these  last  named  it  was  a  long,  toilsome  march,  but  for  the 
Roumanians  and  the  Ninth  corps  a  mere  advance  of  a  few  miles. 
Strange  as  it  may  seem,  not  a  shot  was  fired,  not  a  challenge  was 
heard.  Nothing,  not  even  the  barking  of  village  dogs,  seems 
to  have  given  to  the  drowsy  Turks  the  faintest  intimation  that 
anything  aggressive  was  going  on.  Kriidener's  men  came  bur- 
dened with  ready-made  gabions,  fascines,  and  platforms  for  siege- 
guns,  and  at  nine  o'clock  their  engineers  had  staked  off  the  out- 
lines of  two  powerful  batteries,  within  commanding  range  of  the 
Grivitza  redoubt.  At  midnight  they  were  finished;  the  heavy 
guns  were  rolled  into  place,  and  at  dawn,  when  the  outlines 
of  the  Turkish  fort  became  visible,  its  occupants  were  astonished 
by  a  thundering  roar  from  the  heights  below  Grivitza,  and  the 
boom  and  crash  of  a  shell  overhead.  It  was  Russia's  morning 
salute  to  the  Crescent.  A  few  Turks  popped  up  in  sight  on  the 
parapet,  the  guard  probably,  and  then  leaped  below  and  aroused 
the  garrison  with  the  startling  news  that  the  valleys  and  heights 
to  the  east,  north  and  south,  were  black  with  Russians.  Before 
the  artillerymen  could  get  to  their  guns  the  storm  had  burst  from 
all  sides,  and  the  bombardment  of  the  lines  of  Plevna  had  begun. 

It  lasted  all  day.  The  siege-guns  and  field  nine-pounder  bat- 
teries mainly  concentrated  their  fire  on  the  Grivitza  redoubt. 
But  earthworks  are  tough  ;  a  stone  fort  would  have  been  knocked 
out  of  shape  in  a  few  hours ;  yet,  when  night  came,  despite  the 
way  the  dirt  and  dust  had  been  flying  from  its  flanks  all  day,  the 
saucy  little  redoubt  looked  serviceable  as  ever,  and  not  one  of  its 
eight  guns  had  been  silenced.  This  was  disheartening.  Nothing 
had  been  accomplished  worth  recording  except  that  Imeretinsky 
and  Skobeleff  had  pushed  farther  west  across  the  Lovtcha  road. 

September  8th  began  as  did  the  /th,  with  a  continuous  banging 
at  long  range  from  the  big  guns.  The  Ninth  cavalry  division 
was  sent  across  the  Vid  north  of  Plevna,  to  hold  the  Sophia  road 


744  PLEVNA. 

and  cut  off  communications ;  but  around  the  beleaguered  town 
there  would  probably  have  been  still  another  day  of  tedious, 
nerve-wearing,  and  resultless  long-range  gun-practice,  had  it  not 
been  for  that  irrepressible  Skobeleff.  He  was  the  Sheridan  of  the 
campaign,  and  no  pottering  about -at  cannon-range  would  suit  him. 

From  the  heights  around  Brestovitz,  Skobeleff  had  caught 
sight  of  the  new  redoubts  north  of  Krishin.  Unlimbering  his 
batteries  he  began  pounding  with  them  at  over  two-mile  distance, 
but  finding  that  at  that  range  Turkish  guns  were  far  better  than 
his  own,  he  closed  in.  Many  another  general  would  have  drawn 
back,  because  his  guns  were  inferior ;  Skobeleff  pushed  ahead 
until  so  close  that  one  gun  was  as  good  as  another,  and  all  de- 
pended on  men  and  leaders.  Turkish  infantry  were  scattered 
through  the  Green  Hills  east  of  Krishin.  Skobeleff  took  the 
Fifth  and  Eighth  regiments  and  made  squarely  at  them,  driving 
them  out  of  the  first  or  southern  knoll,  and  concentrating  them 
on  the  second.  This  second  knoll  lay  out  on  the  prolongation 
of  the  Fourth  corps  lines  on  Radischevo  heights  across  the 
Tutchenitza,  and  directly  east  and  under  the  guns  of  Krishin. 
Giving  his  men  brief  breathing  spell,  Skobeleff  pushed  ahead, 
whipped  the  Turks  out  of  this  second  knoll,  chased  them  to  the 
third,  and  never  stopped  until  within  1,500  yards  of  Plevna  itself; 
far  ahead  of  KrylofPs  lines  and  with  those  Krishin  redoubts  to 
his  left  rear.  This,  of  course,  was  a  false  position,  and  though 
victorious,  he  had  to  fall  back  to  the  first  knoll  to  save  his  men 
from  useless  slaughter. 

On  the  gth  the  Turks  at  Grivitza  ridge  ceased  artillery  fire, 
and  the  Prince  of  Roumania,  thinking  them  cowed  by  the  severity 
of  the  two  days'  bombardment,  essayed  an  assault  with  infantry, 
but  the  attack  was  greeted  by  such  a  fury  of  small-arm  fire  that 
it  recoiled  in  great  disorder.  Then,  over  at  the  other  end  of  the 
field — the  southwest — the  Turks  took  heart  and  advanced  in  force 
Against  Skobeleff,  and  he  whipped  them  back  with  the  utmost 
ease.  That  night  there  came  from  General  Zotof  an  order  virtu- 
ally reversing  the  relations  of  Imeretinsky  and  Skobeleff,  and 
placing  the  latter  in  supreme  charge  of  all  matters  on  the  left 
flank. 


SKOBELEFF   TO   THE   FRONT.  745 

All  next  day,  the  loth,  the  Russian  batteries  hammered  away 
at  the  Turkish  earthworks,  raising  much  dust  and  uproar,  but 
doing  very  little  damage.  The  Turks  ceased  firing,  but  only  be- 
cause ammunition  was  scarce.  That  afternoon  it  began  to  rain  in 
torrents,  a  peculiar  and  almost  inevitable  sequel  to  a  three  days' 
cannonade,  and  the  ground  was  turned  into  black  and  pasty  mud. 
Notwithstanding  this,  the  general  assault  was  ordered  for  the  fol- 
lowing day.  • 

Dawn  of  the  nth  came  in  dense  and  drizzling  fog.  The 
guns  were  hushed,  for  all  objects  across  the  ravines  were  hidden 
from  view.  The  plan  of  attack  contemplated  a  fierce  bombard- 
ment of  the  Grivitza  fort  and  redoubt  No.  10 — the  latter  being 
the  one  southeast  of  Plevna  and  nearest  the  Radlschevo  ridge — 
and  then  at  3  P.  M.,  a  simultaneous  rush  of  the  infantry  upon  them 
and  upon  the  works  west  of  the  Lo.vtcha  road,  southwest  of  Plevna. 
As  a  preliminary,  Skobeleff's  men,  on  the  west,  had  leaped  for- 
ward the  morning  of  the  loth,  seized  the  second  knoll,  and  with 
bayonets,  soup-dishes — anything  that  could  scoop — they  had  has- 
tily and  successfully  pitched  up  earthworks,  that  swallowed  the 
Turkish  bullets  and  left  the  plucky  occupants  dirty,  but  secure. 
SkobelefT  then  ran  forward  his  guns,  and  got  ready  for  work  on 
the  nth. 

The  battle  began,  and  ended,  with  him.  Early  in  the  morning 
the  dripping  sentries  along  the  Russian  lines  were  greeted  by  the 
rapidly  quickening  rattle  of  musketry  off  to  the  distant  left;  then 
came  the  boom  of  field-guns,  and  soon  the  sound  of  battle  was 
the  reveille  of  the  rest  of  the  Russian  army.  The  Turks  had 
pushed  out  through  the  fog  in  hopes  of  surprising  SkobelefTand 
inducing  him  to  drop  his  guns,  and  the  new  position  on  the  sec- 
ond knoll,  and  fall  back.  But  there  was  no  falling  back  with  Sko- 
belefT. He  and  his  men  were  on  the  alert,  and  the  Turks  were 
received  with  such  firmness  by  the  advanced  skirmishers  that 
the  attack  was  not  pressed,  and  presently  quiet  reigned  again, 
and  both  sides  seemed  waiting  for  the  fog  to  lift.  Ten  o'clock 
came,  and  SkobelefT  could  stand  inaction  no  longer.  Calling  on 
his  men,  he  sent  them  forward  across  a  shallow  ravine,  up  the 
slopes  beyond,  and  there,  after  a  sharp  tussle,  they  drove  out  the 


746  PLEVNA. 

Turkish  light  troops  and  seized  the  third  knoll,  where  the  fog 
for  the  present  exempted  them  from  the  fire  of  the  redoubts,  but 
not  from  that  of  the  adjacent  trenches.  These  gave  the  new- 
comers much  trouble.  A  lively  little  battle  ensued,  and  just  as 
the  men  on  Kryloff's  left  along  the  Radischevo  were  wondering 
if  they  would  not  have  to  go  over  to  the  aid  of  SkobelefT,  they 
found  themselves  suddenly  summoned  to  repel  a  furious  sortie. 
The  Turks  from  Plevna  had  crept  up  the  ravines,  and,  veiled  by 
the  fog,  had  got  close  in  upon  the  Russian  lines ;  the  Sixty-third 
regiment,  after  a  fierce  short-range  fight,  sent  them  scattering 
back  down  the  slopes  and  then  rushed  forward  in  pursuit ;  the 
One  Hundred  and  Seventeenth  followed  suit.  Down  they  went 
into  the  ravine,  up  the  opposite  ridge,  over  the  Turkish  works, 
and  there  came  in  full  view  of  the  swarming  redoubts  right,  left, 
and  in  front  of  them.  They  were  trapped ;  and  only  half  their 
number  got  back  alive.  In  a  few  short  moments  most  of  their 
officers  and  one-half  of  the  men  were  shot  down.  There  was  no 
more  fight  for  those  regiments  that  day,  and  Kryloff's  left  wing 
was  shattered. 

At  noon  the  rising  fog  revealed  the  ground  sufficiently  to  per- 
mit the  guns  to  get  to  work,  and  until  2  p.  M.  there  was  a  con- 
tinuous thunder  of  artillery.  But  this  uplifting  of  the  curtain 
was  bad  for  Skobeleff.  It  showed  him  far  out  to  the  front  on  the 
distant  left,  and  in  an  instant  he  and  his  men  became  the  target 
of  the  Krishin  redoubts  to  his  left  rear,  and  even  the  guns  on  the 
Plevna  heights.  Still  he  hung  on,  hoping  that  when  the  general 
advance  began  he  could  push  forward.  Three  o'clock  came,  and 
still  the  grand  duke  and  General  Zotof  hesitate  about  pushing  in 
the  infantry.  More  pounding  with  the  big  guns  was  resorted  to, 
and  under  cover  of  this  fire  the  infantry  lines  at  last  advanced. 

Turning  first  to  the  northeast — the  Roumanian  attack  on  Gri- 
vitza — let  us  follow  Prince  Charles'  movements.  He  had  two 
strong  divisions  in  line — the  Third  and  Fourth— and  with  these 
he  was  ordered  to  assault  from  the  north  and  east,  while  a  Russian 
brigade  attacked  from  the  south.  Thus  would  the  Grivitza  fort 
be  hemmed  in  on  three  sides.  It  will  take  but  few  words  to  dis- 
pose of  this  attack — it  seemed  to  take  even  fewer  minutes.  The 


THE   ROUMANIAN   TROOPS   REPULSED.  747 

Third  division  strove  to  reach  the  fort  through  two  ravines — one 
from  the  northwest,  one  from  the  northeast.  A  brigade  was  sent 
up  each.  That  which  took  the  northwest  gully  never  got  any- 
where near  the  fort.  It  struck  a  previously  unheard-of  line  of 
works,  was  met  by  a  withering  fire,  and  driven  back  to  a  distant 
ridge,  where  it  was  glad  to  dig  for  shelter.  The  second  brigade 
seemed  an  interminable  time  climbing  its  ravine,  and  meanwhile 
the  third  column,  moving  from  the  east  over  open  ground,  and 
severely  crippled  by  the  fire  that  greeted  it,  reached  the  redoubt 
alone  and  unsupported  about  half-past  three.  There  it  received 
the  undivided  attention  of  the  assailed,  and  went  back  in  frag- 
ments to  the  shelter  of  the  village.  Then  column  No.  2  came 
up  and  took  a  similar  thrashing.  The  Roumanian  troops  were 
out  of  the  fight  before  four  o'clock,  except  the  one  brigade  held 
in  reserve. 

By  some  accident  the  Russian  brigade  that  was  to  have  made 
a  simultaneous  assault  from  the  south  came  up  an  hour  late,  but 
they  were  those  splendid  fellows  of  the  Seventeenth  and  Eigh- 
teenth regiments  who  had  already  done  hard  fighting  here  and 
knew  the  ground.  Aided  by  the  reserve  brigade  of  Prince 
Charles,  they  clambered  up  the  slopes  and  over  the  parapet. 
Here  a  hand-to-hand  fight  occurred  that  lasted  half  an  hour ; 
both  the  Russian  and  Roumanian  leaders  were  killed,  and  a 
heavy  percentage  of  officers  and  men.  And  so,  towards  five 
o'clock,  the  Grivitza  redoubt  had  beaten  off  all  foes.  Now,  how- 
ever, came  a  change.  The  reserve  battalions  of  the  Seventeenth 
regiment  came  up,  and  a  small  force  of  Roumanians.  A  new 
and  well-conducted  assault  was  made,  and  after  a  very  spirited 
fight  these  allied  troops  forced  their  way  in,  and  at  darkness  were 
masters  of  the  long-coveted  Grivitza  redoubt.  The  fort  and  the 
ditch  were  floored  with  dead  bodies,  and  this  afternoon's  attack 
on  the  stubborn  little  post  had  cost  the  Russians  and  Rouma- 
nians seventy-eight  officers  and  3,816  men. 

We  turn  now  to  the  Redoubt  No.  10,  in  front  of  which  the 
Sixty-third  and  One  Hundred  and  Seventeenth  regiments  had 
already  lost  half  their  force.  Two  other  regiments  of  the 
division  were  available,  however,  and  while  four  batteries 


748  PLEVNA. 

blazed  away  at  the  redoubt  from  the  west  end  of  the  Radischevo 
ridge,  they  pushed  forward  into  the  lower  ground  in  front, 
then  turned  westward  and  strove  to  make  headway  against 
the  fierce  storm  of  musketry  which  greeted  them.  A  strong 
force  of  Turks  suddenly  appeared-  on  the  heights  to  their  right, 
and  being  terribly  cut  up  by  this  cross-fire,  the  Russians  at 
last  reluctantly  fell  back,  but  fell  back  in  sullen  and  disciplined 
order;  for,  when  the  Turks  came  swarming  and  yelling  in  mad 
pursuit,  the  two  regiments  halted,  faced  about,  lay  down  and 
checked  them  with  one  steady,  well-aimed  volley,  drove  them 
back  in  disorder  with  another,  and  then  in  dignified  defeat  con- 
tinued their  retirement. 

General  Zotof  meantime  had  sent  over  another  brigade 
to  replace  the  one  so  badly  crippled  during  the  morning, 
and  now  this  new  brigade  tried  its  hand  on  Redoubt  No.  10, 
but  could  get  nowhere  near  it.  At  six  p.  M.  all  further  attempt 
was  abandoned;  no  officers  and  5,200  men  had  been  sacrificed 
in  the  mismanaged  assaults  on  this  one  portion  of  the  Turkish 
line. 

Now  turn  to  the  extreme  left,  across  the  Lovtcha  road,  and 
we  come  once  more  to  Skobeleff,  still  sovereign  of  the  Green 
Hills.  We  left  him  at  noon  grimly  hanging  on  to  his  ex- 
tremely advanced  position  on  the  third  and  northernmost 
knoll,  not  a  thousand  yards  from  the  trenches  and  rifle-pits 
stretching  out  from  the  very  walls  of  the  little  city,  and  with 
redoubts  bristling  on  every  side  of  him.  At  two  o'clock  a 
strong  skirmish  line  came  up  the  northern  slope  of  the  third 
knoll,  probably  to  develop  his  force,  but  the  Sixty-second 
regiment  drove  them  back  with  curiosity  ungratified.  At  2.30 
p.  M.  his  troops  were  all  ready  for  an  onward  move,  and  were 
lying  prone  to  escape  the  shelling.  Crouching  behind  the  crest 
of  the  third  knoll  were  the  Sixty-first  and  Sixty-second  regiments 
in  strong  line,  with  the  Seventh  in  easy  supporting  distance,  while 
two  battalions  of  rifles  were  in  close  reserve  behind  the  leading 
regiments.  Back  on  the  second  knoll  were  the  Fifth,  Sixth,  and 
Eighth  regiments  and  the  guns  and  more  rifle  battalions. 

Just  at  half-past  two,  SkobelefF  blazed  away  with  his  guns  over 


SKOBELEFF'S   BRILLIANT  CHARGE.  749 

the  heads  of  his  lines,  and  then,  at  three  o'clock,  sent  the  foot- 
men in.  With  fine  enthusiasm,  with  bands  all  playing,  with 
thrilling  battle-cry,  the  first  lines  pushed  gallantly  forward, 
crossed  the  little  brook  at  the  foot  of  the  northern  slopes, 
and  then  burst  up  the  opposite  bank  to  attack  the  strong 
earthworks.  By  this  time,  however,  they  were  subjected  to  very 
severe  fire,  and  so  many  fell  that  the  men  began  to  falter  and 
throw  themselves  upon  the  ground.  Instantly,  the  Seventh  came 
charging  forward  in  support,  and  once  more  they  struggled  on. 
Now  the  lines  began  to  show  so  far  up  on  the  slopes  as  to  be  dis- 
tinctly in  range  not  only  of  the  Krishin  guns  off  to  the  southwest, 
but  the  redoubts  across  the  valley  beyond  Plevna,  both  were 
hurling  shells  upon  them  in  furious  force ;  the  musketry  fire, 
too,  was  something  fearful,  and  once  more  they  threw  them- 
selves flat  on  the  ground.  Then  it  was  that  Skobeleff  himself 
came  dashing  out  to  the  front — the  most  conspicuous  man  on 
the  field.  Riding,  as  he  always  did,  a  mettlesome  white  horse, 
and  wearing  the  glistering  white  uniform  he  always  affected  in 
battle,  instead  of  the  sombre  field-dress  of  the  Russian  generals, 
he  was  at  once  the  target  for  all  sharpshooters  and  the  centre  of 
all  eyes.  Already  the  soldiers  had  begun  to  know  and  to  glory 
in  his  personal  daring,  and  now,  animated  by  his  superb  appear- 
ance and  his  ringing  words,  aided,  too,  by  the  reinforcements 
tearing  along  after  him,  they  made  one  grand  and  final  effort,  and 
at  last  charged  home  over  the  breastworks,  carrying  in  with  them, 
on  their  shoulders,  it  was  said,  their  brilliant  young  leader. 
Though  his  horse  was  killed  under  him,  and  most  of  his  staff 
shot  down,  Skobeleff  himself  was  unhurt.  He  had  lost  3,000 
men  in  the  desperate  charge,  but  had  carried  the  Turkish  lines. 
Still,  there  was  no  rest  for  him.  All  around  were  those  blaz- 
ing redoubts,  and  now  they  were  concentrating  their  fire  on  his 
breathless  men,  vainly  seeking  shelter  in  the  trenches  they  had 
won.  The  Turks  came  forth  in  savage  sorties  from  all  the  sur- 
rounding works,  were  met  and  fairly  driven  back,  and  one  redoubt 
was  fairly  and  squarely  taken.  At  six  p.  M.  Skobeleff,  with  four 
regiments  and  the  rifles,  held  all  the  Turkish  works  on  the 
heights  near  and  southwest  of  Plevna,  and  yet  his  position  was 


750  PLEVNA. 

precarious  in  the  last  degree,  for  to  the  left  and  rear  were  three 
strong  forts  still  manned  by  the  Mussulmans,  and  their  guns  were 
booming  at  him  every  instant.  Six  hundred  yards  in  front  of 
him  was  the  intrenched  camp  of  the  Turks ;  off  to  his  right,  be- 
yond Plevna,  the  redoubts  of  the  middle  group ;  off  to  his  right 
rear,  across  the  valley  of  the  Tutchenitza,  Redoubt  No.  10.  He 
was  surrounded  by  hostile  guns.  But  he  hung  to  his  prize  all 
night  long,  despite  every  effort  of  the  Turks  to  dislodge  him. 

Morning  of  September  I2th  dawned  clear  and  sparkling,  and 
the  grand  duke  had  had  enough  of  battle.  Orders  had  been  sent 
at  daybreak  to  Skobeleff  to  fortify  and  hold  to  the  last,  the  posi- 
tion he  had  won  ;  but  some  hours  later — probably  after  reading 
the  reports  of  the  fearful  array  of  casualties  in  the  previous  day's 
assaults — the  Russian  leaders  gave  it  up ;  sent  word  to  Skobe- 
leff they  could  afford  him  no  aid;  all  troops  were  to  be  withdrawn, 
and  virtually  telling  him  to  get  out  of  the  scrape  as  best  he  could. 
Lieutenant  Greene  points  out  clearly  that  there  were  still  abun- 
dant troops  that  had  not  been  under  fire,  and  that  could  well  have 
been  sent  to  help  Skobeleff;  but,  to  make  the  matter  short,  the 
Russians  had  suffered  too  much  already,  and  were  glad  to  quit. 
After  two  days  of  extreme  peril,  of  daring  and  devoted  bravery, 
of  scientific  and  masterly  handling  of  his  little  division,  Skobeleff 
succeeded  in  extricating  his  force;  but  he  had  lost  160  officers 
and  8,000  men,  and  when  he  got  back  to  the  main  army,  the  third 
and  last  battle  of  Plevna  was  over.  Russia's  totaf  losses  in  the 
assault  and  consequent  fighting  were  18,000  men.  The  Turks 
are  said  to  have  lost  between  12,000  and  15,000. 

And  now  Russia  had  to  sit  down  before  the  gates  of  Plevna 
and  try  to  starve  out  the  men  she  could  not  whip.  Osman  Pasha 
had  made  a  splendid  defence,  while  the  other  two  field  com- 
manders of  the  Turkish  army  were  frittering  away  their  forces 
and  their  opportunities.  Soon  the  Russian  reinforcements 
began  to  arrive  in  great  numbers.  The  Guards  all  arrived 
by  October  2Oth,  and  Russia's  great  engineer  (Todleben)  came 
to  conduct  the  siege.  Gourko  hastened  back  from  the  Bal- 
kans to  lend  a  hand,  and,  after  severe  battling  at  Gorni-Dubnik 
and  Telis,  the  Turks  were  driven  in,  and  securely  penned  in, 


FALL  OF   PLEVNA.  751 

Plevna.  On  November  3d  the  investment  was  complete.  In 
one  great  circle,  some  120,000  Russians  were  day  by  day  cutting 
off  the  lines  of  the  stubborn  defenders.  The  result  was  inevit- 
able. Osman  refused  to  surrender — refused  to  remain  and  be 
starved  to  death.  He  marshaled  his  men  for  one  sublime  effort 
— led  a  furious  attack  on  the  Grenadier  corps  to  the  west  on  the 
loth  of  December,  was  wounded  himself,  and  thoroughly  de- 
feated ;  and  so  at  last,  his  provisions  being  exhausted,  one-third 
of  his  force  prostrate  with  wounds  or  illness,  his  ammunition 
well-nigh  spent,  and  having  made  ever  since  July  a  most  gal- 
lant and  determined  resistance  to  superior  numbers,  Osman 
Pasha  surrendered  on  the  loth  of  December,  1877,  to  an  enemy 
who  received  him  with  every  manifestation  of  soldierly  respect 
and  courtesy. 

And  now,  with  Plevna  fallen,  there  was  little  hope  for  Turkey. 
Gourko  burst  through  the  Balkans — this  time  near  Sophia — and 
kept  on  to  Philippopolis.  The  united  army  advanced  on  Adrian- 
ople,  and  the  last  shot  of  the  war  was  fired  in  a  cavalry  skirmish 
at  Tchorlu  on  the  29th.  Finding  that  nothing  else  would  stop  the 
advance  of  the  Russians  on  Constantinople,  the  Turks,  despairing 
of  assistance  from  England,  "  without  the  hope  of  which  they  would 
never  have  undertaken  the  war,"  signed  an  armistice  which  became 
the  basis  of  the  treaty  of  San  Stefano,  signed  by  the  Powers  on 
the  3d  of  March.  By  the  terms  of  this,  Turkey  guaranteed  :  "  i. 
The  erection  of  Bulgaria  into  '  an  autonomous  tributary  princi- 
pality, with  a  national  Christian  Government  and  a  native  militia.' 
2.  The  independence  of  Montenegro,  with  an  increase  of  terri- 
tory. 3.  The  independence  of  Roumania  and  Servia,  with  a  ter- 
ritorial indemnity.  4.  The  introduction  of  administrative  reforms 
into  Bosnia  and  Herzegovina.  5.  An  indemnity  in  money  to 
Russia  for  the  expenses  of  the  war." 

But  England  saw  menace  to  her  interests  in  the  terms  of  this 
treaty,  and,  mainly  through  her  efforts,  the  representatives  of  all 
the  great  European  Powers  were  speedily  assembled  at  the 
German  capital.  Here  were  gathered  the  largest  numbers  of 
diplomatists  who  ever  signed  a  treaty,  and  the  treaty  itself  is  said 
to  have  been  the  longest  ever  written.  Known  to  history  as  "  the 


752  PLEVNA. 

Congress  of  Berlin,"  this  distinguished  body  signed,  on  July  13, 
1878,  an  agreement  by  which  upwards  of  30,000  square  miles  of 
territory  and  2,000,000  of  population  were  handed  back  to  the 
Porte,  and  other  modifications  were  made  which  enabled  Lords 
Beaconsfield  and  Salisbury  to  return  to  England  announcing 
"Peace  with  Honor." 

It  took  from  the  Turks  most  of  their  fortresses  and  all  hold  on 
the  valley  of  the  Danube,  and  so  crippled  them  that,  except  when 
aided  by  the  Western  Powers,  there  can  be  little  prospect  of  her 
ever  again  contending  with  Russia,  who,  on  the  other  hand,  is 
restrained  by  these  very  Western  Powers  of  Europe  from  any 
aggressions  looking  toward  a  control  of  those  vitally  important 
straits. 

Jealously  the  nations  of  the  East  are  watching  one  another. 
Vast  standing  armies  are  still  maintained  at  the  cost  of  a  ruthless 
taxation  of  the  people,  and  almost  every  day  has  its  rumors 
of  new  complications  that  may  bring  on  a  general  war. 


THE  END. 


RETURN       CIRCULATION  DEPARTMENT 

202  Main  Library 


LOAN  PERIOD  1 
HOME  USE 

2 

3                                   v 

4 

5 

6                                   | 

ALL  BOOKS  MAY  BE  RECALLED  AFTER  7  DAYS 

1 -month  loans  may  be  renewed  by  calling  642-3405 

6-month  loans  may  be  recharged  by  bringing  books  to  Circulation  Desk 

Renewals  and  recharges  may  be  made  4  days  prior  to  due  date 

DUE   AS  STAMPED   BELOW 


HEC.  CIR.OCI  ^ 


FORM  NO.  DD  67 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA,  BERKELEY 
BERKELEY,  CA  94720 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


